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Carta del obispo Joseph Kopacz

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Dear Friends in Christ,
This week the Diocese of Jackson released the names of clergy who have been credibly accused of sexual abuse. It is our hope and prayer that releasing these names will confirm our commitment to transparency in the pursuit of our Promise to Protect and our Pledge to Heal the harm caused by abuse in the church. The list was posted on the diocesan website and is printed inside this Mississippi Catholic on pages 6-7.
We know that this list will cause pain to many individuals and communities and I am truly, deeply sorry for that pain. The crime of abuse of any kind is a sin, but the abuse of children and vulnerable adults is especially egregious. First and foremost, it is a sin against the innocent victims, but also a sin against the Church and our communities. It is a sin that cries out for justice.
The time for trying to keep these cases quiet in the church has come to an end. We now know that this deep wound in the Body of Christ will not heal until we lay bare the sins of the past and work together toward reconciliation. Releasing this list is not the end of a process, it is another step forward in the ongoing effort to reform our church.
In addition to the list, look for additional information about how our Office of Child Protection and Safe Environments is working to screen and educate employees and volunteers as well as educating children and families in self-protection, in hopes of preventing abuse in the future.
The majority of the cases on our list are from the past. This does not make them any less hurtful or significant, but it does indicate that the measures the Church and the Diocese of Jackson have put into place to prevent abuse are having an positive impact.
We know it can still take years for a victim to come forward. We want to hear from those who have been abused by a member of the clergy or an employee of the church. Not only is it our legal duty to report these cases, helping victims find healing and wholeness is our moral imperative. Anyone can contact our Victim’s Assistance Coordinator Valerie McClellan at (601) 326-3728 to seek help.
Again, I apologize from the depths of my heart to those who have been sexually abused by clergy and church personnel, to the families damaged by these crimes and to the Catholic community for the scandal this scourge has brought upon our Church. There is no room for this evil in our society or our churches.
It is my hope that the release of this list during the penitential season of Lent will remind us to pray for all those impacted by abuse and recommit all of us to the Promise to Protect and the Pledge to Heal.
Yours in Christ,

Most Rev. Joseph R. Kopacz
Bishop Diocese of Jackson

No hay espacio para este mal en nuestra iglesia

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JACKSON – En los predios de la Catedral de San Pedro, en conferencia de prensa el 19 de marzo, el Obispo Joseph Kopacz respondió a las preguntas de los reporteros, después de publicarse la lista de sacerdotes, religiosos y diáconos acusados, creiblemente, de abuso sexual. Al obispo le acompañaron tres miembros de la Diócesis, Mary Woodward – Canciller, Maureen Smith – Jefa de Comunicaciones y Vicky Carollo – Oficina de Protección de Niños.
(Foto por Tereza Ma)

