june 23, 2006

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 1 June 23, 2006

Serving CatholiCS in WeStern north Carolina in the DioCeSe of Charlotte

Around the DioceseConfirmation; Interfaith prayer meeting

| Pages 6-7

In Our SchoolsEnd-of-school celebrations

| Pages 8-9

PerspectivesLife is precious; Ominous date

| Pages 14-15

june 23, 2006 voluMe 15 no. 34

See GRADUATION, page 9

www.charlottediocese.org

See DEACONS, page 5

New bishop for Raleigh

VocationsBishop Peter J. Jugis announces pastoral appointments; Sisters of Mercy jubilarians

| Pages 4-5

Completing the journeyBishop Jugis ordains 16 as permanent deacons

Stepping out into a wide-open

established jan. 12, 1972 by Pope Paul vi

Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte

See BISHOP, page 12

For a new America

See IMMIGRANTS, page 13

BisHoP gossmaN reTires, suCCessor Named

Church role seen in mobilizing Hispanics after immigration marches

by JERRy FILTEAUcAThoLIc nEws sERvIcE

WASHINGTON — Pope Benedict XVI has accepted the resignation of Bishop F. Jo-seph Gossman of Raleigh and named Philadelphia Auxiliary Bishop Michael F. Burbidge to succeed him.

Archbishop Pietro Sambi, apostolic nuncio to the United States, announced the changes in Washington June 8.

Bishop Burbidge is to be installed as bishop of Raleigh Aug. 4. Bishop Gossman is to serve as administrator of the di-ocese until Bishop Burbidge’s installation.

Bishop Gossman, 76, has been a bishop since 1968 and head of the Diocese of Raleigh since 1975. With his retirement there are only five active U.S. bishops who were given their current posts by Pope Paul VI.

by KAREn A. EvAnssTAFF wRITER

CHARLOTTE — A close-knit group of students took their first steps into the world beyond high school as the Charlotte Catholic High School class of 2006 received their diplomas at Ovens Auditorium June 7.

“We are a class that has made, and can continue to make, a difference; a class

by KAREn A. EvAnssTAFF wRITER

CHARLOTTE — After six-and-a-half years of diacon-ate training, 16 men were or-dained as permanent deacons at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte June 10.

Their training included three-and-a-half years of formation preparation, six months of spiritual direction and completion of the two-year lay ministry program.

Bishop Peter J. Jugis celebrated the Mass attended by Bishop Emeritus William G. Curlin; Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey in Belmont;

filled with possibility and de-termination,” said Rachel Hes-ler in her salutatorian address. “These invaluable life lessons will take us far as we address the challenges of an exciting new chapter in our lives.”

T h e d i p l o m a s w e r e conferred by Mgsr. Mauricio W. West, vicar general and chancellor for the Diocese of

by AGosTIno bonocAThoLIc nEws sERvIcE

WASHINGTON — The Catholic Church can play an important role in mobilizing Hispanics to influence public policy, said several speakers at a Washington symposium examining Hispanic participa-

Photo by Karen a. evans

Bishop Peter J. Jugis kneels before the altar with Deacon George Szalony (left) and Deacon Ben Wenning (right) as the candidates for the permanent diaconate lie prostrate during the litany of the saints at the Mass for the ordination to the permanent diaconate, held at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte June 10.

Charlotte Catholic graduates 282


Charlotte Catholic graduates toss their caps in the air following their commencement ceremony at Ovens Auditorium in Charlotte June 7.

2 The Catholic News & Herald June 23, 2006

Current and upcoming top-ics from around the world to your own backyardInBrief Bishops adopt new Mass texts,

study reorganization

diViNe PLaY

PuBLisHer: most reverend Peter J. JugisediTor: Kevin e. murraysTaff WriTer: Karen a. evans graPHiC desigNer: Tim faragheradVerTisiNg maNager: Cindi feerickseCreTarY: deborah Hiles

1123 south Church st., Charlotte, NC 28203maiL: P.o. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237PHoNe: (704) 370-3333 faX: (704) 370-3382e-maiL: [email protected]

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for any reason deemed appropriate. We do not recommend or guarantee any product, service or benefit claimed by our advertisers. second-class postage paid at Charlotte NC and other cities. PosTmasTer: send address corrections to The Catholic News & Herald, P.o. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237.

June 23, 2006VOluMe 15 • nuMBer 34

ASHeVIlle VICArIATe

ASHEVILLE — The St. Martin de Porres Dominican Laity Chapter meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. in the rectory building at the Basilica of St. Lawrence, 97 Hay-wood St. Inquirers are welcome. For more infor-mation, contact Beverly Reid at (423) 638-4744 or [email protected] VICArIATe

SPARTA — St. Frances of Rome Church, Hendrix and Highlands Rds., sponsors the Oratory of Divine Love Prayer Group in the par-ish house the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 1 p.m. Call (336) 372-8846 for more information.CHArlOTTe VICArIATe

CHARLOTTE — Fostering Justice Worldwide, sponsored by the diocesan Office of Justice and Peace, will share Catholic Relief Services (CRS) stories. This free event will take place at St. Matthew Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons Pkwy., St., June 24, 1:30-5 p.m. The program will provide an overview of Catholic social teaching, CRS-related work in the Diocese of Charlotte, CRS work in Africa, presentations on effective advocacy and more. This event will be repeated in Newton Sept. 9 and in Stoneville Nov. 4. For specific details about the Saturday afternoon events please call the Office of Justice and Peace at (704) 370-3234 or (704) 370-3225, or e-mail [email protected] — A Mass to Honor Deceased Loved Ones is celebrated the last Friday of each month at 7:30 p.m. St. Mark Church, 14740 Stumptown Rd. For more information, call Pam Schneider at (704) 875-0201.

CHARLOTTE — A Support Group for Caregivers of a Family Member with Memory Loss meet the last Monday of each month, 10-11:30 a.m., at St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Rd. For more information, contact Suzanne Bach at (704) 376-4135.CHARLOTTE — The Happy Timers of St. Ann Church meet the first Wednesday of each month with a luncheon and program at 1 p.m. in the Msgr. Allen Center, 3635 Park Rd. All adults age 55 and older are welcome. For more information, call Charles Nesto at (704) 398-0879.CHARLOTTE — New Creation Monastery invites you to a day of silence and solitude in the presence of Almighty God. The monastery offers private spiritual retreats for lay people. Write to Father John Vianney Hoover at New Creation Monastery, 11517 Spreading Oak Ln. Charlotte, N.C. 28226, stating why you want to go on retreat and when. For more information, call (704) 541-5026.CHARLOTTE — The second annual Eucharis-tic Congress will be held Oct. 6-7 at the Char-lotte Convention Center, 501 S. College St. The Eucharistic Congress brings together laity, cler-gy, religious men and women, and well-known speakers for a day and a half of worship and lectures related to the Eucharist. For more information, visit the Eucharistic Congress Web site at www.goeucharist.com.

GASTOnIA VICArIATe

BELMONT — First Saturday Devotions take place on the first Saturday of each month at Belmont Abbey Basilica, 100 Belmont-Mt. Hol-ly Rd. Devotion begins at 9:30 a.m. with the r e c i t a t i on o f t he ro sa ry, f o l l owed by reconciliation and Mass. For more information, call Phil or Terri at (704) 888-6050.GreenSBOrO VICArIATe

GUILFORD COUNTY — The Ancient Order of Hibernians Guilford County Division, the oldest and largest order of Irish Catholic men, is looking for more Irish Catholic men to join them for meetings,

Diocesanplanner

MEXICO CITY (CNS) — Less than an hour after Mexico won its first World Cup match, worshippers in Mexico City were praying for further success before a statue of the infant Jesus dressed in a soccer uniform.

Since at least as far back as 1990, some churches in Mexico have been putting the national team’s jersey on the statue, which many believe can grant miracles.

Early in June, worshippers passed before the statue placed near the altar at St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in the capi-tal’s Tacuba neighborhood. The figure is wearing the full national team uniform — from the green jersey and white shorts right down to little tennis shoes — and is resting a foot on a tiny soccer ball.

“We’re praying we’ll win the World Cup,” Jorge Leon said following a June 11 Mass at the parish. “That would be a miracle.”

It seemed like every second person on the streets of soccer-mad Mexico City was wearing a national team jersey, as were many people at the Mass. Outside, people

waved Mexican flags from their cars as they drove down the street, honking to celebrate Mexico’s 3-1 win over Iran in Nuremberg, Germany.

