october 9, 2020 in this issue€¦ · messenger. in the church, october is celebrated as the month...

Allegra Thatcher Assistant Editor

It’s a week for new beginnings and an advent of hope at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Edgewood. The new Cancer Center was dedi-cated Sept. 29 by Bishop Roger Foys after the ribbon cutting ceremo-ny, and opened to its first patient Oct. 1.

Mr. Garren Colvin, president and CEO, said, “This building, and

the programs in it, has a soul. It’s a soul tied to the mission and vision of our institution, which goes back 155 years. When this building opens Oct. 1, the amount of lives who will be impacted by the people, programs and medicine that will fill these halls, is positively over-whelming.”

Bishop Foys, who brought a first-class relic of St. Elizabeth,

MESSENGERMESSENGERServing the Diocese of Covington, Kentucky since 1926

October 9, 2020

In This Issue

New cancer center dedicated at St. Elizabeth Edgewood

Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — Bringing the Vatican official in charge of translations with him, Pope Francis signed his new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship,” at the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi, source of the document’s title and inspira-tion.

After celebrating Mass at St. Francis’ tomb Oct. 3, the eve of the saint’s feast day, the pope called up Msgr. Paolo Braida and explained to the small congregation that the monsignor is in charge of “translations and the speeches of the pope” in the Vatican Secretariat of State.

“He watches over everything and that’s why I wanted him to be here today,” the pope said. He also brought with him the Spanish official who oversaw the accuracy of the various translations and the official who translated the text from Spanish into Portuguese.

Pope Francis set the text on the altar under the tomb of St. Francis and signed it.

The encyclical was scheduled to be released to the public Oct. 4 just after midday.

Pope Francis arrived late for the Mass in the crypt of the Basilica of St. Francis after making a brief stop in Assisi at the Basilica of St. Clare, which houses the tomb of the close follower of St. Francis and founder of the Poor Clares.

The pope did not give a homily during the Mass, simply praying silently for several minutes after the reading of the Gospel. The text was that prescribed for the feast of St. Francis, Matthew 11:25-30, which begins, “I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for

although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike.”

Because of measures designed to contain the coronavirus pandem-ic, the Mass was described as “private.” Only about two dozen people were in the small crypt chapel; they sat socially distanced, one person in each pew, and wore masks.

Several Franciscan sisters were present, as were the ministers gen-eral of the main Franciscan orders of men: Father Michael Perry, min-ister general of the Franciscans; Father Roberto Genuin, minister gen-eral of the Capuchins; and Father Amando Trujillo Cano, minister gen-eral of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis.

Bishop’s Schedule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Commentary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 People and Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Did You Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14 VIRTUS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Shopper’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16 News Briefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Missed an edition? Current and back issues of the Messenger are available online at covdio.org/messenger.

Special Pages The Eucharist: The Source and Summit page 9 – 12

2 Cultivating love for the rosary

Coronavirus update

Trick or treat advisory

3 Permanent deacons renew promises

Official Assignment

Obituary Wanda Rottgers

15 VIRTUS updates

Schools now offering free lunch to all students

Statement of Ownership

16 Obituary Sister Elizabeth Kelemen, CDP

Obituary Sister Marianna Rumpke, SND

Thatcher photos

(left to right) Kathy Jennings, senior vice president patient care, cancer care, Dr. Doug Flora, MD, executive director, Cancer Center, Debbie Simpson, St. Elizabeth Board of Trustees chair, Garren Colvin, St. Elizabeth president and CEO, Bishop Roger Foys and Father Dan Schomaker, vicar general.

Bishop Roger Foys prays a blessing over the new St. Elizabeth Cancer Center at the dedication Sept. 27.

The exterior of the new Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Edgewood.

(Continued on page 17)

Pope signs new encyclical in Assisi

CNS photo/Vatican Media

Pope Francis signs his new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship” after celebrating Mass at the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, Italy, Oct. 3, 2020.

Holiday advisory for schools during COVID-19

2 October 9, 2020 Messenger

In the Church, October is celebrated as the month of the rosary. The feast of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary is cel-ebrated on Oct. 7. It is widely believed that in the 13th Century, St. Dominic had a vision of Mary in which she presented the rosary to him.

According to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops website “The Rosary is a Scripture-based prayer. It begins with the Apostles’ Creed, which summarizes the great mysteries of the Catholic faith. The Our Father, which introduces each mystery, is from the Gospels. The first part of the Hail Mary is the angel’s words announcing Christ’s birth and Elizabeth’s greeting to Mary.”

When praying the rosary, each day of the week focuses on one of four sets of mysteries — Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous. These mysteries of the rosary fol-low the events of Christ’s life.

Mary, Queen of Heaven School, Erlanger is celebrating October as the month of the rosary by a special focus to

teach grades one and two how to pray it. Meg Piatt, principal, spends

time every Tuesday morning teaching them about Mary and the rosary, and reading from the book, “On a Mission to Love: Rosary Meditations for Children and Families” by Debbie Staresinic.

The book teaches the rosary in a story format, and Mrs. Piatt said the children have made great progress so far. “They’re doing a nice job … they’ve been working on the prayers and we talk about Mary, I answer questions about her each week,” she said.

This week, for the first time, the children each get their own rosary with which to pray. “They’re doing a great job as far as responding and being able to recite back to me some of things we’ve talked about: our dedication to Mary, why we’re dedicated, what kinds of things they can ask Mary to bring to Jesus on our behalf,” said Mrs. Piatt.

Cultivating a love for the rosary

Messenger staff report As the diocese continues in-person instruction at its 39

schools, COVID-19 cases are developing at a slow but steady rate. Based on the details of Catholic school cases in the dio-cese, students are not contracting the illness at school. Instead, exposures are mostly from small family gatherings. In many cases it is a parent or a college-aged sibling who has tested positive for COVID-19.

“I can’t stress enough how important decisions on seem-ingly limited travel and small gatherings outside of school have on individual students and the school community,” said Laura Keener, diocesan COVID coordinator. “A single positive case in the classroom can put dozens of students in quaran-tine. The student of a parent who has tested positive will need to transition to at-home instruction for 24 days. When choos-ing to travel or to participate in social gatherings — even small family gatherings — we are asking parents to seriously consider whether or not the activity is absolutely essential. If it is, remember to wear a mask and practice safe social dis-tancing.”

As the holidays approach, it is important to adhere to guid-ance offered by Kentucky Public Health and the Center for Disease Control on how best to celebrate in ways that are safe.

For Halloween, KPH is encouraging parents to avoid high-risk activities like door-to-door trick-or-treating, haunted

houses, hayrides, costume parties or traveling to fall festivals. Instead, the KPH encourages low-risk activities like carving and decorating pumpkins, watching movies together as a family, having a scavenger hunt around the house for Halloween treats or dressing up for a drive-by Halloween cos-tume contest.

KPH also encourages parents to focus on keeping Halloween fun and safe for children by avoiding adult activi-ties that further increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

“These are difficult choices parents are being asked to make, that include sacrificing many fun experiences we all want our children to enjoy, but we have to weigh the benefits against the risks. Is it worth my child transitioning to at-home instruction for nearly a month to go trick-or-treating? Is attending or hosting a party worth 12 or more of my child’s classmates missing out on in-person instruction for two weeks? Especially since viewing on social media the many drive-by birthday celebrations over the summer, our parents have already demonstrated that they can find safer, alterna-tive ways to celebrate that in some cases become new tradi-tions after the pandemic,” said Mrs. Keener. “We are trusting our parents to make in-person instruction and the health of our school communities a priority every day, especially dur-ing the upcoming holidays.”

Positive Cases Active positive cases: 5 Recovered positive cases: 28 Total ever positive cases: 33 Currently Self-quarantined Contacts: 5 Close Contacts: 171 Returned to class after quarantine/ self-quarantine: From Sept. 29– Oct. 5: 65 students Total ever: 416 students Schools currently with quarantines and self-quarantines: (20 of 39 schools)

Bishop Brossart High School, Alexandria

Covington Catholic High School, Covington

Covington Latin School, Covington

Holy Cross District High School, Covington

Holy Family School, Covington

Holy Trinity School, Bellevue

Immaculate Heart of Mary School, Burlington

Mary, Queen of Heaven School, Erlanger

Notre Dame Academy, Covington

St. Henry District High School, Erlanger

St. Agnes School, Ft. Wright

St. Anthony School, Taylor Mill

St. Cecilia School, Independence

St. Joseph School, Cold Spring

St. Mary School, Alexandria

St. Patrick School, Maysville

St. Paul School, Florence

St. Pius X School, Edgewood

St. Timothy School, Union

Villa Madonna Academy, Villa Hills

(Schools without students in quarantine or self-quarantine do not need to report.)

Coronavirus Report (as of Monday, Oct. 5)

If trick-or-treating is permitted in your community, please trick or treat the safe way.

— Maintain a social distance of at least 6 feet from anyone not within your household.

— Always wear a face covering.

— Halloween masks DO NOT count as a face covering.

— Clean hands before and after touching the wrapped candy.

— Trick or treat in family groups and don’t congregate in large groups.

— Trick or treat in your own neighborhood. Do not travel to other neighborhoods.