El informe en inglés contiene los nombres de los sacerdotes y religiosos, acusados de abuso sexual creíblemente, y de los que la diócesis de Jackson tiene conocimiento.
Una acusación se considera creíble cuando se ha investigado, presentado a nuestro concejo de revisión independiente y se ha determinado que es específico y verosímil.
Las autoridades civiles determinan si una acusación es un delito. No todas las personas en esta lista fueron acusadas o condenadas por un delito.
Ninguno de estos hombres está en el ministerio activo.
La lista incluye los nombres de los sacerdotes, los lugares en los que sirvieron, cuándo se informó que el abuso sucedió y cuándo se reportó a la diócesis.
Es posible que usted note una brecha entre la fecha del abuso y la fecha del reporte. La diócesis puede no haber sido consciente del abuso antes de que el sacerdote fuera trasladado a otra parroquia.
No todas las víctimas reportan el abuso de inmediato. Esto es por eso que el trabajo que la iglesia está haciendo para eliminar el estigma de reportar es tan importante.
Cuanto más pronto sepamos de una queja, más pronto podremos tomar medidas para proteger a aquellos vulnerables de un abuso.
En unos pocos casos, los psicólogos de ese tiempo trataron a un sacerdote y lo consideraron seguro para volver al ministerio. Mientras que la ciencia de ese tiempo creía que tal tratamiento podría ser efectivo, ahora sabemos que esto no es el caso; y todos los sacerdotes, diáconos, los empleados laicos o los voluntarios que abusen a un menor hoy en día serán removidos permanentemente del ministerio.
La Diócesis de Jackson presentó todos sus casos a la oficina del Fiscal General de Mississippi en 2002 y, otra vez en 2019 en un esfuerzo para asegurar la transparencia en un espíritu de cooperación.
Cuando la diócesis recibe nuevos informes creíbles, estos son presentados al Departamento de Servicios de Protección Infantil de Mississippi, a la policía o al fiscal de distrito en el lugar donde se alega que ocurrió el abuso.
También, usted puede notar reportes que corresponden a lo que es ahora la Diócesis de Biloxi. La Diócesis de Jackson una vez fungió como diócesis de todo el estado. En 1977, el estado fue dividido en dos diócesis: Jackson y Biloxi.
La diócesis de Jackson mantiene los archivos desde los principios de ambas diócesis y cualquier caso de la diócesis de Biloxi de antes de 1977 aparecerá como parte de la historia de la Diócesis de Jackson.
La Diócesis de Jackson tiene los registros de más de 1000 sacerdotes que han servido aquí durante sus 180 años de historia. Esta investigación examinó todos los archivos que se preservan desde 1924.
Todos los nuevos reportes de abuso que sean creíbles se agregarán a la versión de esta lista y publicada en el sitio web diocesano.
Sí usted ha sido abusado por un miembro del clero o un empleado de la iglesia, queremos escuchar de usted. Póngase en contacto con la coordinadora de Asistencia a Víctimas, Licenciada Valerie McClellan al (601) 326-3728.
Nota: La referida lista está en la páginas 6 y 7 de esta publicación. La traducción de la misma, términos y preguntas frecuentes pueden verse en el sitio web Mississippi Catholic/ español
* Indica a alguien que no era sacerdote, pero es un miembro de una orden religiosa