Leon, his wife, Monserat, and their 1-year-old daughter, Artet, sat through Mass with each of their faces painted in the flag’s green, red and white colors.

The service was during the 90-min-ute break between Mexico’s match and another between Angola and Portugal, both of which Mexico will face later in the first round. The Leon family was among the first out of church as Mass ended; they were hurrying back home to catch the game.

“We usually come to the earlier service, but this is a big day for the na-tional team,” Leon said.

Mexico has never advanced past the quarterfinals of the 32-nation cup, and Brazil’s superstar-filled team is widely billed to win the trophy. Mexico is tipped to make it to the second round of the tournament, which runs through July 9 in Germany, but would have to beat much stiffer competition to advance further.

Cns Photo by Imelda medIna, reuters

Father Jose Guadalupe Hernandez Sanchez stands at the altar of his church, which features a statue of the infant Jesus dressed in a made-to-measure replica of the Mexican national soccer team’s uniform in Puebla, Mexico, June 8.

Mexican Catholics pray for a World Cup miracle

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Meet-ing June 15-17 in Los Angeles, the U.S. bishops approved a new translation of the Order of Mass and studied a proposal to downsize the committee structure of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

The bishops debated and voted on a new English translation of the Order of Mass — the exchanges between priest and people and the prayers such as the penitential rite, Gloria, creed, eucharistic prayers and Lord’s Prayer that are used regularly in daily or Sunday Masses.

Bishop Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., chairman of the bishops’ Committee on Liturgy, said the new translation still has to be approved by the Vatican and probably will not take effect until the rest of the English translation of the Roman Missal is completed and approved. He thought that could take up to two years.

Catholics will find changes in the wording of several prayers they have used for the past 35 years or so, including the Gloria, creed and Sanctus.

Before voting, they heard from Bishop Arthur Roche of Leeds, England, president of the International Commis-sion on English in the Liturgy, which provided the basic translation that the bishops approved with some changes.

Bishop Roche said one thing often lost in the freer translations encouraged by the Vatican was the richness of scrip-tural references with which the prayers of the liturgy are filled. In 2001 the Vati-can adopted stricter translation rules for all new liturgical translations from the Latin.

The bishops approved the Order of Mass by a vote of 173-29. They also adopted some American adaptations, mainly extra prayers not found in the Latin edition of the Roman Missal, by a vote of 184-8.

The bishops also discussed a proposal for restructuring and reducing the number of committees of the US-CCB, from 35 standing committees and 16 ad hoc committees to be merged into


Preacher: Vacation to be lived as a from THe VaTiCaN

educational seminars and social events. Contact Mi-chael Slane at (336) 665-9264 for time and location.HICKOrY VICArIATe

HICKORY — Father Robert Ferris leads a Lection-ary Bible Study at St. Aloysius Church, 921 Second St., Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. in the parlor. Anyone interested is welcome to attend. This study prepares participants for the following Sunday’s Mass by read-ing and studying the liturgical readings for the next week. For more information on this study, contact Kathy Succop at (828) 327-2341 or [email protected] — The Widows Lunch Bunch, sponsored by Immaculate Conception Church, meets at a different restaurant on the first Wednes-day of each month at 11:30 a.m. Reservations are necessary. For more information and reservations, call Joan Keagle at (828) 693-4733.HICKORY — A Charismatic Mass is celebrated the first Thursday of each month in Sebastian Chapel of St. Aloysius Church, 921 Second St. NE, at 7 p.m. For further information, contact Joan Moran (828)-327-0487.

SAlISBurY VICArIATe

SALISBURY — Our Lady Rosary Makers of Sacred Heart Church, 128 N. Fulton St., are making cord rosaries for the missions and the military. The group meets the first Tuesday of each month in the church office conference room, 10-11 a.m. For more information, call Cathy Yochim at (704) 636-6857 or Joan Kaczmarezyk at (704) 797-8405.SMOKY MOunTAIn VICArIATe

MURPHY — A Charismatic Prayer Group meets Fridays at 3:30 p.m. in the Glenmary House of St. William Church, 765 Andrews Rd. join us for praise music, witness, teaching, prayers and laying on of hands for those in need. For more details, call Gery Dashner at (828) 494-2683.FRANKLIN — Respect Life meets the first Wednes-day of every month after the 5:30 p.m. Mass in the Family Life Center at St. Francis of Assisi Church,

299 Maple St. All those interested in promoting the sanctity of human life are invited to attend. For more information, contact Julie Tastinger at (828) 349-9813 or [email protected] — Adult Education Classes are held the first three Wednesday evenings of each month beginning at 6:45 p.m. in the St. John the Evangelist Church Social Hall, 234 Church St. For more information, call Charles Luce at (828) 648-7369 or e-mail [email protected].

WInSTOn-SAleM VICArIATe

CLEMMONS — The Knitting Ministry of Holy Family Church, 4820 Kinnamon Rd., meets Mon-day evenings, 6:30-8 p.m., to pray, learn to knit, re-flect on life’s lessons and reach out to others in our community. Opportunities exist for the beginner to the experienced as we knit and purl Prayer Shawls, Preemie Blankets or Squares for Survivors. Please contact Rosemary at (336) 766-2315 or Carmel (336) 766-0650 for more information.W I N S T O N - S A L E M — T h e H e a l i n g Companions is a grief support group for the be-reaved that meets the first and third Thursdays of the month in conference room B at St. Leo the Great Church, 335 Springdale Ave. For further de-tails, call Joanne Parcel at (336) 924-9478.

is your parish or school sponsor-ing a free event open to the general public? Please submit notices for the diocesan Planner at least 7 days prior to desired publication date (fridays) in writing to Karen a. evans at [email protected] or fax to (704) 370-3382.

Religious leaders discuss unfair detention of refugees

Calm waters ahead

June 24 — 9 a.m.-1 p.m.eucharistic ConferenceBasilica of st. Lawrence, asheville

June 25 — 12 p.m.dedication of new churchour Lady of the americas Church,

CandorJune 26-28Province of at lanta Bishops’

meetingsavannah, ga.

episcopalcalendar Bishop Peter J. Jugis will participate in

the following events:

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Vacation time should be lived as a gift allowing workers and students time to think, pray and dedicate time to family relationships, said the preacher of the papal household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantal-amessa said it is good to have fun and relax on vacation, but extended free time is rare for most people and they should make the most of it.

“It is not that vacations should not also be used for enjoyment and amusement, but they are a gift given in order to discover something; they are not a time to lose or waste, but a time to value to the maximum,” the preacher told Vatican Radio June 8.

“Vacations should be that time of year when, through contemplating nature and reading the word of God, people can look inside themselves and get in touch with the most important mo-tivations of their lives,” particularly their relationships with God and with their

families, he said.Father Cantalamessa, speaking in

Italian, told Vatican Radio listeners that it was no accident that the British refer to their vacation as holidays, a derivative of “holy days.”

“Perhaps the most beautiful meaning of vacation is that of getting back into an intimate, profound contact with the root of our being, with God,” he said.

Pope Benedict XVI made similar remarks about the importance and purpose of vacations while he was in the Italian Alps last year.

Vacation time with family is an opportunity to spend “more time dedicated to prayer, reading and meditation on the deep meaning of life,” he said in Les Combes, a village in Italy’s Valle d’Aosta region.

The regional government and the Aosta Diocese have announced that Pope Benedict will return to Les Combes for a July 11-28 vacation.

Cns Photo by sam luCero, CatholIC herald

Jesus, portrayed by eric Grover, 19, raises his hands to calm the seas during a summer Bible camp at St. Anthony on the lake Church in Pewaukee, Wis., June 15. Organizers of the 10th annual Bible camp said 145 children, ranging from 3-year-olds to fifth-graders, participated in the weeklong camp. Pictured with Jesus are his disciples played by Anselmo Pereira Jr., 17, and Kylie Harris, 15. The biblical re-enactment of Jesus calming the sea took place at a pond adjacent to the church.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — “Nation-al security” is not a good enough reason to systematically detain refugees, asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, said Catholic, Jewish and Muslim leaders at a Vatican press conference.

The leaders were gathered in Rome June 15 by Jesuit Refugee Service, a member of the steering committee of the new International Coalition on the Detention of Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants.

The coalition, which includes human rights and faith-based organizations, was formed to study detention policies, as-sist detainees and lobby for changes in detention practices.

Cardinal Renato Martino, presi-dent of the pontifical councils for Justice and Peace and for Migrants and Travelers, said, “There are real concerns about detention becoming a systematic policy to which many countries resort, more as a rule than as an exception, and justify the policy by so-called national security concerns.”