— Use hand sanitizer often, especially after contacting fre-quently-touched surfaces and before eating anything.

Consider safer alternatives:

— Carve or decorate pumpkins for display.

— Decorate your home or living space.

— Have a virtual Halloween costume contest.

— Watch Halloween movies with the people you live with.

— Have a scavenger hunt for Halloween treats in and around your home.

— Drive-by costume or car decorating contest with judges who are social distancing.

Avoid higher-risk activities: — Traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating. — Trunk or treat events with large groups in parking lots. — Costume parties. — Haunted houses. — Hayrides or tractor rides. — Traveling to fall festivals in neighboring towns. — Any event with large crowds.

Reminder: — Stay home if you are sick.

— If your child is at greater risk of complications from COVID-19, use extra caution and avoid moderate and high-risk activities.

— Consider the people in your household who may be at risk of greater complications from COVID-19.

— Focus on keeping Halloween fun and safe for children by avoiding adult activities that further increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Trick or treat the safe way:

Information provided by Kentucky Public Health.

The first and second grade students at Mary, Queen of Heaven School, Erlanger, have been meeting in the church with the prin-cipal, Meg Piatt, weekly to learn to pray the rosary. This week the students prac-ticed handling Jesus with care, just as his Mother Mary did.

Messenger October 9, 2020 3


The permanent deacons of the Diocese of Covington gathered at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption Oct. 2 evening to renew their promises to serve the Church faithfully. Bishop Roger Foys led Solemn Vespers and the rededication.

Deacon Jerry Franzen, deacon of the Cathedral Basilica, preached about prayer and how it’s not simply petition. He intro-duced the prayer method PAL: pray, ask and listen. He said the most common prayers in the Church — the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Collect at Mass — follow this formula of praise and then intercession.

“When we think of prayer in general, we often think only of prayers of petition … A stand-alone prayer of praise, or the praise part of the prayer, is important as well. The Glory Be is a good example of a stand-alone prayer of praise.” He also elab-orated on the importance of following up these prayers with listening.

The deacons then renewed their prom-ises to assist the priestly Order, proclaim the Word of God, maintain a prayerful life including the Liturgy of the Hours and act in obedience to the bishop.

In his closing remarks Bishop Foys said, “I’m grateful

for all that you do and all that you are — your witness and your example to God’s people and also to us priests. … Our diocese is blessed with you and the fact that you’ve answered the call to this vocation.”

For a related story, see “Did you know” on page 6.

Permanent deacons renew promises to serve local Church

Oct. 9 COVID-19 briefing, 9:30 a.m.

Oct. 10 Mary Rose Mission blessing, Covington, 11:30 a.m.

Mass, Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, 4:30 p.m.

Oct. 11 Installation of pastor, Father Jacob Straub, St. Matthew Parish, Kenton, 9 a.m.


Individual meeting, 1 p.m.

Confirmation, St. Cecilia Parish, Independence, 7 p.m.


Diocesan Finance Council meeting, 1:30 p.m.

Diocesan Pro-Life Mass, Cathedral Basilica, 7 p.m.

Oct. 14 Thomas More University Board of Trustees’ retreat, 9 a.m.–4 p.m.


Episcopal Council meeting, 11 a.m.

Holy Hour for Victims of Sexual Abuse, sanctification of priests, end to the Pandemic, Cathedral Basilica, 3 p.m.

Confirmation, Mary Queen of Heaven Parish, at Cathedral Basilica, 7 p.m.


Oct. 17 Mass, Cathedral Basilica, 4:30 p.m.

Oct. 18 Mass, Cathedral Basilica, 10 a.m.

Bishop’s Schedule

Official assignment

Effective Sept. 22, 2020

Kendra McGuire To: Superintendent of Schools, Diocese of Covington From: Associate Superintendent of Schools

By order of the Most Rev. Roger J. Foys, D.D. Bishop of the Diocese of Covington

Jamie N. Schroeder, Chancellor


Wanda J. Rottgers (née McVean), mother of Father Robert Rottgers, passed away Sept. 23 at 89 years old at Cold Spring Transitional Care Center. A devoted wife, mother and faith-filled woman, she served her family and community with a strong and true Christian spirit.

After growing up Methodist, Mrs. Rottgers spent most of her life in the Episcopalian Church and converted to Catholicism late in life at St. Philip Parish, Melbourne. She and her late husband, Robert, lived in Ft. Thomas and eventually moved to Wilder. He was Catholic and didn’t live to see her convert, but they raised their children in a household of faith.

“She loved Jesus, she was a hard worker, and she stood up for the right thing,” said Father Rottgers, pastor at St. Philip Parish. “She was strong in her faith and beliefs, not to be swayed. … She was one of those mothers where I never heard ‘wait til your dad gets home,’ because she took care of business right then.”

Mrs. Rottgers enjoyed spending time outside camping, fishing and hunting with her husband and two sons. She was always a part of the action, whether playing softball with the children or taking a job at the school cafeteria so she could be home with the boys after school and in the evenings. She managed the cafeteria at Johnson Elementary School, Ft. Thomas for 17 years and loved the children there.

“The greatest joy that my dad got was making my mom happy, and the greatest joy that my mom got was mak-ing my dad happy,” he said. “My brother and I never had to worry about them, and that was a great gift. Their relationship was awesome.” On their 25th wedding anniversary, the couple offi-cially brought their mar-riage into communion with the Catholic Church.

Mrs. Rottgers served her Episcopalian community as a member of the Altar Society and a volunteer with the youth group.

“When my dad passed away, Mom and I became even closer. Moms are moms but she and I were great friends,” said Father Rottgers.

Mrs. Rottgers is survived by her sons, Father Rottgers and Rev. Steven R. (Mary) Rottgers and grandchildren, Dr. Alex Rottgers, Peter Rottgers, Molly Rottgers and Richard Cooper, as well as six great-grandchildren.

A funeral ceremony was held Sept. 27. Memorials sug-gested to St. Philip Church, Melbourne, or St. Andrews Episcopal Church, Ft. Thomas. Dobbling, Muehlenkamp-Erschell Funeral Homes are serving the family.

Wanda J. Rottgers

Wanda Rottgers — a legacy of faith, love and strong conviction

Celebrate safely and simultaneously with Cathedral Mass

You are invited participate in the annual

Diocese of Covington Pro-Life Mass

October 13, 2020 7 p.m.

at your home parish

to kick off Respect Life month

(above) Deacons gathered, many with their wives, and renewed their vows at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

(right) Deacon Jerry Franzen, homilist, incenses Bishop Roger Foys at the Permanent Deacon Rededication Oct. 2.

Thatcher photos

More than a decade ago, Father J. Bryan Hehir published “Can the Church Convincingly Engage American Culture?”

(“Church,” 2004) explor-ing the role of the Church in the socio-polit-ical order.

In the light of “The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World” (“Gaudium et Spes”) of the Second Vatican Council, the presence of the Church in the world can be viewed as a “dialectical relation-ship.”

A dialectical relation-ship “consists of shared objectives and common ground, yet it will always

entail some conflict and opposition to the world.” A dialecti-cal framework can engage the Church in two distinct styles of dialogue — prophecy and pedagogy.

In Father Hehir’s considered judgment, the teaching style of the Church is “a mix of prophecy and pedagogy.”

Since prophecy tends “to be strong on conclusions” and calls for conversion without compromise, Father Hehir observed that “distinctions, qualifications and contending opinions are not the prophet’s stock in trade.”

By contrast, a pedagogical style aims at “a process of con-version that occurs over time, often at an incremental pace.” A pedagogical approach takes place within a context of “arguments and motivation, carefully cultivated to persuade the audience.” “The stuff of pedagogy” involves the “weigh-ing and sifting of evidence, testing premises, examining the logic and coherence of the case being made …”

Generally speaking, both the complexity of public policy issues and the need for persuasion in reaching a highly edu-cated Church community would create a presumption for a methodology of pedagogy as better suited for effective engagement with social issues.

Thus, Father Hehir, a well-known priest-expert in social ethics and public policy, noted: “The Catholic Church in principle, and particularly in this country, has developed its social teaching and social policy from the conviction that large sections of that teaching could be shared beyond the community of faith.” Such a “natural law strategy” is “not merely traditional; it remains valuable particularly in a soci-ety as religiously diverse as ours.”

Overall, such an approach can perform a public service in a pluralistic society by searching for and discovering a common ground in regard to conflicting viewpoints.

Nevertheless, Father Hehir also recognized that an eccle-sial witness of “standing against” the culture rather than a dialogic style of “sharing with” may be dictated by the lack of common principles to address some selected major issues.

For several decades — even though the dialogic strategy of “shared perspectives” remained viable in much of the social justice agenda — a cultural shift has been narrowing the common ground for sustaining dialogue on bioethical and sexual issues. Father Hehir held that in the areas of bioethical and sexual questions “Catholicism finds itself in a defensive position, seeking to contain a discussion, as well as political and legal positions, that run directly counter to established Catholic principles and conclusions.”