Los antiguos santos ofrecen orientación, esperanza durante las pruebas modernas

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Obispo Joseph R. Kopacz

Por Obispo Joseph Kopacz
De muchas y variadas formas, invocamos las intercesiones de los santos en nuestra oración, con una devoción singular a través de María, la madre de nuestro Señor Jesucristo.
A principios de esta semana publicamos los nombres de sacerdotes, hermanos religiosos y diáconos que fueron acusados creíblemente de abuso sexual de menores. Al mismo tiempo, tres santos especiales, faros de esperanza para nuestros tiempos difíciles, convergieron en nuestro calendario litúrgico: San Patricio (17 de marzo), San Cirilo de Jerusalén (18 de marzo) y San José (19 de marzo).
San José es el santo patrón de la Iglesia Universal debido a su singular vocación en el plan de salvación de Dios como el esposo de María y el padre adoptivo de Jesús. San Juan Pablo II, hace casi 30 años, el 15 de agosto de 1989, bendijo a la iglesia universal en su Exhortación apostólica, Redemptoris Custos, un documento sobre San José como el Guardián del Redentor.
Elegimos su fiesta, el 19 de marzo, para divulgar los nombres de los clérigos acusados creíblemente del abuso sexual de menores con la intención especial de que este guardián del Redentor y patrón de la Iglesia Universal pueda renovarnos en nuestro cuidado por los miembros de la Iglesia, la familia de Dios, el Cuerpo de Cristo.
En las palabras y pensamiento de san Juan Pablo II leemos. “San José fue llamado por Dios para servir a la persona y la misión de Jesús directamente a través del ejercicio de su paternidad. Es precisamente de esta manera que, como enseña la liturgia de la Iglesia, cooperó en la plenitud del tiempo en el gran misterio de la salvación y es verdaderamente un ‘ministro de la salvación’. Su paternidad se expresa concretamente en haber hecho de su vida un servicio, un sacrificio al misterio de la Encarnación y a la misión redentora relacionada con él”.
Debajo de esta luz, oramos para que todos los ordenados para el servicio en la iglesia puedan dedicar sus vidas como un sacrificio al misterio de la Encarnación, la Palabra hecha carne, el Redentor. San José, ora pro nobis.
El 18 de marzo celebramos la fiesta de San Cirilo de Jerusalén, no muy conocida en la corte celestial canonizada, pero a quien la tradición conoce como un gran evangelizador y catequista. Le confiamos a todos los catecúmenos y candidatos que buscan estar en plena comunión con la Iglesia Católica.
En el primer domingo de Cuaresma en todo el mundo católico, la Iglesia Universal en el Rito de la Elección convocó por nombre a aquellos que se encuentran en este viaje hacia la plena comunión en la Vigilia Pascual.
La alegría y la esperanza resonaron en toda la iglesia de San Francisco de Asís en Madison hace dos semanas cuando se proclamaron los nombres de los elegidos y los candidatos. Por otro lado, a principios de esta semana publicamos los nombres de todos los clérigos acusados de manera creíble que prestaron servicios en la Diócesis de Jackson desde 1924.
Por supuesto, esta lista evoca una serie de sentimientos negativos en su mayor parte. Sin embargo, no exclusivamente, porque muchos experimentan una sensación de alivio y oran para que comience un nuevo día que permitirá a la Iglesia avanzar en la verdad y la esperanza.
Esta no es una acción punitiva por parte de la Iglesia contra aquellos que han ofendido. Más bien, la declaración pública se hace por el bien de la transparencia, el restablecimiento de la confianza y especialmente para la curación de las víctimas, sus familias y la iglesia. San Cirilo de Jerusalén, ora pro nobis.
El 17 de marzo, la Iglesia Universal no pudo celebrar la fiesta de San Patricio porque aterrizó el segundo domingo de Cuaresma. (Sin embargo, para el desfile y los devotos de la fiesta, el sábado 16 estuvo bien.) Todos los alborotos y las festividades, una excelente manera de marcar la transición del invierno a la primavera en el hemisferio norte, pueden eclipsar fácilmente a los asombrosos espirituales y terrenales. Logros vinculados de este gran santo.
No hay suficiente espacio en un periódico, y mucho menos en una columna para registrarlos todos, pero uno en particular es sobresaliente, ya que la Iglesia Católica se esfuerza por reconciliar las heridas y superar el escándalo de los problemas de abuso sexual.
Durante la vida de San Patricio, la era cristiana naciente en Irlanda erradicó el comercio bárbaro de la trata de personas de los celtas paganos. Desarrollaron el mismo sistema de destrucción humana que impulsó el comercio de esclavos de África, que ahora se presenta en el Museo de Derechos Civiles de Mississippi.
La Iglesia, especialmente en las últimas décadas, se ha comprometido a erradicar el flagelo del abuso sexual, y hasta la fecha la marea está cambiando. Con San Patricio como nuestra guía, podemos redoblar nuestros esfuerzos para erradicar el pecado bárbaro del abuso sexual.
San Patricio, ora, pro nobis.
Aunque los lamentos marcan todos los rincones de esta edición del periódico Mississippi Catholic, las semillas de la verdad, la compasión, la justicia y la sanación ya están plantadas y traen una nueva primavera a toda nuestra diócesis.
Que el llamado del Señor para la conversión no caiga en oídos sordos durante este tiempo de Cuaresma, ahora y siempre.

Ancient Saints offer guidance, hope during modern trials

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Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz

By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
In many and varied ways we call upon the intercessions of the saints in our prayer, with a singular devotion through Mary, the mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Earlier this week we released the names of priests, religious brothers and deacon who have been credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors. At the same time three special saints, beacons of hope for our troubled times, converged on our liturgical calendar: Saint Patrick (March 17), Saint Cyril of Jerusalem (March 18) and Saint Joseph (March 19).
Saint Joseph is the patron saint of the Universal Church due to his singular vocation in God’s plan of salvation as the husband of Mary and the foster father of Jesus. Saint John Paul II, nearly 30 years ago on August 15, 1989, blessed the universal church with his Apostolic Exhortation, Redemptoris Custos, a document on Saint Joseph as the Guardian of the Redeemer. We chose his feast day, March 19, to release the names of clerics credibly accused of the sexual abuse of minors with the special intention that this guardian of the Redeemer and patron of the Universal Church may renew us in our care for the members of the family of God, the Body of Christ.
In the words and thought of Saint John Paul II we read. “Saint Joseph was called by God to serve the person and mission of Jesus directly through the exercise of his fatherhood. It is precisely in this way that, as the Church’s Liturgy teaches, he cooperated in the fullness of time in the great mystery of salvation and is truly a “minister of salvation.” His fatherhood is expressed concretely in his having made his life a service, a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation and to the redemptive mission connected with it.”
In this light we pray that all ordained for service in the church may dedicate their lives as a sacrifice to the mystery of the Incarnation, the Word made flesh, the Redeemer.
Saint Joseph, ora pro nobis.
On March 18 we celebrated the feast of Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, not well known in the canonized celestial cohort, but whom tradition knows as a great evangelizer and catechist. We entrust to him all catechumens and candidates who seek to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.
On the first Sunday in Lent throughout the Catholic world the Universal Church in the Rite of Election called by name those who are on this journey to full communion at the Easter Vigil. Joy and hope resounded throughout Saint Francis of Assisi Church in Madison two weeks ago when the names of the elect and the candidates were proclaimed. On the other hand, earlier this week we posted the names of all credibly accused clerics who served in the Diocese of Jackson going back to 1924.
Of course, this roll call evokes a range of negative feelings for the most part. Yet, not exclusively, because many are experiencing a sense of relief and pray that a new day is dawning that will allow the Church to move forward in truth and hope. This is not a punitive action on the part of the Church against those who have offended. Rather, the public statement is done for the sake of transparency, the restoration of trust and especially for the healing of victims, their families and the church.
Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, ora pro nobis.
On March 17, the Universal Church could not celebrate the feast of Saint Patrick because it landed on the second Sunday of Lent. (However, for the parade and party devotees Saturday the 16th was just fine.) All of the hoopla and festivities, a great way to mark the transition from winter to spring in the Northern Hemisphere, can too easily overshadow the astonishing spiritual and earth-bound accomplishments of this great saint. There is not enough space in a newspaper, let alone a column to log them all, but one in particular is outstanding as the Catholic Church labors to reconcile the wounds and overcome the scandal of the sexual abuse troubles.
Within the lifetime of Saint Patrick, the nascent Christian era in Ireland eradicated the barbaric human trafficking trade of the pagan Celtic people. They had developed the same system of human destruction that powered the African slave trade which is now featured in the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The Church, in recent decades especially, has committed herself to eradicating the scourge of sexual abuse, and to date the tide is turning. With Saint Patrick as our guide, may we redouble our efforts to eradicate the barbaric sin of sexual abuse.
Saint Patrick, ora, pro nobis.
Although lamentation marks every corner of this edition of the Mississippi Catholic the seeds of truth, compassion, justice and healing are already planted and bringing about a new spring throughout our diocese. May the call of the Lord for conversion not fall upon deaf ears during this Lenten season and always.