Jesuit Father Lluis Magrina, direc-tor of JRS, said more and more govern-ments are using systematic detention “to arbitrarily discourage migration, even flight from persecution.”

“Immigration detainees,” he said,

“are being imprisoned without charge and with less judicial oversight and fewer rights than are offered to those convicted of crimes.”

Cardinal Martino, Father Magrina and representatives of a Jewish group and a Muslim organization agreed governments have a right to control entry into their countries and sometimes to detain peo-ple, but not indiscriminately and not in conditions that violate their human rights.

Cardinal Martino denounced un-limited detention terms, overcrowding, unsanitary facilities and the lack of basic health care and adequate food.

JRS said it is “almost impossible” to know how many refugees, asylum seekers and migrants are being detained in the world, because most countries do not publish such information.

However, 5.7 million of the 9.2 million refugees counted by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees have been living in closed camps for extended periods of time, often decades.

The United States, which does publish figures, “detained over 230,000 non-U.S. citizens for migration-related reasons this past year, and on any given day there are over 20,000 people in U.S. immigration detention centers, jails and prisons pending a final decision in their

4 The Catholic News & Herald June 23, 2006VOCATIOnS

Joyous jubilarians

BELMONT — Five Sisters of Mer-cy recently celebrated a combined 310 years of service to the Catholic Church.

Mercy Sisters Mary Cecilia Lewis and Josephine Maria Thomas each celebrated 70 years as women religious at a Mass held at the Sisters of Mercy’s Sacred Heart Convent in Belmont June 3.

Mercy Sisters Jeanne Marie Kien-ast and Maureen Dees, celebrating 60 years each, and Mercy Sister Mary Hugh Mauldin, celebrating 50 years, commemorated their anniversaries at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte June 17.

“In her own way and in her own ministry, each of the five jubilarians has used her unique gifts to benefit those around her,” said Mercy Sister Paulette Rose Williams, president of the Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina.

Sister Lewis, 89, entered the convent in June 1935. She earned a bachelor’s degree in liturgical music and a master’s degree in music education, and holds certificates of professional advancement from the North Caro-lina Music Teachers Association and the Music Teachers National Association.

She has served as a teacher, a principal, on boards and committees, including Gaston Fine Arts Council; volunteered at Gaston Memorial Hospital and for AIDS patients at House of Mercy in Belmont; and played and taught piano.

Clinton, N.C., native Sister Thomas, 91, entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1935.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and has served as a superior, regional superior and principal in Guam.

She also has taught and served in ad-ministrative positions at schools in North Carolina, Florida and New York.

Currently she is a pastoral associate at Queen of Apostles Church in Belmont, providing respite care and follow-up care

to those who are hospitalized or confined to their homes.

Born in Port Au Prince, Haiti, Sister Kienast, 78, was received as a Sister of Mercy in 1946.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in education administration and has taught in the United States and in Guam. She has also served as an administrator within the Diocese of Charlotte and as diocesan vicar for women religious.

Her passion is “helping others find their own unique God-given gifts so that they can respond to God’s call to serve God’s people — with joy,” she said.

Currently she is a pastoral associate at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte.

Gastonia native Sister Dees, 80, spent the majority of her ministry years within the Catholic education system.

She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education, and taught and served as an administrator at schools in the Diocese of Charlotte.

Sister Dees has taught at schools in New York and Florida, served at a mission in Guam and has cared for AIDS patients at House of Mercy.

Currently she works at Catherine’s House for homeless women and their children in Belmont.

Sister Mauldin, 69, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mathematics education, a master’s in theology and a certificate in liturgical studies.

She also served for 25 years as director of McAuley Center in Belmont, a program focused on adult religious education, primarily within the Diocese of Charlotte.

Currently she is an assistant professor of mathematics and theology at Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C.

Pastoral AppointmentsBishop Peter J. Jugis of Charlotte announces the following pastoral changes, effective July 5, 2006:

aPPoiNTmeNT of PasTorsfather Joe mackfrom: Pastor, st. Joseph Church, asheboroTo: Pastor, Holy infant Church, reidsville

father Carmen malacarifrom: Parochial Vicar, st. matthew Church, CharlotteTo: Pastor, Holy spirit Church, denver

father Philip scarcellafrom: administrator, our Lady of the assumption Church, CharlotteTo: Pastor, our Lady of the assumption Church, Charlotte

father francis o’rourkefrom: sabbaticalTo: Pastor, st. ann Church, Charlotte

father dean Cesafrom: Pastor, st. John the Baptist Church, TryonTo: Pastor, st. Barnabas Church, arden

father matthew Buettnerfrom: Parochial Vicar, st. dorothy Church, LincolntonTo: Pastor, st. dorothy Church, Lincolnton

father Joseph dinhfrom: Chaplain, Holy Trinity middle school, CharlotteTo: Pastor, st. francis of assisi Church, Jefferson, and st. frances of rome Church, sparta

father Patrick Winslowfrom: Pastor, st. francis of assisi Church, Jefferson and st. frances of rome Church, spartaTo: Pastor, st. John the Baptist Church, Tryon

father francis Cancrofrom: sabbaticalTo: Pastor, st. Joseph Church, asheboro

father roger arnspargerfrom: Pastor, st. Barnabas Church, ardenTo: Pastor, st. michael Church, gastonia

aPPoiNTmeNTs of ParoCHiaL ViCarsfather H. alejandro ayalafrom: newly ordainedTo: Parochial Vicar, sacred Heart Church, salisbury

father James stuhrenbergfrom: newly ordainedTo: Parochial Vicar, st. mark Church, Huntersville

father John starczewskifrom: Parochial Vicar, st. Vincent de Paul Church, CharlotteTo: Parochial Vicar, our Lady of grace Church, greensboro

father Julio dominguezfrom: Parochial Vicar, sacred Heart Church, salisburyTo: Parochial Vicar, st. aloysius Church, Hickory

father Luis osoriofrom: Parochial Vicar, st. michael Church, gastoniaTo: Parochial Vicar, st. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte

father Timothy reidfrom: Parochial Vicar, st. mark Church, HuntersvilleTo: Parochial Vicar, st. matthew Church, Charlotte

oTHer assigNmeNTsfather Jose antonio Juyafrom: Pastor, st. dorothy Church, LincolntonTo: Hispanic ministry Coordinator, gastonia Vicariate

redemptorist father dimas arce estradafrom: redemptorist orderTo: Hispanic ministry, st. Joseph Church, Kannapolis

redemptorist father oscar e. rojas Paniaguafrom: redemptorist orderTo: Hispanic ministry, st. James Church, Concord

father Christopher rouxfrom: administrator, Holy infant Church, reidsvilleTo: secretary, office of the Bishop

father J. enrique gonzalez gaytanfrom: Parochial Vicar, st aloysius Church, HickoryTo: academic studies in Hispanic ministry

father James ebrightfrom: Parochial Vicar, our Lady of grace Church, greensboroTo: academic studies in Canon Law

father Conrad Hooverfrom: Pastor, st. ann Church, CharlotteTo: retirement, at his request

father Joseph ayathupadamfrom: Pastor, Holy spirit Church, denverTo: retirement, at his request

Courtesy Photo by KrIs reICh

Mercy Sister Paulette rose Williams stands with Mercy Sisters Mary Cecilia lewis and Josephine Maria Thomas, both of whom celebrated their 70 jubilees as Sisters of Mercy at Sacred Heart Convent’s Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Chapel June 3.

Five Sisters of Mercy celebrate combined 310 years of service

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 5 June 23, 2006VOCATIOnS

Bishop ordains 16 men to permanent diaconate

DEACONS, from page 1Msgr. Mauricio West, chancellor and vicar general; officials from the Redemptorist order, and priests and permanent deacons of the Diocese of Charlotte, as well as the deacons’ wives, children and grandchildren.

A deacon is an ordained minister in the Catholic Church and is one of the three degrees of the sacrament of Holy Orders, the origins of which can be found in the Acts of the Apostles.

As ordained ministers, permanent deacons may perform many of the sacramental ministries of the church except consecration of the Eucharist, anointing of the sick and reconciliation.

The permanent deacon is the only ordained man allowed to be married. However, if a deacon’s wife passes away, he is not allowed to remarry. If a man is single, he is not allowed to marry after ordination.

“When we think of the life and ministry of the deacon, we think of Jesus himself,” said Bishop Peter J. Jugis in his homily. “Jesus was not averse to being seen in the role of servant.”

During the Mass, Bishop Jugis asked each candidate if he wanted to be ordained and if he was willing to serve the bishop and the diocese.

