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Christ at the center of faith formation

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Bishop Joseph R. Kopacz

By Bishop Joseph Kopacz
In season and out of season the Lord calls us to grow in wisdom, knowledge and grace as his disciples. This is the work of conversion, faith formation and ultimately, holiness. On a rolling timetable during this season of the year our Catholic Schools, Adult Faith Formation Certification, Religious Education programs, R.C.I.A., Sacramental preparation, scripture courses, Faith Formation Days, retreats, Safe Environment training and more, resume with great zeal and hope.
Our Diocesan Vision of Inspiring Disciples, Serving Others and Embracing Diversity is renewed once again. This external manifestation of beehive activity rests upon a summer full of well-deserved rest, review of the past year and planning for the new season. The work of faith formation is a 12-month quest and I am eternally grateful to all who remain on the path hearing the call of the Lord Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life.
Earlier this year on March 19, Pope Francis opened a door for all who are engaged in the mission of evangelization and faith formation with his Apostolic Exhortation, “Guadete et Exultate (Rejoice and be Glad), the Call to Holiness in the Modern World.” This inspiring and readable exhortation begins with the Saints who encourage and accompany us, and the Saints next door.” Of course, the former is the Cloud of Witnesses already around the throne of God, as described in the letter to the Hebrews and the book of Revelation, and the latter refers to family members, neighbors, parishioners and friends. One of the gems of this document is the section on the Beatitudes that is a compass for all disciples to embrace the Lord’s mind and heart.
Our Catholic Schools have chosen the Beatitudes as central to this year’s focus. Another golden opportunity for diocesan leadership is our fall convocation whose theme is “Forming Intentional Disciples.” Sherry Weddell, the author of the landmark book pertaining to intentional disciples, and a national speaker in demand, accepted our invitation to our three-day convocation because of our Diocesan Vision to Inspire Disciples-Serve Others-Embrace Diversity. Kudos to our Continuing Formation Committee for this exceptional outcome.
The above is a remarkable package of faith formation and evangelization, but I want to reflect upon what for all of us is the source and summit of all formation, evangelization and holiness, the Mass. During the past five weeks the Church throughout the Catholic world has proclaimed the Bread of Life discourse from the sixth Chapter in Saint John’s Gospel. Today was the culminating dialogue between Jesus and those who were struggling to understand his shocking words. “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.”
The Eucharist, Word and Sacrament, the real presence of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is life-long formation for all disciples. We in the Catholic world have the gift and mystery of Eucharistic faith that has been our food for the journey on the path to eternal life. I encourage all in faith formation to never tire of fully integrating everyone in faith formation into the sacramental life of the Church, especially the Eucharist. Word, worship, community and service are the total package of what it means to belong to Jesus Christ, the Bread of Life, the Master Teacher draws us to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit.
As the miasma of the sexual abuse crisis envelops the Church once again let us not forget that one of our critical pastoral priorities is the Gospel mandate to be forgiving, healing and reconciling communities. Evangelization and faith formation are not possible without repentance and conversion. Thanks be to God, the Church has planted many of these seeds which have grown and continue to flourish in all our ministries. The priority for healing and reconciliation are the victims of sexual abuse and their families, and we must never tire of restoring life through God’s mercy and justice at the foot of the Cross. Thank you to all who daily foster safe environments for our children and young people and who accompany victims who are on the path of healing and hope. Nothing is impossible for God, because God is love.