Answering God’s call demands courage to take a risk

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By Carol Glatz Catholic
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Answering the Lord’s call demands the courage to take a risk, but it is an invitation to become part of an important mission, Pope Francis said.
God “wants us to discover that each of us is called – in a variety of ways – to something grand, and that our lives should not grow entangled in the nets of an ennui that dulls the heart,” the pope said.
“Every vocation is a summons not to stand on the shore, nets in hand, but to follow Jesus on the path he has marked out for us, for our own happiness and for the good of those around us,” he said in his message for the 2019 World Day of Prayer for Vocations. The Vatican released the pope’s message March 9.
The day, which was to be celebrated May 12, was dedicated to the theme: “The courage to take a risk for God’s promise.”
That kind of risk-taking can be seen when Jesus was at Sea of Galilee and called his first disciples, who were fishermen going about their daily lives, dedicated to their demanding work, the pope said in his message.
“As with every call, the Gospel speaks of an encounter. Jesus walks by, sees those fishermen, and walks up to them,” the pope said. “The same thing happened when we met the person we wanted to marry or when we first felt the attraction of a life of consecration: we were surprised by an encounter, and at that moment we glimpsed the promise of a joy capable of bringing fulfilment to our lives.”
Jesus drew near the four fishermen and broke through the “paralysis of routine,” making them the promise, “I will make you fishers of men,” he said.
Pope Francis acknowledged in his message that totally consecrating one’s life to service in the church could be difficult in the current climate. But, he said, “the church is our mother because she brings us to new life and leads us to Christ. So we must love her, even when we see her face marred by human frailty and sin, and we must help to make her ever more beautiful and radiant, so that she can bear witness to God’s love in the world.”
“The Lord’s call is not an intrusion of God in our freedom; it is not a ‘cage’ or a burden to be borne,” the pope said. On the contrary, it is God extending a loving invitation to be part of a great undertaking, opening “before our eyes the horizon of a greater sea and an abundant catch.”
“God in fact desires that our lives not become banal and predictable, imprisoned by daily routine, or unresponsive before decisions that could give it meaning,” he said. “The Lord does not want us to live from day to day, thinking that nothing is worth fighting for, slowly losing our desire to set out on new and exciting paths.”
But embracing God’s invitation to be part of something greater demands the courage to risk making a decision, just as the first disciples did when they “immediately left their nets and followed him,” he said.
“Responding to the Lord’s call involves putting ourselves on the line and facing a great challenge. It means being ready to leave behind whatever would keep us tied to our little boat and prevent us from making a definitive choice.”
People are called to be bold and decisive in seeking God’s plan for their lives, looking out onto the vast “ocean” of vocations, he said.
In order to help people better discern their vocation, the pope asked the church to provide young people with special opportunities for listening and discernment, a renewed commitment to youth ministry and the promotion of vocations through prayer, reflecting on God’s word, eucharistic adoration and spiritual accompaniment.  
Pope Francis urged everyone, especially young people, to not be “deaf to the Lord’s call.”
“If he calls you to follow this path, do not pull your oars into the boat, but trust him. Do not yield to fear, which paralyzes us before the great heights to which the Lord points us.”
“Always remember that to those who leave their nets and boat behind, and follow him, the Lord promises the joy of a new life that can fill our hearts and enliven our journey,” he said.

(Contributing to this story was Liam McIntyre in Rome.)

Lessons through failure

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Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI

IN EXILE
By Father Ron Rolheiser, OMI
What’s to be learned through failure, through being humbled by our own faults? Generally that’s the only way we grow. In being humbled by our own inadequacies we learn those lessons in life that we are deaf to when we are strutting in confidence and pride. There are secrets, says John Updike, which are hidden from health. This lesson is everywhere in scripture and permeates every spirituality in every religion worthy of the name.
Raymond E. Brown, offers an illustration of this from scripture: Reflecting on how at one point in its history, God’s chosen people, Israel, betrayed its faith and was consequently humiliated and thrown into a crisis about God’s love and concern for them, Brown points out that, long range, this seeming disaster ended up being a positive experience: “Israel learned more about God in the ashes of the Temple destroyed by the Babylonians than in the elegant period of the Temple under Solomon.”
What does he mean by that? Just prior to being conquered by Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, Israel had just experienced what, to all outside appearances, looked like the high point of her history (politically, socially and religiously). She was in possession of the promised land, had subdued all her enemies, had a great king ruling over her and had a magnificent temple in Jerusalem as a place to worship and a center to hold all the people together. However, inside that apparent strength, perhaps because of it, she had become complacent about her faith and increasing lax in being faithful to it. That complacency and laxity led to her downfall. In 587 BCE, she was overrun by a foreign nation who, after taking the land, deported most of the people to Babylon, killed the king and knocked the temple down to its last stone. Israel spent the next nearly half-century in exile, without a temple, struggling to reconcile this with her belief that God loved her.
However, in terms of the bigger picture, this turned out to be a positive. The pain of being exiled and the doubts of faith that were triggered by the destruction of her temple were ultimately offset by what she learned through this humiliation and crisis, namely, that God is faithful even when we aren’t, that our failures open our eyes to us our own complacency and blindness and that what looks like success is often its opposite, just as what looks like failure is often its opposite. As Richard Rohr might phrase it, in our failures we have a chance to “fall upward.”
There’s no better image available, I believe, by which to understand what the church is now undergoing through the humiliation thrust on it through the clerical sexual abuse crisis within Roman Catholicism and within other churches as well. To recast Raymond Brown’s insight: The church can learn more about God in the ashes of the clerical sexual abuse crisis than it did during its elegant periods of grand cathedrals, burgeoning church growth and unquestioned acquiescence to ecclesial authority. It can also learn more about itself, its blindness to its own faults and its need for some structural change and personal conversion. Hopefully, like the Babylonian exile for Israel, this too will be for the churches something that’s positive in the end.
Moreover, what’s true institutionally for the church (and, not doubt, for other organizations) is also true for each of us in our personal lives. The humiliations that beset us because of our inadequacies, complacencies, failures, betrayals and blindness to our own faults can be occasions to “fall upward,” to learn in the ashes what we didn’t learn in the winner’s circle.
Almost without exception, our major successes in life, our grander achievements and the boost in status and adulation that come with that generally don’t deepen us in any way. To paraphrase James Hillman, success usually doesn’t bring a shred of depth into our lives. Conversely, if we reflect with courage and honesty on all the things that have brought depth and character into our lives we will have to admit that, in virtually every case, it would be something that has an element of shame to it – a feeling of inadequacy about our own body, some humiliating element in our upbringing, some shameful moral failure in our life or something in our character about which we feel some shame. These are the things that have given us depth.
Humiliation makes for depth; it drives us into the deeper parts of our soul. Unfortunately, however, that doesn’t always make for a positive result. The pain of humiliation makes us deep; but it can make us deep in two ways: in understanding and empathy but also in a bitterness of soul that would have us get even with the world.
But the positive point is this: Like Israel on the shores of Babylon, when our temple is damaged or destroyed, in the ashes of that exile we will have a chance to see some deeper things to which we are normally blind.