“In the promises you are about to make, you will be asked to conform your way of life always to the example of

Christ, of whose body and blood you are ministers at the altar,” said Bishop Jugis.

The candidates prostrated them-selves before the altar to signify their commitment, during which the litany of the saints was sung.

The bishop then prayed the prayer of consecration, completing the ordination of the permanent deacons. Each deacon was invested with a stole, a sign of his office; and dalmatic, the outer garment worn during the liturgy.

During the liturgy of the Eucharist, the newly ordained deacons distributed the Eucharist to their families, friends and fellow worshippers.

Contact Staff Writer Karen A. Evans by calling (704) 370-3354 or e-mail [email protected].

WaNT more iNfo?for more information about the perma-nent diaconate, call deacon Louis Pais, director of the diaconate, at (704) 370-3344 or visit www.charlottediocese.org/deacons.html.

Diaconate appointmentsThe following deacons were ordained June 10, 2006:

deacon James Lewis atkinson, Holy spirit Church, denverdeacon david Paul Boissey, sr., good shepherd Church, King: prison ministry and tribunal advocacyredemptorist Brother darrell Cevasco, reassigned by redemptorist orderdeacon mark shawn diener, dC, st. gabriel Church, Charlotte: engaged encounter and tribunal advocacydeacon Walter Haarsgaard, immaculate Heart of mary Church, High Pointdeacon richard edwards Hanners, st. gabriel Church, Charlotte: airport chaplaincy and forma-tion for deaconsdeacon edward andrew Konarski, Jr., st. Charles Borromeo Church, morganton: prison ministrydeacon John Thomas Kopfle, st. Vincent de Paul, Charlotte: hospital ministrydeacon Paul nhia cha Lee, Hmong communitydeacon Larry Lisk, st. Paul the apostle Church, greensboro: prison ministrydeacon John angelo martino, our Lady of the angels Church, marion: formation for deaconsdeacon Brian Patrick mcNulty, dds, st. Thomas aquinas Church, Charlotte: hospital ministrydeacon robert Terrence murphy, st. mark Church, Huntersville: formation for deaconsdeacon anthony stephen Pickett, st. francis of assisi Church, Lenoirdeacon michael stout, st. Barnabas Church, arden: prison ministrydeacon Kevin Bernard Williams, our Lady of the assumption Church, Charlotte: airport ministry


Deacon John Kopfle receives the Book of the Gospels from Bishop Peter J. Jugis during the Mass for the ordination of permanent deacons at St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte. June 10.

6 The Catholic News & Herald June 23, 2006ArOunD THe DIOCeSe

Confirmed in faith

HICKORY — Peter Charles McAnulty of Boy Scout Troop 234 recently earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouts.

Family and friends gathered to honor him at a Mass celebrated by Capuchin Father Gregory Reisert, Peter’s great uncle, at St. Aloysius Church April 1. A court of honor ceremony followed.

To earn Eagle Scout, Peter earned 33 merit badges and completed a service project at Jenkins Elementary School in Hickory. The project consisted of four parts, including an erosion control proj-ect, landscaping and refurbishing.

P e t e r a l s o c o m p l e t e d t h e requirements to earn a Bronze Palm.

Peter is a Vigil Honor Member of the Order of the Arrow, the highest achievement a Boy Scout can earn as a member of the Order of the Arrow. The Order of the Arrow is recognized as the national honor society for Boy Scouts of America.

An active member of the Eswau Huppeday Lodge and Oconoluftee Chapter, Peter was elected to serve as vice chief of administration, the second highest youth leadership position of the 500-member Lodge.

In Troop 234, Peter held the offices of patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, librarian and troop guide.

He also earned the Arrow of Light award, the highest award in Cub Scouts. As a Catholic Boy Scout, Peter earned the Ad Altare Dei religious emblem.

Peter is an active member of Life Teen at St. Aloysius Church and serves as an altar server, lector and usher.

A senior at Hickory High School, Peter is a member of the National Honor Society, Math Honor Society, Beta Club, National Latin Honor Society and Latin Club.

He was captain of the 2005 cross country team and co-captain of the 2006 track and field team.

Courtesy Photo

Bishop Peter J. Jugis and Father Walter Williams, pastor of St. Mary, Mother of God Church in Sylva, stand with the parish’s confirmation candidates May 18. Bishop Jugis celebrated the confirmation Mass; Father Williams concelebrated.Confirmation is one of the three sacraments of initiation, along with baptism and the Eucharist. Confirmation is usually administered during the teen years to those baptized in infancy.Pictured (from left): Belle Harcourt, parish faith formation director; Anne Thurston, teacher; Ryan Vickery; Nicholas Provost; Father Williams; Bishop Jugis; Ana Maria Balta; Stormy DeLucia; Chelsea Phipps; Rachel Farrell; and Sara Freeman, confir-mation assistant.

Courtesy Photo

Peter McAnulty, of Boy Scout Troop 234 and parishioner of St. Aloysius Church in Hickory, recently earned the rank of eagle Scout, the highest rank in Boy Scouts.

Photo by deaCon Gerald PotKay

Don Hock, larry Poll and Steve Zdanski cook hamburgers and hot dogs for the annual golf fundraiser of Holy Infant Church in reidsville, held at the Monroeton Golf Club in reidsville May 20.

McAnulty earns Eagle Scout

Good eats and golf

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 7 June 23, 2006ArOunD THe DIOCeSe

CHARLOTTE — Immigration was the focus of a recent international inter-faith prayer meeting in Charlotte.

Franciscan Sister Andrea Inkrott, director of Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Charlotte, joined members of other faith groups and organizations at First United Methodist Church June 4.

Participants shared Scripture and reflections at the meeting to “unite for comprehensive immigration law reform,” according to organizers.

“The experience was indeed a Pentecost experience,” said Sister Ink-rott.

The participants shared prayers and writings of their faith traditions and were “together in their prayers to the one God,” said Sister Inkrott.

“All the prayers were different, but

all pertained to the message that God is one and that we are all to love one another,” she said.

Other faith groups represented included the Islamic Center of Charlotte, Charlotte Presbytery, Temple Israel, Hickory Grove Baptist Church, Western Conference of the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina.

Also present were members of International House, a center for international diversity; the Latin American Coalition; and Mecklenburg Ministries.

“Interest and openness were evident in all the participants and that is what we prayed and hoped for, that all in our country will be interested in and open to one another so together we can resolve the issues that are challenging us at this

Many faiths, common

Courtesy Photo

Franciscan Sister Andrea Inkrott speaks during an interfaith prayer meeting at First united Methodist Church in Charlotte June 4.

Interfaith prayer meeting held for immigration reform

8 The Catholic News & Herald June 23, 2006In Our SCHOOlS

Signing off for summer

Courtesy Photo

eighth-graders from Immaculate Heart of Mary School in High Point say goodbye by writing farewell wishes on each other’s gym shirts before the school’s annual Field Day June 1.

Courtesy Photo

Three students at St. Leo the Great School in Winston-Salem look through their yearbooks during a carnival celebrating the end of their school year. During the carnival, the basketball court was dedicated and blessed, yearbooks were handed out, a special blessing was given to the children, and a flag that had been flown at the Provincial Government Center in Ra-madi, Iraq was donated to the school.

What page is your picture on?

Courtesy Photo

Second-graders at St. Matthew School in Charlotte stand in front of the rainforest they created after learning about the environment and how to treat natural resources. They studied the importance of preserving ecological wonders to keep the balance of nature that God has created.

Naturally resourceful

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 9 June 23, 2006In Our SCHOOlS

Courtesy Photo

Matthew Horne, an eighth-grader at Our lady of Grace School in Greensboro, prepares for a flight after a presentation by Bryan reich, a pilot. reich was one of more than 30 professionals who spoke to middle-school students during Career Day May 24.

Ready for takeoffClosing the bookKERNERSVILLE — Seniors at

Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School celebrated the conclusion of their high school careers June 3.

During the graduation ceremony, Sandy McMonagle, principal of Our Lady of Mercy School in Winston- Salem, was honored for her upcoming retirement and was awarded the Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School Founders Award for her leadership excellence and a career marked by extraordinary service to the church, the community, Catholic education and the teaching profession.

Diplomas were conferred by Mgsr. Mauricio W. West, vicar gen-eral and chancellor for the Diocese of Charlotte; Linda Cherry, superintendent of diocesan Catholic schools; and George Repass, principal of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School.

Repass presented McMonagle with a recognition plaque.