With regard to the abortion issue, the “Planned Parenthood v. Casey” (1992) decision of the U.S. Supreme Court might serve as an example of that developing conflict in principle. The so-called “mystery clause” of that decision reads: “At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and the mystery of human life.”

Taken literally at face value, that passage represents a radical reinterpretation of the concept of liberty, a position

that contravenes fundamental principles of biblical religion. In “Looking for ‘Persons’ in the Law,” Mary Ann Glendon

contended that in “Planned Parenthood v. Casey” (1992) a plurality of Supreme Court justices proposed “a vision of the self as invented and reinvented through the exercise of the individual’s will, limited by nothing but subjective pref-erences.”

Professor Glendon criticized “Planned Parenthood v. Casey” as shifting “the ground for abortion rights from pri-vacy to liberty.” In her opinion, the Court held that a require-ment for a woman to notify a spouse of an abortion decision represented a violation of a woman’s liberty. She concludes: “In holding so, they announced a theory that endows human personhood with the freedom ‘to define one’s own concept of existence, of the meaning of the universe, and the mystery of human life.’ That freedom, they said, ‘lies at the heart of liberty’ because ‘beliefs in these matters could not define the attributes of personhood were they formed under the com-pulsion of the State.’”

Professor Glendon judged that “(t)he Court majority’s current notion of freedom is thus quite different from under-standings of freedom that stress the dignity of the person as actualized through relations with others and through the development of one’s ability to exercise freedom wisely and well.”

In a similar manner, George Weigel in his “Soul of the World” (1996) interpreted “Casey’s” judicial formulation of freedom as a liberty "to pursue one's own personal gratifica-tions, self-defined, as long as no one else (or at least no one in whom the state has a 'compelling interest') gets hurt.” Thus, democracy that is founded on moral relativism simply becomes "an ensemble of procedures, largely legal, by which we regulate the pursuit of personal satisfactions."

Weigel argued that “Casey” declared that "republican virtue, understood as a broad communal consensus on the moral coordinates in our common life, is no part of the inner constitution, the moral architecture, of 'freedom' in America."

As Pope St. John Paul II pointed out in “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life,” 1995), ethical relativism strikes at the roots of reverence for human dignity and the inalien-able right to life due all men and women. In undermining a universal objective moral order, relativism (or subjectivism) reduces moral values to mere creations of a given moral agent. In the long run, the consequent separation of rights from duties erodes limitations and moral boundaries dictat-ed by objective ethical criteria. (EV, n. 70)

In “Veritatis Splendor” (“The Splendor of Truth,” 1993), an earlier encyclical on the foundations of Catholic moral

teaching, Pope St. John Paul II had spoken of a "crisis of truth" caused by collapsing the transcendent order of values into the subjectivism of absolute freedom. (VS, n. 33)

Again, in “Evangelium Vitae,” the late Holy Father sum-moned Catholics to renew “a culture of life within Christian communities themselves.” He criticized believers who sepa-rate “their Christian faith from its ethical requirements con-cerning life, and thus fall into moral subjectivism and cer-tain objectionable ways of acting.” (EV, n. 95)

In “Reverence for Life: Conscience and Faithful Citizenship,” their January 2008 pastoral letter on life issues, the Catholic bishops of Kentucky restated the consistent position taken by the national conference of Catholic bish-ops: “On the question of abortion and politics, our ‘Resolution on Abortion’ of November 1989 challenged Catholics to carry out the implications of their beliefs: ‘No Catholic can responsibly take a ‘pro-choice’ stand when the ‘choice’ in question involves the taking of an innocent human life.’”

The current legal climate of abortion on demand, that “sanctions an intolerable moral evil, calls for a response.” The pastoral letter stresses the moral duties incumbent on Catholics: “A moral evil that negates a public good demands the exercise of a moral responsibility to limit and eliminate that evil … The good of human life is such an important public good that it warrants protection by law.”

Since moral relativism disguises a false tolerance, “Conscience and Faithful Citizenship” asserts: “No Catholic voter or politician can hide behind the evasion — ‘Personally I oppose abortion, but I cannot impose my reli-gious beliefs (or my morality) on others.’ It is a moral contra-diction. Living the faith in the context of democratic plural-ism cannot justify such self-deception.”

The flawed assumptions that mark this sort of moral rationalization were cogently unmasked in “Living the Gospel of Life,” a 1998 statement of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops: “First, regarding abortion, the point when human life begins is not a religious belief but a scientific fact — a fact on which there is clear agreement even among leading abortion advocates. Second, the sanctity of human life is not merely Catholic doctrine but part of humanity’s global ethical heritage. Finally, democracy is not served by silence … Real pluralism depends on people of conviction struggling vigorously to advance their beliefs by every ethi-cal and legal means at their disposal.” (LGL, n. 24)

In a word, moral opposition to abortion is not a matter of sectarian belief “but a basic moral conviction about life and society.”

The Catholic bishops of Kentucky stated: “With our fel-low bishops, we remind political leaders, especially those publicly identified as Catholic, of ‘their duty to exercise gen-uine moral leadership in society.’ Moral leadership is not dictated by opinion polls but is exercised ‘by educating them-selves and their constituents to the humanity of the unborn child.’” (LGL, n. 29)

Inaction on the part of Catholic politicians and voters in defending human life in the political sphere cannot be con-doned: "If there are alternate strategies, no one can be exempt from the logical step to translate moral opposition into effective strategies. If there is a lack of public consen-sus to effect full legal protection, no one can be excused from working toward creating a consensus as a first step.”

Section 26 of the U. S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ “Conscience and Faithful Citizenship” (2020) quotes Pope St. John Paul II’s 1988 Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation on the vocation and mission of the laity. His papal exhortation, “Christifideles Laici,” (n. 38) states: “Above all, the common outcry, which is justly made on behalf of human rights … is false and illusory if the right to life, the most basic and fun-damental right and the condition for all other personal rights, is not defended with maximum determination.”

Msgr. Ronald Ketteler is director of ecumenism, episcopal liaison to the Messenger and professor of theology at Thomas More University.


Public moral values and ‘Faithful Citizenship’

Msgr. Ronald Ketteler

‘The threat of abortion remains our preeminent priority

because it directly attacks life itself, because it takes place

within the sanctuary of the family, and because of the number of lives destroyed. At the same time, we cannot dismiss or ignore

other serious threats to human life and dignity such as racism,

the environmental crisis, poverty and the death penalty.’ — Introductory Letter, “Forming Consciences for Faithful

Citizenship: A Call to Political Responsibility from the Catholic Bishops of the United States” (2020).


COMMENTARY

Coaching is a ministryHave you ever had the feeling that you absolutely

know what God has called you to do because you are so overwhelmingly passionate about it? I am one of the

lucky ones who have. This past June, I accept-

ed a position as an assis-tant high school basketball coach at Covington Catholic High School. But it’s not the first time I have coached high school basket-ball.

At one point in my young professional life, I thought I would always be a high school basketball coach. I began when I was 23 years old and accepted my first head coaching job

when I was 28. Ten years into my high school coaching career, life happened. I decided to spend some more time

with my young family. I later accepted a job as a school principal. Another 10 years had passed and I wondered if God would ever call me back to coaching high school bas-ketball.

But he did. He called back. Much like God called Noah to build the ark, prophets like Samuel, Jeremiah and Amos to proclaim his will, and like Jesus called the apos-tles to their lives of discipleship —God called me back to coach high school basketball.

Now it’s not like I haven’t gotten to coach in these last 10 years. I have coached my sixth-grade son and his bud-dies throughout their grade school experience. I have begun coaching my second-grade daughter. I have trained hundreds of coaches through the Play Like A Champion Today “Coaching for Character” program. And I have loved all of it. But there is something unique about coach-ing high school basketball.

I’m not really sure that I can pinpoint one thing that makes it unique and special. Maybe it’s the excitement of a community coming out on a Friday night. Maybe it’s the journey of trying to win a state championship. Maybe

it’s the practice and game planning. Maybe it’s my own personal ambition since I was cut from my high school team as a senior. All of it is motivation to me.

As I have gotten older and, I think, wiser, I have also realized the platform with which a coach stands. As a young coach, I knew I had the platform to positively impact the lives of those I coached. And I think I did. But I wasn’t perfect. I lacked the wisdom. Wisdom has informed me that I should have handled certain situa-tions differently. But I am not talking about calling a dif-ferent play or changing defenses. I am talking about how I could have formed some relationships better.

Coaching is a ministry. The word “ministry” comes from the Latin word “ministerium,” which means “to serve.” It’s a service to those we coach. It’s the work of a vocation.

I have found Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors, a fascinating basketball coach case study because he seems to live out his coaching as a vocation. In three of his first four seasons with the Warriors, he led

The toxic waste of Roe v. WadeMany are called, but few are chosen Great Britain’s parliamentary democracy has no con-

stitutional text, but rather a “constitution” composed of centuries of legal traditions and precedents. So when British courts make grave mistakes, those mistakes can be fixed, more or less readily, by Parliament. The

American situation is quite different. Given a written constitution and the princi-ple of judicial review, grave mistakes by the Supreme Court are exceptionally toxic and hard to remedy, as three wrongly-decided cases illustrate.