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

Amid scandals, a way forward

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GUEST COLUMN
By Lee Gilbert, Catholic News Service
Many Catholics are speaking now of their anger, of their downheartedness and even of the threat to their own faith that the recent scandals have caused. This is understandable. Yet, offering one another counsels of anger, despair and indignation does not seem the way to go, either.
What then? As someone once said, we are in the grave with Jesus Christ, but he knows the way out.
The very severity of the problem indicates a way forward, a way that is not the usual, soft way into which we have fallen over the past half century, but an effective way for all that, the way of the cross. We are being driven to become a disciplined people who know how to bring grace down from heaven in torrents.
That does not at all mean we should hide our heads in the sand over this business. We should be as well informed as necessary. But how much information do we need to act responsibly as Catholics? Do we need, for example, to read the sordid details of every instance of abuse?
While we need to be well-informed, we do not need to put our own mental health and spiritual lives at risk.
I have come to think of the news media as “Institutionalized Worry.” It is the job of journalists to report exceptions to good order. But when you read a newspaper filled with stories about these exceptions, you begin to get the idea that the entire world is a mess. It isn’t.
I teach fifth-graders at my parish and with my new awareness about the media was able to say that, on the whole, the world is an orderly and beautiful place. Your dad gets up every morning, day after day, to provide for your family; your mother, too, works very hard. You have pleasant meals together on the whole and had a very nice vacation last year. And there are many, many families like yours. This is perfectly normal, and that is why there is no reportage. People do not want to read about normality.
Similarly, there are 400,000 priests around the world and a great many of them are living heroic lives. No one in the secular press reports on priests martyred for the faith, priests who preach the truth bravely, who get up at all hours to assist the dying. If we do read such stories, our mental state would be much better, our faith built up.
I get that this is a scandal of historic proportions, that people’s lives were ruined, that many priests betrayed their vows, that there are bishops who made grave errors.
That is all the information I need when I set out to do what I can as a layman. I will avoid falling into the same traps that the abusive priests fell into, namely, letting my prayer life slip, speaking ill of my superiors and falling into the grace-sapping trap of anger. There is such a thing as righteous anger, but when a person sinks into a state of anger and depression, he is paving the way for temptations.
I need to bolster my spiritual life by reading lives of the saints, not the deeds of unrepentant sinners.
Any Catholic with even a cursory familiarity with recent news has more than enough information to inspire him to a life of prayer and penance.
Digging up more news is to one degree or another self-deception, and even, one could say, a species of addiction, where one opens a blog or a newspaper to get another shot of adrenaline, of self-justification, for however bad I might be, at least I am not that bad. From my standpoint as an ancient of 75 years, this is a dangerous, dangerous business, and itself a ploy of the devil, for one does not become a saint by thinking of sinners and their sinful deeds.
Prayer and penance, however, make up the well-worn way to a noble and a holy life.