The class of 2006 also heard r emarks f rom Anna Sweiga r t , salutatorian; Paul Gerlach, valedictorian; and special guest speaker Gregory Beier, president of Novant Health Triad Region,

and father of two Bishop McGuinness graduates.

fasT faCTsBishop mcguinness’ class of 2006 consisted of 90 students, who received more than $1.6 million in combined scholarships.

Bishop McGuinness graduates 90

GRADUATION, from page 1

Charlotte; Linda Cherry, superintendent of diocesan Catholic schools; and Gerald Healy, principal of Charlotte Catholic High School.

“We know that we are more than GPAs and SAT scores,” said Courtney Peterson, valedictorian. “We are a class of action and friction, not mindless aca-demia. … What you see is infinitely less than what we are.”

Following the closing prayer, the euphoric graduates marched out into the open green space outside the audi-torium. After tossing their caps into the air against a vibrant blue sky, young men and women embraced each other as if for the first time, and the last.

Contact Staff Writer Karen A. Evans by calling (704) 370-3354 or e-mail [email protected].

fasT faCTsCharlotte Catholic’s class of 2006 con-sisted of 282 students, who received more than $5.5 million in combined scholarships.

Charlotte Catholic sports teams won 12 conference championships and three state championships in 2005-06, includ-ing the second consecutive state football championship.

Courtesy Photo

Valedictorian Paul Gerloch addresses his fellow graduates of Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School in Kernersville June 3.

Charlotte Catholic celebrates graduation of 282


a roundup of scripture, readings, films and moreCulture Watch WORD TO LIFESUNDAY SCRIPTURE READINGS: JUNE 25, 2006

WEEKLY SCRIPTURE

Bishop urges more public-interest June 25, Twelfth Sunday of Ordinary Time Cycle B Readings:

1) Job 38:1, 8-11 Psalms 107:23-26, 28-312) 2 Corinthians 5:14-173) Gospel: Mark 4:35-41

Jesus protects us on perilous journeys

by shARon K. PERKInscAThoLIc nEws sERvIcE

Near the university campus where I am currently a graduate student, there is a busy street that serves as the prop-erty’s western boundary. Unfortunately, the two pedestrian traffic lights are not situated at the place where I usually need to cross, so when I’m in a hurry — which is most days — I join dozens of other students who navigate through moving traffic with heavily laden briefcases and book bags in tow.

As an experienced street-crosser, I can gauge whether I have sufficient time to safely traverse the distance, and I have learned that once I assess the traffic and commit to the crossing, I need to proceed without hesitation. Still, it’s a little scary and certainly not something I would do at night or with a child.

The Gospel reading for this Sunday is intriguing in that Jesus initiates a lake crossing in the evening when a storm is

threatening — not the most prudent time. The image of water gone out of control, common to all the readings, is a power-ful metaphor for the very human fear we experience when our lives are out of control or we face an unfamiliar situa-tion.

In the midst of an experience that terrifies even seasoned boatmen, Jesus does not panic, hesitate or ask them to turn the boat around. Rather, he calms both the tempests outside the boat and within their hearts, and seizes the moment to teach them something important about faith.

In the course of life, one often must “make crossings” — leaving a secure job for a new vocation, committing to love a person for life, giving birth to a child — that carry an element of risk. Some ventures are foolish and should not be attempted. Yet other risks are necessarily taken in order to answer and obey God’s call of love. In those moments, even seasoned risk-takers know the jolt of adrenaline that fear brings.

But persons of faith know that Jesus always makes the crossing with them, calming the storms within, pav-ing the way and encouraging them to proceed without hesitation to the other side. Awakening that faith — as the disciples awakened Jesus in the back of the boat — is the key to safe passage.

QUESTIONS:When was the last time you felt

paralyzed by an unfamil iar or overwhelming situation? How did your faith in Jesus help you overcome your

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Televi-sion stations should be required to air more public-interest programming before the expected conversion of broadcast signals from analog to digital is to be completed in 2009, said the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ communications committee.

In a letter to Federal Communica-tions Commission Chairman Kevin Martin released June 6, Bishop Ger-ald F. Kicanas of Tucson, Ariz., said a “substantial effort to provide program-ming that better serves the public” should be required of broadcasters in exchange for the new spectrum rights they will receive with digital broadcasting.

“Today, even as the broadcasting industry continues to benefit from its subsidized use of the public airwaves, broadcasters’ observance of meaningful public interest obligations has declined,” Bishop Kicanas said in the letter.

The experience of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops “is that there has been a steady decline in television stations willing to broadcast noncommer-cial religious programming or local pub-lic interest programming featuring local religious leaders,” Bishop Kicanas said.

“A significant number of dioceses that produce television programs and public service announcements have consistently informed us of the financial burden and increased difficulty involved in obtaining airtime on local broadcast stations,” he added.

“The bishops are concerned that lo-cal broadcasters’ programming decisions are more deeply rooted in their desire for commercial gain, rather than meeting their statutory obligations to serve their commu-nities’ needs and interests,” he said.

Bishop Kicanas said the U.S. bish-ops were concerned that, “with the immi-nent conversion to all-digital broadcasts, the already limited amount of religious programming will decline even further.”

The FCC has given additional spectrum to each station for its digital programming.

Analog, the traditional TV broad-casting system, uses magnetic waves to transmit and display pictures and sound. By transmitting information used to make a TV picture and sound as “data bits” — like a computer — a digital broadcaster can carry more information than analog technology allows.

Bishop Kicanas offered three ways that public interest requirements could be ensured with digital broadcasting:

— By amplifying the views of the public, including community organiza-tions and noncommercial religious enti-ties.

— By increasing the amount of local news and public affairs programming, including religious programs and public service announcements.

— By increasing programming for the educational needs of children, people with disabilities and underserved

sCriPTure for THe WeeK of JuNe 25-JuLY 1sunday (Twelfth sunday in ordinary Time), Job 38:1, 8-11, 2 Corinthians 5:14-17, mark 4:35-41; monday, 2 Kings 17:5-8, 13-15, 18, matthew 7:1-5; Tuesday (st. Cyril of alexandria), 2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-36, matthew 7:6, 12-14; Wednesday (st. irenaeus), 2 Kings 22:8-13; 23:1-3, matthew 7:15-20; Thursday (sts. Peter and Paul), acts 12:1-11, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18, matthew 16:13-19; friday (first martyrs of the roman Church), 2 Kings 25:1-12, matthew 8:1-4; saturday (Bl. Junipero serra), Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19, matthew 8:5-17.

sCriPTure for THe WeeK of JuLY 2-8sunday (Thirteenth sunday in ordinary Time), Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24, 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15, mark 5:21-43; monday (st. Thomas), ephesians 2:19-22, John 20:24-29; Tuesday (st. elizabeth of Portugal), amos 3:1-8; 4:11-12, matthew 8:23-27; Wednesday (st. anthony Zaccaria), amos 5:14-15, 21-24, matthew 8:28-34; Thursday (st. maria goretti), amos 7:10-17, matthew 9:1-8; friday, amos 8:4-6, 9-12, matthew 9:9-13; saturday, amos 9:11-15, matthew 9:14-17.

sCriPTure for THe WeeK of JuLY 9-15 sunday (fourteenth sunday in ordinary Time), ezekiel 2:2-5’ 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, matthew 6:1-6; monday, Hosea 2:16-18, 21-22, matthew 9:18-26; Tuesday (st. Benedict), Hosea 8:4-7, 11-13, matthew 9:32-38; Wednesday, Hosea 10:1-3, 7-8, 12, matthew 10:1-7; Thursday (st. Henry), Hosea 11:1-4, 8-9 matthew 10:7-15; friday (Bl. Kateri Tekakwitha), Hosea 14:2-10, matthew 10:16-23); saturday (st. Bonaventure), isaiah 6:1-8, matthew 10:24-33.


Cns Photo by Carol Glatz

The city of Matera, Italy, famous for its rock-hewn homes and grottos, is being used to film “The nativity Story.” The filmmakers used the hill facing the city to shoot crucifixion scenes.

MATERA, Italy — The hardest part about making a movie about Mary, Joseph and the birth of Jesus is convincing the animals to follow the script.

Herds of sheep, ornery oxen, cara-vaning camels and pack donkeys all fea-ture in a new film, “The Nativity Story,” due out in theaters Dec. 1.

Digital technology has made putting a shooting star and hovering angels on celluloid a cinch, but convincing an ox to kneel and low before the baby Jesus in a manger proved to be an ordeal.

The film by New Line Cinema is being shot this spring and summer in the ancient city of Matera.