Cardinal explains plan to address ‘moral catastrophe’ of abuse

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By Julie Asher
WASHINGTON(CNS) – The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Aug. 16 announced three key goals and a comprehensive plan to address the “moral catastrophe” of the new abuse scandal hitting the U.S. church.
The plan “will involve the laity, lay experts, the clergy and the Vatican,” Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston said. This plan will be presented to the full body of bishops at their general assembly meeting in Baltimore in November.
He said the “substantial involvement of the laity” from law enforcement, psychology and other disciplines will be essential to this process.
He also said that right now, it is clear that “one root cause” of this catastrophe “is the failure of episcopal leadership.”
In a lengthy letter addressed to all Catholics, Cardinal DiNardo laid out three goals just established by the bishops’ Executive Committee in a series of meetings held early the week of Aug. 13.
The first is a “full investigation” into “the questions surrounding” Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick, a former cardinal and retired archbishop of Washington. He said the Executive Committee will ask the Vatican to conduct an apostolic visitation into these questions “in concert with” a group of laypeople identified for their expertise by the USCCB’s lay-run National Review Board who will be “empowered to act.”
With a credible allegation that Archbishop McCarrick abused a minor nearly 47 years ago and accusations of his sexual misconduct with seminarians, many have been asking how the prelate could have risen up the ranks of the church as an auxiliary bishop, bishop, archbishop and finally cardinal.
Cardinal DiNardo described the second and third goals, respectively, as an opening of new and confidential channels for reporting complaints against bishops, and advocacy for more effective resolution of future complaints.
The three goals “will be pursued according to three criteria: proper independence, sufficient authority and substantial leadership by laity,” he said.
“Two weeks ago, I shared with you my sadness, anger and shame over the recent revelations concerning Archbishop Theodore McCarrick,” the cardinal said. “Those sentiments continue and are deepened in view of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report.
We are faced with a spiritual crisis that requires not only spiritual conversion, but practical changes to avoid repeating the sins and failures of the past that are so evident in the recent report,” he added.
Cardinal DiNardo said the members of the Executive Committee “have already begun to develop a concrete plan for accomplishing these goals, relying upon consultation with experts, laity and clergy, as well as the Vatican.”
In addition to this being presented to the full body of bishops at their Baltimore assembly, the cardinal said he will go to Rome to present these goals and criteria to the Holy See, and to urge further concrete steps based on them.”
“The overarching goal in all of this is stronger protections against predators in the church and anyone who would conceal them, protections that will hold bishops to the highest standards of transparency and accountability,” Cardinal DiNardo explained.
He elaborated on each of the goals he described, starting with the “full investigation” of the Archbishop McCarrick case and questions surrounding it.
“These answers are necessary to prevent a recurrence,” he said, and “so help to protect minors, seminarians and others who are vulnerable in the future.”
He said the second goal “is to make reporting of abuse and misconduct by bishops easier.”
“Our 2002 ‘Statement of Episcopal Commitment’ does not make clear what avenue victims themselves should follow in reporting abuse or other sexual misconduct by bishops,” he explained. The statement is in the bishops’ “Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People,” approved in Dallas in 2002, and revised in 2005, 2011 and 2018.
“We need to update this (commitment) document,” Cardinal DiNardo said. “We also need to develop and widely promote reliable third-party reporting mechanisms. Such tools already exist in many dioceses and in the public sector and we are already examining specific options.”
The third goal has to do with advocating for “better procedures to resolve complaints against bishops,” he said.
“For example, the canonical procedures that follow a complaint will be studied with an eye toward concrete proposals to make them more prompt, fair, and transparent, and to specify what constraints may be imposed on bishops at each stage of that process,” he said.
He also laid out the three criteria for pursing these goals: “genuine independence,” authority and “substantial involvement by the laity.”
“Any mechanism for addressing any complaint against a bishop must be free from bias or undue influence by a bishop,” he said. “Our structures must preclude bishops from deterring complaints against them, from hampering their investigation or from skewing their resolution.”