In 1857, the Court declared in Dred Scott v. Sanford that the Constitution recognized no rights inherent in black people the white majority was bound to acknowledge — and thereby accelerated the process of national dis-

solution leading to the Civil War, in which over 700,000 Americans killed each other. Plessy v. Ferguson, which upheld the constitutionality of racially segregated public facilities in 1896, kept Jim Crow alive, delayed the full legal implementation of the 13th and 14th amendments, and poisoned the Democratic Party for generations by giving inordinate weight within party counsels to segre-gationists, who cowed even Franklin D. Roosevelt. It took a half century of civil rights struggle and the 1964 Civil Rights Act to begin repairing the damage Plessy had done.

Then there was Roe v. Wade and its companion case, Doe v. Bolton — the 1973 Supreme Court decisions that invented a constitutional right to abortion throughout a pregnancy. Denounced by Justice Byron White in his dis-sent as “an exercise in raw judicial power,” Roe’s effects on American political culture have been as toxic as Dred Scott and Plessy.

Defending Roe’s abortion license has become a prime imperative for the national Democratic Party. And because of that, far too many Catholic politicians, includ-ing the Democratic presidential candidates in 2004 and 2020, have put a canine fealty to a shabby judicial diktat above the truth of science (the product of human concep-tion is a unique human being) and the moral truth we can know by reason (in a just society, innocent human life is protected in law). Roe has also jeopardized religious freedom and the rights of conscience, corrupted the med-ical professions, and eroded the authority of the states to

regulate medical practice. In an attempt to buttress Roe, a three-judge plurality

in 1992’s Casey v. Planned Parenthood cheapened the “lib-erty” to which the Founders pledged their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor,” reducing it to a sheer personal willful-ness that turns “I Did It My Way” into the unofficial national anthem. And thanks to Roe, Supreme Court nomination hearings have become exercises in character assassination with no holds barred.

While political scientists may wonder why the defense of Roe’s abortion license has become so fevered, compara-tive religious studies may provide an answer: for those who worship the totem of the imperial autonomous Self (the false god of “Me, Myself and I”), the abortion license has become sacramental — an outward sign of the inner reality of women’s autonomy; an outward sign, for men, of their acquiescence to forms of feminism that promote freedom-as-autonomy.

Unquestioning faith in that which is unworthy of faith darkens the mind, so that otherwise intelligent peo-ple are blinded to the reality of things. This was true of primitive religions, and sadly enough, similar phenome-na are at work today. For other than a debilitating myopia caused by the credulous belief that abortion-on-demand is a “civil right,” why would so many black political lead-ers support a practice that, thanks to Planned Parenthood’s inner-city “reproductive health” clinics, has caused the mass slaughter of unborn black children, thereby making African Americans the second-largest minority group in the United States?

Today’s Supreme Court agitations involve many issues, including the oversized role of the judiciary in our constitutional order. Those issues deserve a serious, thoughtful, public airing. For many of those bending every effort to defeat Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomina-tion to the Court, however, the meta-issue will be the defense of an abortion license they not only support, but revere. And that ultramundane reverence explains why their efforts will be so vicious. False gods often under-write human cruelty.

A Supreme Court that hollows out or even reverses Roe v. Wade will not settle the American abortion debate; it will return the issue to the states, where there will be mixed results for the cause of life. But a post-Roe America will have expelled a rotting bone from the national throat. And that America will then have the opportunity to demonstrate, state by state, whether we are a people capable of morally serious democratic delib-eration.

George Weigel is a senior fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C.

The readings for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time — Cycle A are: Isaiah 25:6–10a; Philippian’s 4:12–14, 19–20 and Matthew 22:1–4 or 22:1–10.

I had a homily that I prepared to use one weekend. The homily was about asking others to come back to church. To seek out those friends or family members who may have

fallen away from coming to Mass and to extend an invi-tation to them. I was also trying to drum up some new business by asking people to invite those they knew who may have expressed an interest in the Catholic faith.

I thought it was a pretty good homily. The homily produced no results. A win-ter storm began on Saturday afternoon and very few people showed up for the afternoon Mass. It snowed like crazy that

night. Sunday morning at the early Mass no one showed up. The organist, the cantor and I stayed in church waiting

for the last Mass to begin. No one was there. We said our goodbyes and began walking out of church when the doors opened and a father with his two children walked in. They went to their normal pew. It was a small crowd, the father and his children, the organist and cantor. Mass went on as usual, except for the homily. In the midst of the snow and the ice and the blowing wind five people came to Mass that morning. I ended up not preaching about the importance of coming to Mass. Those five people already knew the homily.

Invitations are sent to many to come to church but so few people respond. It’s frustrating. Many of you have reached out to neighbors or friends and asked them to come to church and you know all too well the disappointment, how few respond.

Maybe that is why we find this parable so familiar. We are told that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees and the chief priests in a parable. He said, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who was giving a wedding banquet for his son. The reception that was given was immense. You’ve all been to wedding receptions and you know how they can get out of hand. Imagine one thrown by a king for his son. Invitations are sent to all the friends of the family but they all turn down the invitation — they are too busy to attend.

At times we can get caught up in the busyness of life. We may feel like we are pulled in different directions. We are surrounded by the noise of this world and it can be difficult to hear the voice of God. In the midst of a hectic life God is inviting us, he is calling us to a deeper relationship. Our task is to pull ourselves away, quiet ourselves and listen to the call, for “many are called, but few are chosen.”

Father Gregory Bach is pastor St. Henry Parish, Elsmere, Ky.


Rich Hoyt

George Weigel

Father Gregory Bach


Future gardeners Eight years after receiving a startup grant from the Campbell County Conservation District to establish their Outdoor Learning Center, St. Joseph School, Camp Springs, is still giving children a good experience at the center. These three-year-olds developed green thumbs Sept. 25 while sowing lettuce.

Penny for a popsicle St. Augustine School, Covington, recently held a ‘popsicle day’ to raise money for Hurricane Laura Relief. One young first grade student (unbeknownst to her mother) brought in 12 pennies — one for each of her classmates. She wanted to make sure everyone in her class could participate in the collection.

An enlightening project Third graders at St. Henry Catholic School, Elsmere, researched inventors and then presented what they learned on a light bulb.

Art of the crucifixion After studying the artwork “Mond Crucifixion” by Raphael, students in Mrs. Hughes’s third grade class at St. Agnes School, Ft. Wright, drew their own version of the crucifixion.

The permanent deacons of the Diocese of Covington are rededicating themselves to the service of Christ and the Church Oct. 2 at the Cathedral Basilica. How did the order of deacons originate, what role do they fill and what prom-ises do they make? The Messenger reached out to Deacon Paul Yancey, assistant to the director, Permanent Deacon Formation Office. What are the origins of the diaconate in the early Church?

The origins are found in Scripture in Acts 6:1-6: “At that time, as the number of disciples continued to grow, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution (of food). So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.’ The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit, also Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They pre-sented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them.” These were the first seven deacons.

How are those purposes still served today?

We still serve at the table in our Ministry at the Altar which includes assisting at Mass, celebrating Benediction, Communion services, funerals, baptisms, weddings and more.

We still serve widows and orphans within our Ministry of Charity, but that has been greatly expanded into a vast

number of charities while focusing on the poor, the infirm and the marginalized.

The Church has added the Ministry of the Word (preaching and teaching) to Ministry at the Altar and Ministry of Charity to form the three-fold ministry of service that permanent deacons are ordained into today.

What is the difference between the transitional and permanent diaconate?

The transitional diaconate is conferred on a seminari-an in his last year before being ordained into the priest-hood. His charter is the same as permanent deacons. The permanent diaconate is just that — permanent. A man ordained into the permanent diaconate is usually married and, except in rare instances following the death of his wife, will never become a priest. Because he has a wife and

children, he is typically at least 45 years old and most often 50 plus so that the children are old enough to allow their father to work in ministry without feeling unloved or aban-doned. He typically has a secular profession but the number of deacons employed by the Church is continually increasing.

What promises do deacons make at their ordination?

From the Diaconal Ordination Rite: An unmarried diaconal candidate takes

the vow of celibacy: “In the presence of God and his Church, are you resolved, as a sign of your interior dedication to Christ, to remain celibate for the sake of the kingdom and in lifelong service to God and mankind?”

All Deacon candidates make the

following promises: “Do you resolve to be consecrated for the

Church’s ministry by the laying on of my hands and the gift of the Holy Spirit?”

“Do you resolve to discharge the office of deacon with humble charity in order to assist the priestly Order and to benefit the Christian people?”

“Do you resolve to hold fast to the mystery of faith with a clear conscience, as the Apostle urges, and to proclaim this faith in word and deed according to the Gospel and the Church’s tradition?”

“Are you resolved to maintain and deepen a spirit of prayer appropriate to your way of life and, in keeping with what is required of you, to celebrate faithfully the Liturgy of the Hours for the Church and for the whole world?”

“Do you resolve to conform your way of life always to the example of Christ, of whose body and blood you are ministers at the altar?”

“Do you promise respect and obedience to me (your bishop) and my successors?”

The details of the diaconate

Did you know?