Scriptwriter Mike Rich said he wanted the story to flesh out who Mary and Joseph were and what emotions they must have felt as they faced the immense responsibilities God entrusted to them.

Rich said he felt the story of the Nativity had always been presented as an “event-based” story. After months of research and input from religious scholars, Rich started writing what he called “a character-based story.”

Rich noted that the only description of Joseph he found in the Bible was that “he was a righteous man.”

A nondenominational Christian, Rich said that even though his story was

speculative he still sought to keep it faith-ful to the spirit of the biblical account.

The result is that the young Mary, played by Keisha Castle-Hughes (“Whale Rider”), and Joseph, played by Oscar Isaac, leap to life on the scripts’ pages and hopefully, Rich said, also on the screen.

Co-producer Marty Bowen, a Catho-lic, said that growing up he always put Mary “up on a pedestal.”

“The Nativity Story” is trying to make Mary real, Bowen said, adding that he hoped that the movie would help people see “Mary was a girl before she became a woman and a woman before she became the mother of God.”

The film’s promoters sent copies of the script to a number of religious scholars for their input as well as to the head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Archbishop John P. Foley, and secretary of communications for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Msgr. Francis J. Maniscalco.

While Archbishop Foley told Catho-lic News Service in late May that he had yet to read the script, Msgr. Maniscalco said he found the screenplay “faithful to the biblical narrative and that the addi-tions made for narrative and theatrical purposes were tasteful.”

Recreating the Nativity

When filming about Jesus’ birth, animals don’t always follow script


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New bishop of Raleigh selected

Bishop GossmanFrancis Joseph Gossman was born

in Baltimore April 1, 1930. He was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Baltimore in 1955 after studies at St. Mary’s Seminary in Baltimore and the Pontifical North American College in Rome, the U.S. national seminary in Rome.

After ordination he earned a doctorate in canon law at The Catholic University of America in Washington.

He served as an assistant pastor, cathedral administrator, vice chancellor, tribunal official and St. Mary’s Semi-nary professor before he was named an auxiliary bishop of Baltimore in 1968 at the age of 38.

He was the first U.S. bishop to be ordained in the new, simplified ceremony for the ordination of a bishop, which had just received Vatican approval for use in the United States on an experimental basis as part of the liturgical reforms fol-lowing the Second Vatican Council.

In place of the traditional banquet honoring a newly ordained bishop, he celebrated his ordination with a simple buffet and reception and had the money that would have been spent on a ban-quet sent for aid to Biafra, a short-lived secessionist state of Nigeria, which was then in the midst of a destructive civil war and faced massive humanitar-ian needs.

When he was made bishop of Raleigh in 1975, the 38,000 Catholics in the diocese formed a tiny minority, less than 2 percent of the 2.5 million people in the eastern half of North Carolina.

During his 31-year tenure the

Cathol ic populat ion more than quadrupled. It now numbers about 190,000 in a population of 4.1 million.

Active in ecumenical relations and social justice issues, Bishop Gossman used the sale of a property in 1989 to establish a permanent $2.5 million diocesan endowment for the poor.

He supported a nuclear freeze in the early 1980s and in 1990 warned against unilateral U.S. military action before the Persian Gulf War. He fought for the rights of immigrants and in 1992 was one of five Southern bishops who issued a joint statement opposing use of the death penalty.

He promoted lay leadership in parishes and the role of women in church leadership positions.

In 1997 he and then-Bishop Wil-liam G. Curlin of Charlotte issued a joint pastoral letter on economic justice in their state, expressing concern that while North Carolina was enjoying economic prosperity and expansion the working poor were being left behind.

Bishop Gossman was a member of the Anglican-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States and in 1991 was a leader in the formation of a state-wide Catholic-Lutheran covenant, an agreement of joint witness and collaboration that at the time was only

the second such covenant in the nation.In 1999 he started the diocesan

Reconciliation Initiative, a program of pasto-ral outreach to Catholics separated from the sacraments because of irregular mar-riages.

Over the years he has served on numerous committees of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

He welcomed the appointment of Bishop Burbidge, 48, to Raleigh, describing his successor as “a man of prayer and faith.”

Bishop BurbidgeMichael Francis Burbidge was born

in Philadelphia June 16, 1957. He was ordained a priest of the Philadelphia Archdiocese in 1984 following studies at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary there.

He also studied at Villanova and Immaculata universities in Pennsylva-nia and has a doctorate in education as well as master’s degrees in theology and education administration.

After two years in parish work he spent five years teaching high school. In 1991-92 he was dean of students at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary.

From 1992 to 1999 he was a special assistant to Cardinal Antho-ny J. Bevilacqua, then archbishop of Philadelphia, and from 1999 to 2004 he returned to the seminary as rector.

In 2002 he was named an auxiliary bishop of Philadelphia. As a bishop, he has held several archdiocesan posts including vicar general and head of the

BISHOP, from page 1

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 13 June 23, 2006FrOM THe COVer

tion in U.S. political life.On the local level, priests can

promote civic involvement and church organizations can sponsor courses in English as a second language, said Ro-dolfo de la Garza, law professor at Co-lumbia University in New York.

“There is a crying need in the Hispanic community for that help,” said de la Garza, who has written books on Hispanic politics in the United States.

Robert de Posada, president of the Latino Coalition, said that the church “has the moral authority to make things happen.”

In the heavily Catholic Hispanic community, “when people need help, they first turn to their family, then to the church and then to the government,” he said.

Both men attended a June 7 symposium on Latino participation in U.S. politics after the series of rallies calling for immigration reform held earlier in the year.

The symposium was organized by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, an independent social research center specializing in Hispanic issues.

De Posada and de la Garza cited encouraging voter registration drives and getting people to vote as important tasks

for the church.“Priests from the pulpit have a

captive audience” to encourage registration, said de Posada.

“Our church also needs to push stronger in making sure that citizens vote,” he said.

De la Garza said that priests need to preach the importance of voting because it’s elected officials who decide how to spend taxpayers’ money.

The Latino Coalition does an annual survey of Hispanic views on political and social issues.

One of the symposium speakers was Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., who said that the energy from rallies pushing for immigration reform “should be the beginning point for Latino participation” in a wide variety of political issues.

He stressed working with young Latinos, most of whom are U.S. citizens, to get them to vote. Salazar estimated that there are about 5 million Hispan-ics who are citizens but not registered to vote or who are currently eligible to become citizens.

Although the number is small when compared to the total number of eligible voters, many of these Hispanics are in key swing states in presidential elections, such as Texas, California and Florida, he said.

Salazar said that a main difference in the Senate and House versions of immigration legislation concerns the wall to be built along the border.

IMMIGRANTS, from page 1

Unlike the House bill, the Senate bill would require local government officials on both sides of the border to approve construction of the wall in their jurisdictions, he said.

Several speakers disagreed as to whether the immigration rallies had a positive or negative impact on U.S. public opinion.

Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said the events were basically positive and looked like peaceful family affairs because among participants there were many little children being carried by their parents.

“The rallies said: ‘We are here. We are visible,’” he said.

It also showed the strength of the informal networking and intercommu-nication among immigrants who got the message out about the marches through churches, labor unions and radio station disc jockeys, he said.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said the marches promoted immigration control because they showed the general U.S. public the “size of the problem” of illegal immigration.

People saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators filling downtown Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, he said. This was more powerful than reading about an estimated 11 million to 12 million illegal immigrants, he said.

The marches “guaranteed that there will be no amnesty this year” for illegal immigrants, he said.

They also eroded the reasoning of business leaders who see illegal immigration as a source of docile, cheap labor, said Krikorian.

“This undermined the rationale because the docile, cheap labor was now marching in the streets,” he said.

Several speakers said that many immigrants risk death to sneak into the United States because of the poor domes-tic policies in their countries and because of U.S. trade policies that promote U.S. exports at the expense of the production of other countries.

“Mexicans used to pluck chickens in Mexico. Now they do it here,” said Suro. “We used to buy chickens from Mexico. Now we export chickens to Mexico.”

“The rallies said: ‘We are here. We are visible.’”