Pope: Abuse victims’ outcry more powerful than efforts to silence them

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By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – “No effort must be spared” to prevent future cases of clerical sexual abuse and “to prevent the possibility of their being covered up,” Pope Francis said in a letter addressed “to the people of God.”
“I acknowledge once more the suffering endured by many minors due to sexual abuse, the abuse of power and the abuse of conscience perpetrated by a significant number of clerics and consecrated persons,” the pope wrote in the letter dated and released Aug. 20.
The letter was published less than a week after the release of a Pennsylvania grand jury report on decades of clerical sexual abuse and cover-ups in six dioceses. The report spoke of credible allegations against 301 priests in cases involving more than 1,000 children.
“The heart-wrenching pain of these victims, which cries out to heaven, was long ignored, kept quiet or silenced,” Pope Francis said. “But their outcry was more powerful than all the measures meant to silence them.”
“The pain of the victims and their families is also our pain,” he said, “and so it is urgent that we once more reaffirm our commitment to ensure the protection of minors and of vulnerable adults.”
In his letter, Pope Francis insisted all Catholics must be involved in the effort to accompany victims, to strengthen safeguarding measures and to end a culture where abuse is covered up.
While the letter called all Catholics to prayer and fasting, it does not change any current policies or offer specific new norms.
It did, however, insist that “clericalism” has been a key part of the problem and said the involvement of the laity will be crucial to addressing the crime and scandal.
Change, he said, will require “the active participation of all the members of God’s people.”
“Many communities where sexual abuse and the abuse of power and conscience have occurred,” he said, are groups where there has been an effort to “reduce the people of God to small elites.”
“Clericalism, whether fostered by priests themselves or by lay persons, leads to a split in the ecclesial body that supports and helps to perpetuate many of the evils that we are condemning today,” Pope Francis said. “To say ‘no’ to abuse is to say an emphatic ‘no’ to all forms of clericalism.”
In his letter, Pope Francis acknowledged the church’s failure.
“With shame and repentance, we acknowledge as an ecclesial community that we were not where we should have been, that we did not act in a timely manner, realizing the magnitude and the gravity of the damage done to so many lives,” he wrote.
“We showed no care for the little ones,” Pope Francis said. “We abandoned them.”
“Looking back to the past, no effort to beg pardon and to seek to repair the harm done will ever be sufficient,” he said. “Looking ahead to the future, no effort must be spared to create a culture able to prevent such situations from happening, but also to prevent the possibility of their being covered up and perpetuated.”
Recognizing the safeguarding policies that have been adopted in various parts of the world as well as pledges of “zero tolerance” for abusive clerics, Pope Francis also acknowledged that “we have delayed in applying these actions and sanctions that are so necessary, yet I am confident that they will help to guarantee a greater culture of care in the present and future.”
As members of the church, he said, all Catholics should “beg forgiveness for our own sins and the sins of others.”
Pope Francis also asked Catholics to pray and to fast so that they would be able to hear “the hushed pain” of abuse survivors.
He called for “a fasting that can make us hunger and thirst for justice and impel us to walk in the truth, supporting all the judicial measures that may be necessary. A fasting that shakes us up and leads us to be committed in truth and charity with all men and women of good will, and with society in general, to combating all forms of the abuse of power, sexual abuse and the abuse of conscience.”
In Washington, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said by opening his letter with these words of St. Paul, “If one part suffers, all parts suffer with it’,” Pope Francis “shows that he is writing to all of us as a pastor, a pastor who knows how deeply sin destroys lives.”
In a statement issued late Aug. 20, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston responded in particular to these words from the pope: “Penance and prayer will help us to open our eyes and our hearts to other people’s sufferings and to overcome the thirst for power and possessions that are so often the root of those evils.”

Summer service

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MERIDIAN – Nine young people and two adults from the Catholic Community of Meridian traveled to Knoxville for the Alive In You Catholic Camp and Conference, June 19-24 for a week of service work. One of the projects was at the Knoxville Dream Center, a homeless outreach and food distribution Center. Students helped load a food truck and then helped give out the food to residents at a low income apartment complex that was in a so-called “food desert” area with no grocery store nearby. That afternoon the students helped the Center with various projects around their warehouse. At left, (l-r) Jean Karol Mayo, Kirstie Graves, Serena Sanders and Edwar Hernandez stand across the table from Cassy Klutz, Colby Evans and Mason Daniels. The youth were stuffing ziplock bags with condiments and utensils for the center’s upcoming Independence Day dinner for the homeless people under the bridge in Knoxville. (Photo by John Harwell)

Vardaman summer camp offers variety of experiences

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VARDAMAN – The Catholic Charities Northeast Office ended its three-week summer program for 40 students from kindergarten through seventh grade with a big celebration Thursday, July 26. The center partnered with local businesses to offer classes in art, gardening, civic involvement and culture. Bancorp South and Topashaw Farms both donated to the program. In photo above, Father Tim Murphy learns about the flowers the children have planted. (Photos by John Lundardini)

VARDAMAN – The Catholic Charities Northeast Office ended its three-week summer program for 40 students from kindergarten through seventh grade with a big celebration Thursday, July 26. The center partnered with local businesses to offer classes in art, gardening, civic involvement and culture. Bancorp South and Topashaw Farms both donated to the program. In photo above, Father Tim Murphy learns about the flowers the children have planted. (Photos by John Lundardini)