At the most recent ordination to the permanent diaconate, the four newly ordained deacons wear the traditional dalmatic, which differs in style from the priest’s chasuble. The four deacons were ordained May 4, 2019 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington.

Fun at the STREAM lab (left) Due to the kindness of an anonymous donor who made a substantial contribu-tion to Blessed Sacrament School, Ft. Mitchell, the media center has been transformed into a STREAM lab. Because of this generous gift, STREAM (science, technology, reading, engineering, arts and math) is now a regularly scheduled class for all Blessed Sacrament students, grades K-8.

Moving? Wrong address? Call the circulation desk, (859) 392-1570


Junno Arocho Esteves Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY — In the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, the world must aspire to be better and not return to its previous “sickened” normality of injustice, inequality and environmental degradation, Pope Francis said.

“The normality we are called to is that of the king-dom of God, where ‘the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is pro-claimed to the poor,’” the pope said Sept. 30 during his weekly general audience.

And it is a situation where “no one acts the fool by looking the other way. This is what we must do to change,” he said at the audience, which was held in the San Damaso courtyard of the Apostolic Palace.

Continuing his series of talks on “healing the world,” the pope said Christ came to heal both the physical and “social” ailments that plague the world and gave the “necessary gifts to love and heal as he did, in order to take care of everyone without distinc-tion of race, language or nation.”

Applying those gifts today, he added, will “renew society and not return it to the so-called ‘normality,’ which is a sickened normality.”

“In the normality of the kingdom of God,” the pope said, “bread comes to everyone and there is enough; social organization is based on contributing, sharing and distributing, not in possessing, exclud-ing and accumulating.”

The COVID-19 pandemic, the pope continued, exposed the world’s “physical, social and spiritual vulnerabilities” and “laid bare the great inequality that reigns in the world: the inequality of opportuni-ty, of goods, of access to health care, technology, edu-cation.”

There are “millions, millions of children who can-not go to school (today) and the list goes on,” he said. “These injustices are not natural nor inevitable. They are the work of humankind, they come from a model of growth detached from the deepest values.”

The pope denounced today’s “great human and socioe-conomic viruses,” including “trickle-down” economics, the theory that tax breaks and other government pro-

grams helping the wealthy eventually will benefit the rest of the population.

“We certainly cannot expect that the economic model that is the basis of an unfair and unsustainable develop-ment will solve our problems. It did not and it will not,

even if some false prophets continue to promise ‘the trick-le-down effect,’ which never comes,” he said.

Departing from his prepared remarks, the pope said the theory holds that when the “glass” held by the wealthy is full, it will overflow, spreading economic benefits to every-

one. But, he said, in reality “the glass begins to fill up and when it is almost full, the glass grows and grows and grows and never trickles down. Never! Be careful,” the pope warned.

Pope Francis called on all men and women to build a

society founded on solidarity where “the last are taken into consideration like the first are.”

“A society where diversity is respected is much more resistant to any type of virus,” the pope said.

Post-pandemic world must not return to selfish ‘normality,’ pope says

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CNS photo/Paul Haring Pope Francis greets Father Augusto Zampini, adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, during his general audience in the San Damaso courtyard at the Vatican Sept. 30, 2020.


Anli Serfontein Catholic News Service

BERLIN — Early 20th century-era Catholic leader Erich Klausener holds a special place in the hearts and minds of Berlin’s Catholics.

An official in the German government, Klausener was killed in 1934 by Nazi SS officers days after defending the for-mer Weimar Republic against Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist movement.

Long after Klausener’s death June 30, 1934, Catholics gath-ered twice annually at his grave in the cemetery at his parish to pray the Stations of the Cross and recall the life of one of their own who dared to question the Nazi regime.

In 2009, Klausener’s nephew, Tilman Punder, said at a memorial in the Berlin Archdiocese that his uncle was the first Catholic victim of Hitler’s repressive government.

“As a representative of a solid democracy, Klausener had defended the Weimar state against the Hitler movement. On June 30, old scores were to be settled and at the same time the activities of this dangerous Catholic leader were to be brought to an end. Calling the masses together was to remain the monopoly of the National Socialists,” Punder said.

Klausener was the highest ranking lay Catholic in the German capital. In 1929, he became the first head of Catholic Action, a lay organization founded by Pope Pius XI to encour-age Catholic participation in German society.

His death in his Ministry of Transport office came less than a week after delivering a speech to 60,000 enthusiastic Catholics.

A popular political leader, Klausener addressed the gather-ing known as Kirchentag for the third consecutive year in 1934. He ended his speech at the Hoppegarten racetrack near Berlin by opposing the exclusion of ideological opponents to the National Socialists from public life and the government’s ban on Catholic worker associations.

A lawyer, Klausener was a top civil servant for years, responsible for the police. By all accounts a conservative Catholic, Klausener in 1931 tried to get Hitler declared an undesirable person so he could be deported to Austria. When Hitler rose to power in 1932, Klausener was moved to an insignificant job in the Ministry of Transport in retribution.

Klausener also was a board member of the St. Matthew Parish in Berlin. As the summer school holidays were about to start in 1934, his parish priest, Father Albert Coppenrath, asked him to procure an unused railroad wagon to serve as a shelter for a newly acquired Catholic youth recreation center in a forest south of the city.

In a written statement later, Father Coppenrath, who died in 1960, recalled, “On Saturday, June 30, around noon, Klausener informed me by telephone that the railway car would be on site on July 3. I was delighted and thanked him for his efforts.”

Ninety minutes later, the priest wrote, he learned Klausener was dead. He said that a transport ministry official called “and asked me to inform Mrs. Klausener that her hus-band had just died in an accident.”

The official said suicide was the cause of death. “I protested vigorously against ‘suicide’ and, since I had

the sudden realization that this was a political matter, I added, angrily: ‘Nobody who knew Klausener will believe this decep-

tion!’” Father Coppenrath’s statement said. The priest accompanied Klausener’s wife to the ministry.

They encountered two SS guards in front of Klausener’s

office, who refused her request to see her husband’s body. That Saturday is known as the Night of the Long Knives,

which saw Hitler rid the Nazi ranks of opposition, including those holding wide popularity and known to publicly chal-lenge the Nazis.

A few days after his death, Klausener was buried during a secret ceremony. Today, a prominent plaque marks his grave.

After starting a collection for a tombstone, Father Coppenrath was questioned three times by the secret police. The Nazis confiscated the funds already collected. In 1938, the priest was charged with a “crime,” but the case later was dis-missed.

The charges did not stop Father Coppenrath from keeping Klausener’s memory alive twice a year: on the anniversary of his death and at the yearly All Souls procession the Sunday after Nov. 2 in the parish cemetery, where large numbers of Catholics prayed the Stations of the Cross.

Eventually, in 1943, the priest was banished from Berlin. He only returned after the war.

The circumstances surrounding Klausener’s death became known during the Nuremberg Trials, which revealed that Hermann Goering, one of the most powerful Nazi lead-ers, ordered that he be killed.

Klausener’s last act of kindness, the railway car, for 85 years provided shelter for children before it was moved in

2019 to the German Technical Museum in Berlin, where it will go on display in 2021.

Streets, squares and schools are named for Klausener

throughout Germany. In 2014, a commemorative plaque was erected in front of St. Matthew Church. A another was installed in front of his Berlin flat. His bust is displayed on the square in Hoppegarten, where he delivered his last speech.

In 1999, the German Catholic Church accepted Klausener as a witness of faith into the German martyrology of the 20th century.

The Holy See and the Third Reich signed the Reichskonkordat, a treaty that attempted to guarantee the rights of Catholics in Germany July 20, 1933. However, histo-rians agree that the Kirchentag gatherings were seen as a threat by the Nazis, who wanted the churches to return to a state of “churchification” under which worshippers would not be involved in society.

In recent decades, several Catholic theologians and laypeo-ple have called for beatification for Klausener, citing his defense of Catholics participation in public life as the reason for his death.

However, sociologist Ekkerhard Klausa, who works with the German Resistance Memorial Center in Berlin, concluded that while Klausener died because of his commitment to Christianity, he should not be considered a martyr. Klausa has explained that Klausener resolutely championed the interests of the Catholic Church, but that he had not actively fought the regime.

Klausener remembered as first Catholic victim of Nazi regime in 1934

CNS photo/courtesy Archive of the German Youth Movement

Catholic leader Erich Klausener is pictured in a 1934 photo. An official in the German government, Klausener was killed in 1934 by Nazi SS officers days after defending the former Weimar Republic against Hitler’s National Socialist movement.

Carol Zimmermann Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON — Although the Supreme Court began its new term Oct. 5, it is hardly business as usual since the court only has eight members on the bench and it is continuing to hear oral arguments by teleconference due to heath concerns.

The nation’s high court moves right into action though with two high profile cases in November: a religious freedom excep-tion to anti-discrimination laws and a review, for the third time, of the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s health care law.

The court also could be called upon to decide election dis-putes if the presidential race is close.

And hovering over all of its current work is the ongoing Senate preparation to move forward with President Donald Trump’s nomination of federal appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died Sept. 18.