— Roberto Suro, director of Pew Hispanic Center

Church role seen in mobilizing Hispanics


Perspectives a collection of columns, editorials and viewpoints

Catholic, Orthodox have a relationship as sister churches, says pope‘666 babies’

Ominous date reminder of difficulty in reporting faith

WriTe a LeTTer To THe ediTorThe Catholic News & Herald welcomes letters from readers. We ask that letters be originals of 250 words or less, pertain to recent newspaper content or Catholic issues, and be in good taste.To be considered for publication, each letter must include the name, address and daytime phone number of the writer for purpose of verification. Letters may be condensed due to space limitations and edited for clarity, style and factual accuracy.The Catholic News & Herald does not publish poetry, form letter or petitions. items submit-ted to The Catholic News & Herald become the property of the newspaper and are subject to reuse, in whole or in part, in print, electronic formats and archives.send letters to Letters to the editor, The Catholic News & Herald, P.o. Box 37267, Charlotte, N.C. 28237, or e-mail [email protected].

Chalk up another one for those brainy marketing folks in Hollywood. Somebody out there thought it would be clever to open the movie “The Omen” on a Tuesday instead of the usual Friday to take advantage of the date 6/6/06. It worked!

As communications director for the diocese, I got lots of calls from reporters who wanted to know what the church was telling people about the ominous date.

June 6, 2006, or 6/6/06, has no relation to the mark of Satan referred to in the Book of Revelation. The number 666 refers to an evil thing or person. The date, which occurs once every hundred years, is related to evil the way diet is related to pizza. But lacking a connection to reality has never prevented a reporter from searching for a story.

I had several conversations with reporters doing 666 stories that went like this:

Reporter: We’ve heard that some pregnant women, due to deliver, don’t want to have a baby on June 6. Have you heard that?

Me: No.Reporter: Does the church have any

advice for a woman who is concerned about have a 666 baby?

Me: A what? Look, that’s something between a woman and her doctor.

Reporter: So, the church doesn’t want any 666 babies?

Me: ANY WHAT?And so it goes. I know reporters

often ask silly questions bordering on the offensive; I was very good at it when I had a press card. But I’ve often wondered why most reporters seem so clueless when it comes to matters of faith. Some are Catholic, and many belong to other Christian denominations, but most seem willing to accept the silliness of 666 because it gives them a story.

Faith is important . I t gives individuals meaning to their lives, it motivates good on a grand scale and, in the case of some aspects of the Muslim faith, it underpins an ongoing war with

the West. (Christians have plenty of wars to be of ashamed, too — remember the Crusades?)

Yet most news organizations as-sign minimal or no resources to the understanding of faith. For the average reporter, a “religion” story is about a church fire.

Faith is a difficult subject to report. An explanation of the Resurrection or transubstantiation won’t fit very well into a sound bite.

People of faith usually can’t prove a miracle and they are predictable when it comes to showing gratitude, repeatedly thanking God. But those should be minor obstacles to news organizations that have the wherewithal to “imbed” reporters in a war in Iraq, or send us pictures from the summit of Mt. Everest.

In February 2005, Time magazine ran a profile of Catholicism in the South. The Diocese of Charlotte and Bishop Peter J. Jugis figured prominently in the story about the vibrant faith life found below the Mason-Dixon Line.

The reporter on that story, Tim Padgett, told me that most national news organizations felt that they had complete-ly dropped the ball in the coverage of the recently completed presidential cam-paign because they didn’t understand the role that faith played in the re-election of George W. Bush. Padgett thought that more in-depth reporting of faith would soon be the norm. It sounded like a good start for a new kind of journalism. The reporting on 666 day is a reminder that bad habits are hard to break.

David Hains is director of communication for the Diocese of Charlotte. Contact him at [email protected].

Catholics & the Media

DAVID HAINSgueSt columNISt

by cARoL GLATZcAThoLIc nEws sERvIcE

VATICAN CITY — Just as Sts. Peter and Andrew were brothers, the Catholic and Orthodox churches have a special relationship as true sister church-es, Pope Benedict XVI said.

After Christ’s death and resurrection, St. Peter left Jerusalem for Rome in order to carry out the universal mission Jesus entrusted to him, the pope said during his June 14 weekly general audience.

St. Andrew, fluent in Greek, went to the Greek world, he said, and became the “apostle of the Greeks.”

The Gospels show that in their life and death, Sts. Peter and Andrew were “true brothers” and that their brother-hood is expressed “symbolically in the special rapport between the sees of Rome and Constantinople, churches (that are) truly sisters,” Pope Benedict said.

In St. Peter’s Square, the pope continued a series of talks on the apostles by turning to St. Andrew, patron saint of the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople.

His June 14 talk came less than a week after bishops of the patriarchate expressed concern over the pope’s decision to drop “patriarch of the West” from his official titles in the Vatican yearbook.

The Orthodox bishops’ synod said in a June 8 statement, “It is of extreme importance to the Orthodox church that Pope Benedict, while having rejected the title ‘patriarch of the West,’ retained the titles ‘vicar of Christ’ and ‘supreme pontiff of the universal church.’”

The synod said these titles still cre-ate serious difficulties for the Orthodox since the titles seem to imply “a universal jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome over the entire church, which is something the Orthodox have never accepted.”

“By retaining these titles and discarding the ‘patriarch of the West’ the term and concept of ‘sister churches’ between the Roman Catholic and Ortho-dox church becomes hard to use,” they said.

Meanwhile, in his catechesis, Pope Benedict said Jesus foresaw that after his death his teachings would spread and be embraced by people beyond the Jewish world and into the pagan lands of the ancient Greek world.

St. Andrew helped translate to a group of Greeks Christ’s parable of the grain of wheat in which Jesus said the grain will produce fruit only if it dies after it falls to the ground.

Christ’s “meeting with the Greek spirit, with the Greek world” was to come about not as an encounter with curious onlookers, but as a true welcoming and fruitful following of his teachings, he said.

That grain of wheat, a symbol of Christ crucified, will be resurrected and grow into the “bread of life for the world; will be light for peoples and cultures,” the pope said.

St. Andrew, who was crucified in the Greek city of Patras, teaches today’s faithful an important lesson about how to confront one’s own sufferings, the pope said.

During his crucifixion, St. Andrew praised the “good cross” as an object that had been “consecrated by the body of Christ and adorned by his limbs as if with pearls” and that it would “take me away from men and restore me to my master.”

Pope Benedict said the saint’s words reflect the Christian interpretation of the cross not as “an instrument of torture as much as an incomparable way for a full assimilation with the Redeemer.”

“Our crosses take on value if they are seen and received as part of Christ’s cross,” the pope said, adding that “only from that cross our sufferings, too,

The Pope Speaks

PoPE bEnEDIcT XvI


The bite of ‘choice’

Hating the waiting Traumas remind us life is preciousThe Human Side

FAThER EUGEnE hEMRIcK

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Many doctors choose not to end unborn life

“You must have a very hungry cat,” I said to the man in line in front of me at the grocery store.

Thirty or 40 small cans of cat food sat in his basket. Nothing more. Just cat food and lots of it. He laughed.

“I don’t even have a cat,” he said. Then he went on to explain that he was going shrimp fishing and cat food makes the best bait.

“There’s something about this greasy stuff that shrimp love.”

Who knew? Sometimes grocery lines can be very educational. Sometimes they can be fun, when you end up next to a good friend.

But for most of us, they apparently are downright exasperating. At least, that’s according to an Associated Press article, which cites a poll conducted re-cently showing that Americans are a very impatient people.

Americans don’t like waiting. The post office and the motor vehicle registry are places we especially hate to tarry, said the article. And we detest phone calls that put you on hold until the next representa-tive is available.

But “almost one in four in the AP-Ipsos Poll picked the grocery checkout as the line where their patience is most likely to melt like the ice cream turning to goo in their carts,” said the story.

Why are we so impatient? It seems we’re always rushing. Even our children — maybe especially our children — are scheduled into one activity after another.

As a group, Americans are way too busy. At least that’s the conventional wisdom and perhaps explains why we hate waiting.

But I think we rather take pride in our busyness. We brag about it. We have stuff to do, so we must be important — and impatient.

So, when the clerk at the post office puts up a “closed” sign when it’s our turn, or the woman in front of us at the grocery is having trouble with her credit card, we fret, we fume.

Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” is a play about two tramps who are waiting for a mysterious gentleman named Godot. The whole play centers on their waiting, but Godot never shows up.

The title makes one wonder if they really are waiting for God, but Beckett claimed that wasn’t so.

Literary critics imagine that the ex-istential play deals with the meaningless-ness of life. But as Christians we don’t believe our lives are meaningless, and

I was sitting at a golf course near the Washington Hospital Center. It is the norm there to see helicopters shuttling patients to the center.

But this time we suddenly heard a great thud. I knew immediately that a helicopter had crashed.

Some of us jumped into a golf cart and sped down the hill. There in the dis-tance was scattered debris, a tree cut in two and the downed helicopter on its side.