(This commentary was published online Feb. 14 on the website of the Catholic Sentinel, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Portland, Oregon. It was written by Lee Gilbert, a member of Holy Rosary Parish in Portland.)

The joyful season of Lent

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Guest Column
By Father Father John Catoir, JCD
There is a famous quote from St. John Chrysostom that draws attention to the supreme purpose of Lent; namely, the celebration of the Resurrection of Christ. “Every year we celebrate Easter, the greatest and most shining feast of the Liturgical calendar.”
From the beginning, the Lenten Liturgy has been filled with references to joy, not only because it is a time of preparation for the Resurrection, but also because our purification through prayer and fasting brings a special form of delight to the soul.
We need to think of Lent as both a time of joy, and a time of penance. This is not a new idea. Gregory the Great, who was pope at the turn of the sixth century A.D., emphasized the theme of joy. He spoke of the two-fold path before us: the way of life that leads to joy, and the way of death that leads to misery. He quoted from the first Psalm to make his point: “Happy the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked.”
Lent is a 40-day period devoted to prayer, fasting and almsgiving. It is designed to help us focus on the mystery of our redemption. Through it all we all called to live joyfully because of the knowledge of God’s love. We fast because there is always a need for penance.
Think of Lent as a musical prelude to the joyful symphony of Easter. The entire celebration lasts 50 days beyond Easter Sunday, right up to Pentecost Sunday, the birthday of the Church. During this Easter cycle we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, who came down upon us on the birthday of the Church. The ultimate celebration comes when Jesus returns to us at the end of time.
Fasting helps us to free ourselves from the things of this world that diminish our desire to put first things first; namely the love of God, the love of neighbor and love of self.
Fasting is particularly helpful for those who are addicted in some way: to drugs, or one of the vices. Think about it: greed is an acquisitive spirit, anger is a lust for vengeance, jealousy is the constant fear that someone is taking from you what you think is rightly yours, envy is sadness over the good fortune of another, and lust is an inordinate attraction to sex. We want to grow in virtue.
Almsgiving helps us to cultivating a generous spirit; it strengths us as we strive to love God above all things. Abbot John Chapman a great spiritual master wisely said, “The only way to pray well is to pray often. Pure prayer is in the will to give yourself to God. In prayer, you never have to force feelings of any kind.
Jesus is our role model. He prayed and fasted for 40 days in the desert, before he began his public ministry. “I have set an example, that you should also do as I do.”- John 13:15. Love is the supreme law, and the ultimate purpose of our Lenten discipline.
When Jesus entered His public ministry, He was scorned, humiliated and betrayed by one of his own. He carried His cross, leaving us a legacy of courage, perseverance, hope and the promise of eternal joy.
“In this world you will have many troubles, but cheer up and take heart, for I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

(Father John Catoir is the founder and current president of the St. Jude Media Ministry, a national apostolate which uses Radio and TV to reach out to the millions of unchurched people in America – and to those in need of joy in their daily lives.)

National Catholic Sisters Week draws attention to communities of service

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By Berta Mexidor
Religious women across America put their own twist on celebrating International Women’s Day when they celebrated National Catholic Sisters Week (NCSW), March 8-14. According to the website dedicated to the event, “NCSW is an annual celebration to honor women religious. It is a series of events that instruct, enlighten and bring greater focus to the lives of these incredible women. It’s our chance to recognize all they have done for us. It’s also our hope that as more young women learn about women religious, more will choose to follow their example.
“National Catholic Sisters Week, a branch of National Catholic Sisters Project headquartered at Alverno College in Milwaukee, Wisc., is headquartered at Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minn., and is held in conjunction with Women’s History Month.”
The website, https://nationalcatholicsistersweek.org/, includes testimonies to promote religious vocations and a range of activities celebrated by sisters around the country.
Certainly the history of the Catholic Diocese of Jackson is full of stories of the service and dedication of women religious. In the earliest days, they ran orphanages and schools. In the modern era, they founded and ran hospitals, worked as nurses, teachers, parish administrators and cloistered prayer warriors.
Mississippi Catholic thanks and honors the more than 100 religious serving throughout the Diocese in schools, hospitals, convents, community centers and prison ministry. Some, including Sister Thea Bowman, whose cause for canonization opened last year, are more famous than others, but they all give their lives in service to the Church and her people. They represent more than a dozen congregations including:
• The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Agnes, – CSA;
• Missionaries Guadalupanas of the Holy Spirit, MGSpS;
• School Sisters of Notre Dame, SSND;
• Sisters of Humility of Mary, CHM;
• Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, RSM;
• Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, DC;
• Sisters of Charity of Halifax, SC;
• Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity, OSF;
• Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns, OCD;
• Dominican Sisters of Springfield, OP;
• Congregation of the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, FSPA;
• School Sisters of St. Francis, Milwaukee, WI – OSF
• Sisters of St. Francis, Aston, OSF
• Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, SCN
• Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota
• Congregation of Sisters of St. Agnes
• Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family
• Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, SNJM;
• Sisters of the Holy Spirit and Mary Immaculate, S.H.Sp;
• Union of the Sisters of the Presentation of the BVM, PBVM;
• Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, St. Louis Province – CSJ.
• Sisters of St. Joseph, CSJ