Cases not on the docket this term also have the court’s attention. For example, the court has been asked by the Trump administration and several states to issue an emer-gency stay of a federal district court ruling this summer that

suspended the in-person requirement during the pandemic for women who want to receive the abortion-inducing drug, mifepristone.

And the court also has gained some notice for what it isn’t taking up.

On the first day of its new term, the justices declined to take a case from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses for same-sex couples. The court’s decision lets the lower court ruling stand, allowing a lawsuit filed against her to proceed.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, agreed with the court’s decision but also showed displeasure saying: “Davis may have been one of the first victims of this court’s cavalier treatment of religion in its Obergefell deci-sion, but she will not be the last.” Obergefell was the court’s 2015 decision that struck down state bans on same-sex mar-riage.

Back to the court’s fall schedule, on Nov. 4, it will hear oral arguments in Fulton v. Philadelphia, a religious freedom case that centers on a Catholic social services agency that had been excluded from Philadelphia’s foster care program for not

accepting same-sex couples as foster parents. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the

Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and a few Catholic Charities agencies joined more than 30 other reli-gious groups, states and a group of Congress members filed amicus briefs urging the court to protect the faith-based foster care program under its First Amendment religious exercise rights.

Six days after the foster parent case, the court will hear oral arguments challenging the nation’s health care law in a case brought by 18 Republican state attorneys general and supported by the Trump administration.

This case goes back to the court’s 2012 decision that upheld the law’s individual coverage requirement under Congress’ taxing power and the 2017 tax law that zeroed out that tax penalty. Without that tax in place the state leaders claim the ACA’s coverage requirement is unconstitutional.

The Catholic Church has had a complicated relationship with the health care law. Catholic hospitals have long empha-sized the poor and vulnerable must have access to health care, but Church leaders have objected to the law’s contraceptive mandate, requiring that employee health insurance plans provide contraceptive coverage.

Supreme Court’s new term is busy on many levels

THE MES S EN G ER • OC TOB ER 9 , 2020

The Eucharist: The Source and Summit

In the first installment of “The Eucharist: The Source and Summit” we focused on the doctrine of Jesus’ Real Presence and on prefigurements of the Eucharist in the Old Testament. In this second installment we now turn to the New Testament and will focus on the scriptural scenes and passages that pave the way for the institution of the Eucharist at the Last Supper.

Early in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus teaches his disciples to pray the “Our Father.” (Mt 6:9-15) It’s interesting that, in the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus invites us to pray for food: “give us this day our daily bread.” This seems the most “human” or “practical” of all seven petitions in the prayer. Later in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus tells us to “not be anxious about your life or what you shall eat” (Mt 6:25), yet he invites us to pray for what is necessary each day. Is it possible that Jesus is referring to a “daily bread” that is both physical and spiritual?

The fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ teaching against anxiety acknowledge our earthly needs but they also call us to turn our cares and worries over to God. We rest in God’s providence and we are called to have faith — an attitude of trust in the presence of God and openness to his will. It is not a blind trust, but an assent to what has been revealed to us.

So, while there is clearly a straightforward, earthly sense to this petition, there are deeper and higher dimensions as well.

The earthly sense is that we need sustenance to survive, and we should trust that God will take care of us. As St. Cyprian (d. 258 AD) observes: anyone who asks for bread each day is poor. In other words, the prayer presupposes the poverty of the disciples — those who have renounced the world, who seek no security other than God and pray for the fulfillment of his kingdom.

The deeper dimension is found in the context of the Exodus, when the People of God, wandering in the desert, were fed by God himself with “manna from heaven.” Jesus referred back to that story when he said, “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4; Deut 8:3). In this context, “our daily bread” is the Eucharist, the new manna from heaven.

In the fifth chapter of his book, “Jesus of Nazareth: From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration” (Ignatius Press, 2007), Pope Benedict XVI points out that the Fathers of the Church were practically unanimous in understanding the fourth petition of the Our Father as a Eucharistic petition. “[I]n this sense the Our Father figures into the Mass liturgy as a Eucharistic table-prayer (i.e. ‘grace’).” (“Jesus of Nazareth,” pg. 154) In other words, the Our Father is our prayer before the meal at our Lord’s Table.

When Jesus feeds 5,000 people by miraculously multiplying bread we are reminded, again, of the miracle of manna in the desert. In the ancient Jewish tradition it was believed that manna was originally from the Garden of Eden but, after the fall of man, was taken away and stored in heaven. Therefore, manna was a perfect food unaffected by sin, and only appeared when God sent a mediator to deliver his people from slavery. It was also believed that the Messiah who was to come would be a new Moses and would bring with him a new manna. In the Bread of Life discourse (Jn 6:35-59), Jesus repeatedly refers to “manna from heaven,” using it to explain to his disciples how they would be able to eat his flesh and drink his blood. It seems just that the new manna provided by the Messiah would be even more miraculous than the ancient manna provided in the wilderness. Jesus said: “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (Jn 6:51) When Jesus was in danger of losing many disciples because of this hard teaching he said, “For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” (Jn 6:55)

New Testament scholars widely agree that Jesus is speaking here about the Eucharistic food and drink that he will give the disciples at the Last Supper. If we consider Jesus’ words in the Bread of Life discourse from an ancient Jewish perspective then the Eucharist could never be just a symbol, it must be supernatural bread from heaven. The Eucharist is a gift of himself that Jesus left behind for all time for the people of the New Testament — us. He left us himself in his sacrifice offered under the appearance of bread and wine. It is a mani-festation of his boundless love. It is a uniquely intense fulfillment of the promise: “Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)

In the Gospels, when Jesus speaks of bread or uses bread to perform a miracle there is always a transcendent message that mankind’s true food is the Logos, the eternal Word. In the Blessed Sacrament the Eternal Word becomes true manna for us, a taste of heaven that we can experience this very day. Being in communion with God, we are sharing in the life of Jesus’ bodily resurrection. The Eucharist, our daily bread, is spiritual food for our soul, giving us graces for our journey back to God.

10 Born in Bethlehem — the ‘House of Bread’ Father Nicholas Rottman

The feeding of the five thou-sand and the Eucharist Father Ryan Stenger

11 The Bread of Life discourse — have you come to believe? Father Michael Comer

12 In the sacrament of the Eucharist, why bread and wine?

Father Daniel Schomaker

Study Questions

‘Give us this day our daily bread’ — The new manna

— David Cooley, Co-director and Office Manager, Office of Catechesis and Evangelization

The Nativity of Jesus Christ, portrayed in the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption during the Christmas season every year. Jesus was born in Bethlehem, which translates from Hebrew as “House of Bread.” The city of Bethlehem was the first place to harbor he who was to be the Bread of Life for the whole world.


Father Nicholas Rottman Okay, I’ll admit it, “O little town of the House of Bread”

does not have quite the same ring to it as “O little town of Bethlehem.” But, although not helpful for singing, it may be very helpful for our faith to know that “Bethlehem” means exactly that. The name is old Hebrew and comes from bêth (house) and lehem (bread). As Christians, we recognize immediately the significance. Bethlehem, the “House of Bread,” was the place where Jesus Christ entered the world on that first Christmas morning. How does Jesus describe himself later on in his public min-istry? “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst” (Jn. 6:35). In this pas-sage, Jesus emphasizes that he is the nourish-ment, the food that we as believers need to strengthen us as we make our pilgrimage through this land of exile. But what sort of nourishment is this? Is it just a purely spiritu-al nourishment? No.

By the time of Jesus’ birth, Hebrew was not the spoken language of the Jewish people, but rather Arabic. Interesting, the Arabic equivalent of bêth lehem is bêt lahm, which means “house of meat.” You just can’t make this stuff up! Jesus promises that he will feed us not just by some spiritual power or grace but also with his own flesh and blood: “My flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. […] This is the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (Jn 6:55–56, 58) In the holy Eucharist, Jesus provides food for the world — the food of his body, blood, soul and divinity. And God symbolically pre-figured all of this through the name of the town where he was born. Christ, born in the House of Bread, has become our food for the journey of life.

This Christmas, we should have a new appreciating of the Nativity Scene thanks to the meaning of “Bethlehem.” There in a manger — a container for holding food and feeding hungry animals — lays the Bread of Life who will sacrifice his flesh to give us new

life. Bethlehem is truly both the House of Bread from Heaven and the House of the meat of Christ’s body. Indeed, this is why it is so important that we celebrate Christmas (Christ-Mass) by attending holy Mass and receiving the Body of Christ in holy Communion.

As we prepare for that celebration through the Advent season, let us remember that Christ can come to us every day — every day can be Christmas —because of the holy Eucharist. St. Bernard of Clairvaux said that there are three comings of Jesus Christ (see Sermo 5, In Adventu Domini, 1-3). The first, which we are preparing to celebrate

at Christmas, is his coming as man at the Incarnation. The second, which we look forward to with a mixture of antic-ipation and fear, is his coming to judge the living and the dead at the end of the world. In between these two com-ings, said St. Bernard, is a third coming. That is Jesus’ mysterious and sacramental coming to us in the most holy Eucharist. By our worthy reception, may we ourselves become a new Bethlehem — a house of the Bread of Life and a house of the meat of Christ’s body in the most holy Eucharist.