As I went to assist other men who had gotten to the copter first, I noticed it was smoldering. Normally, the injured should not be moved until medics ar-rive to remove people without causing further injury.

But we felt we had no time to wait. It seemed the helicopter could burst into flames at any moment.

We tried to lift the pilot out as best we could as he shrieked in pain. It was extremely difficult to get him out because his feet were strapped into pedals that maneuver the plane.

I next looked into the rear of the helicopter where a nurse and her patient were trapped.

As we dragged her away from the helicopter, I asked her how she was. She replied that her shoulder was in extreme pain.

We had to wait and hope that the helicopter wouldn’t blow up until the fire department arrived to cut free the patient who initially was being transported to the hospital center. Later, we were informed that the patient, who had been in critical condition prior to the crash, died.

I have been in trauma situations be-fore. You never get used to them. They leave you traumatized yourself.

That accident spoke of life in a way I never thought of it before. When others’ lives are in danger and your life is endan-gered in the process of helping them, the urge is to forget danger and do what has to be done to save another.

As I looked at the trapped nurse and her patient, all I wanted to do was to free them as soon as possible, just in case the helicopter exploded. Their lives meant everything to me, even at the cost of los-ing mine

As painful as it is, traumatic life-and-death situations make us realize how precious life is. There is no taking death or even injury for granted.

The experience of such a trauma is a very difficult reminder that we can never become callous about people getting blown up before our very eyes.

In an ironic way, it reminds us of the human being next to us and the God-giv-en instinct within us to ensure his or her life, no matter the cost, no matter whether we know or don’t know the person.

we do believe that waiting is an essential part of faith.

Think how long the Hebrews waited for a savior.

Perhaps it’s a stretch to imagine that what we experience in life as waiting for God can be related to the waiting we are forced to do at the grocery store. But could a time given for prayer each day, which is essentially a time of waiting for God, strengthen patience throughout our lives?

Could it help to turn those mo-ments of fretful waiting into moments of prayer?

When an archbishop of Canterbury was asked once how much time he prayed each day, he replied with humor, “About two or three minutes, but it takes me a half an hour to get there.”

In other words, he gave time to prayer but had to wait, with patience and perseverance, for the glimpse of God he so desired.

Sometimes I wonder if our constant need to hurry is because we, perhaps like the men waiting for Godot, struggle to find our life’s meaning, and being busy masks that struggle.

Giving a half an hour each morning to simply waiting on God might bring meaning into even the most frustrating moments of our day.

In my current series of columns, I’ve been examining the truth that the price to be paid for doing abortions is life as an abortionist. It is, in many ways, its own punishment, and the examples we have given of how it destroys the personality are only the tip of the iceberg.

Another dimension of this truth is how the stigma of being an abortionist is causing the abortion industry to collapse for lack of personnel.

Here we find a beautiful irony, because “choice” has come back to bite the abortion industry.

They have discovered the hard truth that if women can choose to have abortions, so doctors can choose not to perform them. There is an amazing disparity in the medical community between the number of those who will identify themselves as “pro-choice,” and the number of those who are willing to work in an abortion clinic.

Abortionist Morris Wortman attest-ed, “There is tremendous support in the medical community for a woman’s right to choose, as long as she doesn’t ‘choose me’ to perform her abortion” (Medical Tribune, March 6, 1997).

This has created nothing less than a crisis for the abortion business, and has caused many in it to express openly their

fears that the pro-life movement will end abortion without even having to make it illegal.

Abortion is quickly becoming the legal procedure that no doctor wants to do and fewer and fewer women want to undergo. Don’t take my word for it; read these quotes:

— “When I look back on the [Roe v. Wade] decision, I thought these words had been written in granite. But I’ve learned it was not granite. It was more like sandstone. The immediate problem is, where will the doctors come from?”

(Sarah Weddington, pro-abortion attorney who successfully argued Roe v. Wade before the Supreme Court; Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, February 15, 1998)

— “That’s how the anti’s are going to win ... by attrition, because fewer and fewer doctors will perform abortions.”

(Abort ionis t Herbert Hodes, Glamour, September 1991)

— “Abortion opponents will achieve their goal without ever having to overturn Roe vs. Wade.”

(Kate Michelman, former director, National Abortion Rights Action League, Dallas Morning News, October 4, 1997, commenting on the shortage of abortion-ists)

— “We’ve seen a turn-off of physicians coming into this field.”

(Abortionist Ed Boaz, ABC World News Tonight, January 16, 1998)

— “Having the right to abortion doesn’t mean a [expletive] thing if you can’t access it.”

(Barbara Ellis, abortion advocate, National Abortion Federation Annual meeting, San Francisco, March/April 1996)

So many pro-life activists have looked for visible results of their legislative and educational activity, and often don’t find as much as they would like. Yet these quotes prove that the abortion industry feels the weight of our success.

The goal in war is not to destroy one’s enemy, but to destroy the enemy’s capacity for waging war.

By educating the public, especially medical students, about how ugly life as an abortionist is, we continue to rob them of what they need to keep abortion going.

Father Pavone is national director of Priests for Life.

For the Journey

EFFIE cALDA-RoLA

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Patience, prayer can help us find God

Guest ColumnFAThER FRAnK

PAvonEGUEsT coLUMnIsT

The Cathol ic News & Hera ld 16 lIVInG THe FAITH

June 23, 2006

Cloistered monks maintain spiritual connections with outside

by cARoL ZIMMERMAnncAThoLIc nEws sERvIcE

BERRYVILLE, Va. — At first glance, the Holy Cross Abbey in Ber-ryville seems completely shut off from the world at large.

For starters, its location is off the beaten path in the foothills of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. This is not a place that visitors accidentally stumble upon.

And yet, the quiet pastoral setting is often inundated with visitors, those who come seeking solace or perhaps want-ing to absorb some of the rich spiritual tradition on the monastery grounds.

“The retreat house is always full,” Trappist Father Robert Barnes, the abbot, said of the guest house that sleeps 16, either for weeklong or weekend re-treats.

He said people reserve their spots months in advance and plenty are “on standby” if anyone cancels.

Visitors essentially set their own rou-tines. They are welcome to attend any of the five times reserved for prayers in the chapel with the Trappist monks — with the first prayers, the night Office of Vig-ils, at 3:30 a.m. and the closing prayers, or compline, at 7:30 p.m.

They may attend meals with oth-er participants or receive spiritual counseling from one of the monks, but they are not required to do so.

After the Second Vatican Council, the grille in the church dividing monks and guests was taken down. Now there is a simple rope separating the two groups. Guests are restricted from the monastery’s private quarters and dining area.

Providing an opportunity for spiritual renewal is key for the Trappists,

according to Father Barnes, who said Pope Paul VI “insisted that monks have to be in touch with people seeking to re-new their spirituality.”

Capuchin Franciscan Brother Effrin Sosa, who is in the process of becoming

a Trappist brother, is not at all surprised by the large turnouts at Trappist retreat houses, particularly in recent years.

“People are starving out there, especially young people. They’re look-ing for depth,” he said.

And when they visit, if nothing else, they get a chance to experience firsthand a silent environment in a TiVo- and radio-free zone. They also get the chance for some spiritual counseling or to receive the sacrament of reconciliation.

Trappist Father Edward McCorkell, 80, a native of South Africa, frequently counsels married couples who stay at the retreat house.

Although he did not choose mar-ried life and has long lived inside the monastery walls, he can certainly say a thing or two about facing challenges head on. When he decided to become a priest, he came to the United States by ship in a 55-day trip at times surrounded by U-boats in World War II.

The priest, who helped start a Trappist monastery in Chile, was the abbot at Holy Cross Abbey in 1966-80, a period of significant change in the world, the church and even the abbey. In the early 1960s, the abbey had the highest number of monks in its history — 61.

Father McCorkell welcomed the changes brought by Vatican II, particularly the decision to do away with silence on the abbey grounds and the use of the Trappist sign language. Today he gets plenty of opportunity to talk, either in informative lectures to the monks or in discussions with guests where he sometimes gets the chance to speak Spanish.

He is also quick to point out that meeting with those on retreat is a two-way street. “It’s wonderful for me to see them here,” he said of the guests, noting the sacrifices they make just to go on retreat.

He also said the couples are a witness to him by their example of living

Cns Photo by bob roller

Trappist monks gather for lunch in the dining hall of Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Va., in early May. The men in the cloistered community, who range in age from 32 to 87, live by the rule of St. Benedict and follow simple routines of prayer and work, far removed from the hectic pace of modern life.

june 23, 2006

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