Students, supplies, teachers blessed for new year

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JACKSON – Above, backpacks lined up in front of the altar at Christ the King Parish await their turn to be blessed Sunday, Aug. 5. Ecclesial Minister Deacon Denzil Lobo blessed the children, students, teachers and all those who worked with schools. All of them also received a pencil that said “I am a child of God” and a pin badge for their backpacks that said “I Love J.C.” Many of the students attend Sister Thea Bowman School, which is attached to the parish. (Photos by Gina Lobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

VICKSBURG –At left, Father Tom Lalor extends a blessing to the children of his parish, St. Paul, on Sunday, August 5, at the 10:30 a.m. Mass. Many of these children attend Vicksburg Catholic School, which started classes Tuesday, August 7. (Photo by Allyson Johnston)

PEARL – At right, Father Lincoln Dall snaps a photo of backpacks waiting to be blessed at St. Jude Parish while the director of religious education, Stacy Wolf, begins the blessing service. (Photo by Rhonda Bowden)

Communication office adds staff member

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Berta Mexidor

By Maureen Smith
JACKSON – The Offices of Communications and Vocations welcomed Berta Mexidor to the staff on Monday, July 31. A native of Cuba, Mexidor has been in the U.S. for 13 years. She will be managing Spanish-language content for Mississippi Católico as well as doing administrative work for the Office of Vocations.
Mexidor has a variety of experience, including being a co-founder of the “Libertad” – Freedom Free Press Agency and the Independent Libraries movement in Cuba. She moved to Mississippi in 2005, one month before Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the state, to continue her work with libraries in her home country. She has also worked as a Spanish teacher, economics teacher and translator for several agencies in the state.
Her treasure is being mother of three and grandmother of two.
She is a member of Flowood St. Paul Parish, where she found a welcome even before she knew enough English to understand the whole Mass. Her experience growing up in Communist Cuba strengthened rather than weakened her faith.
“Jesus finds you even where you need to deny him, in a communist island, under an atheist regime” she said. She was baptized Catholic at birth, but as a child witnessed the image of Saint Francis intentionally drowned in the ocean of her small town as a demonstration of the community’s rejection of faith. Having children and encountering her own cross in life reconnected Berta with God and she found ways to quietly pursue her faith before she immigrated.
She has a special devotion to Our Lady of Charity also known as Our Lady of El Cobre or Nuestra Señora de la Caridad del Cobre, she is grateful for all her experiences in Cuba and Mississippi. “Jesus found me a long time ago,” she said. She now recognizes that he was sustaining her during the storms.

Catholic School educators explore gifts to share this year

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By Maureen Smith
Teachers, administrators and staff at all the Catholic Schools in the Diocese of Jackson are ready to share their gifts with students again this year. Each year, the Office of Catholic Schools selects a theme to unify all the schools across the diocese. The 2018/2019 theme is GIFTS – Gratefully Inspiring Faith Teaching Service
Before school started each school hosted a Catholic identity session focusing on the Beatitudes.

Fran Lavelle, Director of Faith Formation; Stephanie Brown, coordinator of school improvement, and Karla Luke, assistant superintendent developed the sessions using Blessings for Leaders: Leadership Wisdom from the Beatitudes by Dan R. Ebener and the recent Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Francis, Gaudete Et Exsultate, as source documents.

COLUMBUS –photos by Katie Fenstermacher)

According to superintendent Catherine Cook, the sessions were designed to assist faculty and staff in their faith journey of moving from disciples to apostles. Ebner says, “Disciples follow, learn, and then become Apostles. Apostles lead, teach, and make disciples.”
Lavelle and Brown led a Day of Reflection for metro Jackson area schools and Vicksburg Catholic. Lavelle travelled to Greenville St. Joseph while Brown and Luke led the day at Meridian St. Patrick School. Clarksdale has scheduled a day later in the month.

        

MADISON – photos by Wendi Shearer

The remaining schools were provided the presentation materials to use on their own. In Columbus, pastor Father Jeffrey Waldrep headed up their day.
Each school agreed on five values they wanted to emphasize this year. Then, the staff divided into five teams to write a one-sentence prayer about their value. By the end of the day the sentences became a school prayer for the year.