Renew introduces small-group series to deal with clergy abuse crisis

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By Mark Pattison
WASHINGTON (CNS) – Renew International, which has been offering small-group parish renewal series since the 1970s, has put together a six-week series for parishioners on dealing with the current clergy sexual abuse crisis.
Titled “Healing Our Church,” it offers reflections, Scripture passages, questions to participants to ponder and statements from abuse victims.
“We brought in a lot more with the victims’ voices,” said Jennifer Bober, Renew’s manager of marketing and communications, who was in on all of the development meetings for the new series. “That was something we felt was missing from the earlier resource. Just the directness of the approach, the forthrightness of the approach in this, is different. It’s a different time, and people’s response is very different.”
The Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, will employ “Healing Our Church” during Lent in a big way, with nearly 70 parishes — about 83 percent of all parishes in the diocese — offering the Renew series.

Renew International, which has been offering small-group parish renewal series since the 1980s, has put together a six-week series for parishioners on dealing with the current clergy sexual abuse crisis. Titled “Healing Our Church,” it offers reflections, Scripture passages, questions to participants to ponder and statements from abuse victims. (CNS)

Allentown had used Renew twice before, including its 2003 series dealing with clergy sex abuse, “Healing the Body of Christ.”
“We’re trying to do the best we can to meet the needs of victims of abuse, physical victims of abuse,” said Bishop Alfred A. Schlert of Allentown in a Feb. 27 telephone interview with Catholic News Service, but “the people in the pew are hurting, too.”
“Healing the Body of Christ” drew 12,000 participants when Allentown offered it 16 years ago, Bishop Schlert noted. “I don’t know what we’ll get this time. The success is not so much in the concrete number but who came, who felt comfortable to come, and who felt healing in some way,” measurements he acknowledged tend to manifest themselves in the long term.
“All of us are active in church ministry in some form or another,” Renew’s Bober told CNS, and when the latest revelations broke last summer regarding bishops’ roles in the crisis, a common reaction Renew staffers got was, “How can you stay Catholics?”
“We looked around us and we said, ‘We need to do something.’ We know that people are upset, we know people are hurting,” Bober added. “As news broke, we were reading more victims’ stories and we were seeing the power in them, and knowing that, it really made us understand the depth of the hurt that is going on. We wanted to empathize with the victims and for them to do that, we had to include their stories.”
Bober said, “We had (‘Healing Our Church’) small groups running in the office, as things were being written” to test the strength of the material being developed. “We had people within the office, some friends of people who work here from their parishes.” One of them, G. Madsen, a member of Our Lady of Peace Parish in New Providence, New Jersey, wrote in an endorsement for the back cover of “Healing Our Church,” saying that “this six-week program is a positive first step in healing the wounds suffered by faithful Catholics.”
Renew had considered introducing it in the fall, Bober said, but were dissuaded by Bishop Schlert, who wanted it sooner – and his words were used in the book’s foreword: “My people need healing now.”
“I never saw myself as cutting-edge on anything,” Bishop Schlert told CNS. “But my pastors embraced it and said, ‘We’d like to give this a try.’ That’s where the rubber hits the road, in the local parishes.”