Father Nicholas Rottman is a priest in the Diocese of Covington, currently on sabbatical.

Born in Bethlehem — the ‘House of Bread’

Father Ryan Stenger The only one of the miracles of Jesus that is included

in all four of the Gospel accounts is his feeding of the crowd of five thousand with miraculously multiplied bread and fish. Obviously this event greatly affected the first Christians and was influential in forming their understanding of the Lord’s identity and mission.

In the Gospel according to John, the miracle of the feed-ing of the five thousand is reported at the beginning of the sixth chapter and is followed by the Lord’s famous Bread of Life discourse, in which Christ explains to the crowd his teaching on the Eucharist, thus drawing a strong connec-tion between the miraculous feeding of the crowd and the sacrament of his Body and Blood that he would institute at the Last Supper. The evangelist also emphasizes this con-nection in his description of the time and place of the mir-acle. St. John writes, “Jesus went up on the mountain, and there he sat down with his disciples” (John 6:3). So often throughout the Bible the mountaintop is where God and man come together most profoundly. Moses received the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai, the prophet Elijah spoke to God in the silent whisper on Mt. Horeb, Christ himself was transfigured in glory on Mt. Tabor, and cruci-fied on Calvary. According to the ancient imagination, the mountain was the place where heaven and earth meet, the symbol of God reaching down to us as we reach up to him.

And St. John also writes, “The Jewish feast of Passover was near” (John 6:4). It was on Passover that the sacrificial lambs were put to death in remembrance of God’s libera-tion of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt. Of course, Christ would die on the Cross at Passover time, as the true Lamb of God whose sacrifice saves us from death and lib-

erates us from slavery to sin. And so, with these details, St. John is showing that the miracle that Christ performed in feeding this massive crowd was not simply a matter of pro-viding ordinary food, but that it was symbolic of some-thing much more, that the bread he gave them prefigured

the Bread of Life about which he would go on to teach them, the Eucharist — the place where heaven and earth meet, the unbloody

re-presentation of the sacrifice of the Cross, the Lord’s sacred Body offered up and his precious Blood poured out.

It’s easy to imagine that enormous crowd of five thou-

The feeding of the five thousand and the Eucharist

Parishioners at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish, Burlington, participate in Mass.


Father Michael Comer “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink

his blood, you will not have life within you.” Jesus spoke these words to a group of his disciples — those who had already begun to follow him, and who had at least the beginnings of faith in him. But these words shocked them to the core. The very idea of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus was totally repulsive to them. In fact, they were, as Jews, forbidden to have any contact with blood at all. It made them ritually unclean. And so, they turned away from him. We are told that they returned to their former ways of life. They abandoned him, and refused to have any more to do with him. This was just too much.

We read this account in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John — what is called the Bread of Life discourse. It is a dialogue between Jesus and his followers, who have expe-rienced the miracle of the multiplication of the bread and fishes, and want him to continue to provide for their phys-ical sustenance. Jesus explains that they have missed the point. God wishes to feed them with bread from heaven that will give them eternal life. “Give us this bread

always,” they respond. Jesus then begins to explain to them that he himself is

the Bread from Heaven. He is the only one who can satisfy the deepest hungers of the human heart. Only he can give them eternal life. If they eat this bread they will never be hungry again. They will never thirst again. They are shocked, because they have never heard this kind of talk from a rabbi before. Each of them taught about God and how God would satisfy their deepest longings. But Jesus is saying that he himself will fulfill their deepest longings. This is scandalous at best, and blatant heresy at worst. Who does he think he is? Who, indeed!

At this point in the discourse, Jesus changes the metaphors. He no longer speaks of bread from heaven, but of his own flesh and blood. “The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.” This is even more shocking. “How can he give us his flesh to eat? What can this possibly mean?” And now Jesus becomes even more shocking in his statements.

“Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you will have no life in you.” Now he is not only talking about eating his flesh, but drinking his blood. How repulsive! How disgusting! How offensive! Jesus keeps pushing the issue, not softening his words in any way. In fact, he doubles down, beginning to use a new word for “eat”, which is typically used to refer to a dog gnawing on a bone. “My flesh is real food, and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh (whoever gnaws on my flesh like a dog gnawing on a bone) and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him.”

It is at this moment that the line had been crossed. Jesus had gone too far. It is one thing to say that God will provide for his children. It is something else for Jesus to identify himself with God and tell them that he would pro-vide for them. If Jesus had said that God had sent him to provide for his people that would have been somewhat acceptable. But when Jesus essentially made himself equal to God that was too much. And when he said that we must eat his body and drink his blood, that was really too much. But now, he has become even more graphic, even more literal, telling us that we must actually gnaw or chew on his flesh and drink his blood — this is a bridge too far.

I am certain that Jesus must have felt a great sadness as he watched these followers of his turn away, and reject not

only this teaching but also him. He loved them. He had come in order to redeem them, and to be

the food that would satisfy them, and make them into the children of God. It must have broken his heart. Couldn’t he have tried a little harder to hold on to them, and not let them leave? Couldn’t he have softened his teaching just a little bit, so that it would have been less shocking and upsetting to them? But he didn’t. He let them walk away. If they could not accept this teaching, they could not be his disciples. This was that important.

We then see Jesus look with sadness to the Twelve. His words are filled with hurt and disappointment and fear. “Are you going to leave me, too?” My guess is that the

Apostles were just as shocked and confused by this teach-ing as were those in the crowd. They too were repulsed and repelled by the idea of eating Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood. They were shaken to the core. And yet Peter responds, for all of them, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe that you are the Holy One of God.” In other words, “We don’t get this either. It makes no sense to us. But we know and believe in you, and so we are staying. We trust you.”

Some studies state that on any given Sunday, only about 20 percent of those who identify as Catholic attend Mass. And only about half attend with any regularity at all. There are many reasons for this, but I believe that one of the main reasons is that in their heart, many Catholics do not believe what Jesus tells us in this Bread of Life dis-course. “I am the Bread that has come down from heaven. … I am the Bread of Life. … Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. If you eat this bread, you will live forever. … This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. … Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, you will not have life within you. … 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 him.”

If we truly believe the words of Jesus and what he is promising to those who eat his flesh and drink his blood, how could we possibly absent ourselves from the Mass?

Let us pray for a rediscovery, by the Catholic people, of the remarkable gift of the Eucharist, the Bread from Heaven, and the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ himself.

Father Michael Comer is the pastor of Mother of God Parish, Covington.


sand following the Lord across the Sea of Galilee and up the mountain. They surely must have been hungry and weary and maybe even lost and confused. How many times throughout their lives had they sought for a way to satisfy their hunger, for a place to find rest, for a source of guidance and direction, but been left unfulfilled in the end? But now they have come to Christ. And after they have been fed by him, St. John tells us that they “had their fill” and still there were twelve baskets of bread left over (John 6:12). That crowd stands for all of mankind, because we all have a profound spiritual hunger, a longing for more than what the world can give. Our hearts reach out towards the infinite, the transcendent, the divine, because God has made us for himself. Only in him are we able to have our fill, so to speak.

And it is in the Eucharist that he gives himself to us as food to sustain us on our journey towards him, as the only food that is able to satisfy that most fundamental longing of our hearts. If it were merely a symbol, it would not be enough, but the Lord gives himself to us truly in the Eucharist — his Body and Blood, his soul and divinity. And he gives himself to us not simply in a momentary way during the liturgy, but he remains with us always in the Tabernacle. His presence abides in our midst; he lives within his Church, so that we always have access to him, so that we’re always able to find our sustenance in com-munion with him.

The Second Vatican Council taught that the Eucharist is the source and summit of the whole Christian life (Lumen Gentium, n. 11). It is in the Eucharist that God lives among us — from him do our lives come and to him are our lives directed. He must indeed be the source and summit of our lives, as a Church, as a diocese, as parishes, as families, as individuals. But sometimes we lose sight of that. It seems so common to hear the Church spoken of as a sort of social service agency, which exists to run hospi-tals, and schools, and soup kitchens, but then for it to be forgotten that her primary purpose, the reason for all of her activity, is the worship of God. A parish, for example, can do all sorts of great things, but if it doesn’t draw its people closer to Christ in the Eucharist, then it has com-pletely failed in its mission. And it is the same way in our individual lives. We can become so consumed with activity and busy-ness, even good and important and necessary things, that we lose sight of God living in our midst, that we sometimes even tell ourselves that we don’t have time to spend with him and worship him. Sometimes we look for our sustenance and satisfaction in other places; some-times we direct our lives to other ends.

But the Lord’s miraculous feeding of the five thousand reminds us that only he can truly feed us, only he can sat-isfy the restlessness of our hearts. May we never look for our happiness apart from him who lives with us always in the Eucharist, so that we might live at all times with him as the source and summit of all that we do.

Father Ryan Stenger, J.C.L., is pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Camp Springs; and judge, Diocesan Tribunal Office.

The Bread of Life discourse — have you come to believe?

(Continued from page 10)

In this Messenger file photo, priests from the Diocese of Covington pray before the Blessed Sacrament during the August Holy Hour for Victims of Abuse and Sanctification of Priests.


Father Daniel Schomaker The Eucharist is “the source and summit of the

Christian life. The other sacraments, and indeed all eccle-siastical ministries and works of the apostolate, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented toward it. For in the blessed Eucharist is contained the whole spiritual good of the Church, namely Christ himself, our Pasch.” (CCC 1324) The Church’s teaching in memoriam tells us that contained in the “sacred species” and veiled in the objects of bread and wine, is in fact Jesus Christ! His very body, blood, soul and divinity!

But why when we celebrate the sacrament of the Eucharist do we use bread and wine? The simplest explanation is that we are adher-ing to the command of the Lord when at the Last Supper “He took bread and gave it to his disciples…” and “He took the cup filled with wine … ‘Do this in memory of me.’” Ultimately as believers this should be enough, but since God has given us a mind let’s delve a little deeper.

After being cast out of the Garden of Eden because of disobedience, God tells man that it is “bread you shall eat, by the sweat of your brow.” (cf. Gen. 3:19) Humanity also offers back to God the “first-fruits” of the field — as seen in the offering of Abel and later in the offering of bread and wine by the priest-king Melchizedek. Prior to their journey into the desert as they fled Egypt, the Israelites ate “unleavened bread”; and when wandering in the desert, it was the manna or “bread from heaven” that God gave to sustain them.

The gift of bread to eat (which we pray for every time we offer the Lord’s Prayer) is a sign of “the pledge of God’s faithfulness to his promises.” (CCC 1334) Or another way to say this is that in the midst of the trials of life and on our pilgrimage towards the “promised land” (Heaven) and in our thanksgiving to God for any and all blessings, it is bread that always sustains us physically and reminds us of God’s closeness.

The gift of wine or “the fruit of the vine” also finds its way into the revelation of salva-tion history. Just as there was an offering of bread in the Old Testament, so too was there

an offering of wine — often referred to as the “cup of bless-ing.” At the conclusion of the Jewish Passover meal, this “cup” “adds to the festive joy of wine an eschatological dimension: the messianic expectation of the rebuilding of Jerusalem.” (CCC 1334) We also see, in Jesus’ very first public miracle — the Wedding Feast at Cana — the cen-trality of wine, where he transforms water into wine, but not just any wine, the very best wine. And this miracle takes place at a joyful celebration.

So, why do we use bread and wine for the celebration of

the Eucharist? 1. Jesus said to; 2. Bread points us to the continual sustenance we receive from the

Lord when we cooperate with his grace; 3. Wine points us to the joy of the Gospel and of our eschatological end, heaven; 4. Human beings are a compilation of body and soul; both need to be fed — bread sustains the body; wine sustains the soul.

Father Daniel Schomaker is vicar general; pastor, St. Augustine Parish, Covington; moderator of the Curia; and assistant director of seminarians in the Diocese of Covington.

In the sacrament of the Eucharist, why bread and wine?

In this Messenger file photo, students bring the bread and wine forward which will become the Body and Blood of the Lord during Ash Wednesday Mass 2019 at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption.

How can we relate the Christmas story to the Eucharist?

Name two miracles, besides the Eucharist, that Jesus performed with bread or wine.

Where in the Bible do we find the Bread of Life discourse? Why are these passages so unique?

Throughout the entire Bible, what do bread and wine symbolize?

Study Questions

What does the Eucharist mean to you? What people are saying around the Diocese.

Mother Margaret Mary Fields, Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ

“Our life is surrounded by Eucharistic sacrifice and Eucharistic adoration. Our life is built around the Eucharist … (at the monastery) we have Eucharistic adoration every day, we expose the Blessed Sacrament every day at 4-5:30 p.m. in the pub-lic chapel. We should all be look-

ing forward to going back to Mass because seeing Mass on television is good, but at the same time, you’re not getting the full benefit of the Mass. The Eucharist is so important in all our lives.”

Prayer for after receiving Holy Communion:Soul of Christ, sanctify me.

Body of Christ, save me.

Blood of Christ, inebriate me.

Water from the side of Christ, wash me.

Passion of Christ, strengthen me.

O Good Jesus, hear me.

Within Thy wounds, hide me.

Separated from Thee let me never be.

From the malignant enemy, defend me.

At the hour of death, call me.

To come to Thee, bid me,

That I may praise Thee in the company

Of Thy Saints, for all eternity.

Amen.

Anima Christi, sanctifica me.

Corpus Christi, salva me.

Sanguis Christi, inebria me.

Aqua lateris Christi, lava me.

Passio Christi, conforta me.

O bone Iesu, exaudi me.

Intra tua vulnera absconde me.

Ne permittas me separari a te.

Ab hoste maligno defende me.

In hora mortis meae voca me.

Et iube me venire ad te,

Ut cum Sanctis tuis laudem te

in saecula saeculorum.

Amen.

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the team to the NBA Championship. What I find unique about Kerr are the four core values

that are part of the Warriors’ culture under his leader-ship — joy, mindfulness, competition and compassion. Compassion? Compassion for men who are multi-million-aires? Yes, Kerr understands how difficult their jobs can be and the sacrifices they make to contribute to the team’s success. Kerr’s core values provide an opportunity for a coach to reflect and answer the first question any coach should be able to answer: Why do I coach?

Former NFL player and current coach educator Joe

Erhmann talks about the idea of a transformational coach versus a transactional coach. A transactional coach uses players to meet their own personal needs while the transformational coach uses their platform to impart life-changing messages.

I think that’s why God called me back to coach high school basketball. He wanted me to use this gift — this vocation — to impact lives.

Jesus calls us to use our gifts: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faith-ful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” (1 Peter 4:10)

Yes, I want to win games and championships as much as anyone. But my joy in returning to coach high school

basketball is going to be tied to serving others — to the relationships I help foster and the life messages I am able to impart. The reality is that I may be around these boys as much as their parents are, at least during the season. I better be ready to serve.

Why do I coach? I coach to use the game of basketball to connect and inspire others while bringing them closer to who God created them to be.

Rich Hoyt is an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, a parishioner at St. Agnes Parish, Ft. Wright, and a longtime youth and high school coach. He is the lead trainer for the Play Like A Champion Today program in the Diocese of Covington.


Call Kim at the Messenger for information on placing your ad in the Classified Advertisements. (859) 392-1500

Coaching is a ministry (Continued from page 5)

NOVENA TO SAINT ANTHONY FOR A SICK CHILD. St. Anthony, your love for the Infant Jesus inspired Him to reward you by seeing and holding Him in your arms. Help us to see and love Jesus in all the poor and suffering children in the world, particularly (name child) whom is afflicted with (name condition). Intercede for (name the child) asking our compas-sionate Lord Jesus to heal him/her so that he/she may grow to love the Lord and His servant, St. Anthony. Guard this life that God has created. Let your gentle hand, like that of a skilled physician, rest lovingly upon this afflicted child that he/she may be immediately restored to health. Amen. E.A.C.

NOVENA

NOVENA TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN. Oh, most beautiful flower of Mt. Carmel, fruitful vine, splendor of Heaven, Blessed Mother of the Son of God, Immaculate Virgin, assist me in my necessity. Oh Star of the Sea, help me and show me here you are my Mother. Oh Holy Mary, Mother of God, Queen of Heaven and Earth. I humbly beseech you from the bottom of my heart to succor me in my necessity (make your request). There are none that can withstand your power. Oh Mary, Pray for us who have recourse to Thee, (three times). Holy Mary, I place this prayer in your hands. (three times). M.B.

NOVENA

ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF CATHOLIC SCHOOLS

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Covington, KY (www.covdio.org) is seeking qualified candidates for the position of Assistant Superintendent of Catholic Schools. The Assistant Superintendent is responsible for collecting and aggregating statistical data for each school i.e. test scores, student information, faculty and staff information, tuition and fees, attendance, calendar, etc. The Assistant Superintendent helps with the educational adminis-tration of the Alliance for Catholic Urban Education (ACUE) schools, and facilitates government programs/funding, curriculum and assessment, professional development, and school communication. Overall, the position encounters a wide diversity of work situations and involves a high degree of complexity with responsibility for advising and decision making in many areas. Candidates must be practicing Roman Catholics in good standing, able and willing to give witness to the Catholic faith at all times, with a Master’s degree in Education/ Administration and previous experience in school administrative leadership. Interested individuals should submit a letter of interest along with a comprehensive resume or C-V, recent Baptismal certificate indicating sacramental preparation, and a list of at least five professional references to Stephen Koplyay, SPHR: [email protected], FAX 859/392-1589, or mail to 1125 Madison Avenue, Covington, KY 41011-3115. EOE

Schools are now offer-ing complementary lunch to all students

Messenger Staff Report All schools in the Diocese of Covington who participate

in the National School Lunch Program will begin partici-pating in an expanded program offered by the U.S.D.A. This program has been offered as a way to provide relief to families during the pandemic and ensure all students have access to meals.

Schools will begin participation in this program begin-ning Monday, Oct. 5 and will continue through Dec. 31 or until federal funds have been depleted. During this time, students will receive complementary meals. There is noth-ing for school families to do to qualify for or enroll in the complementary meal program — all students are welcome and encouraged to participate. This means, all students may choose a hot school lunch or grab-n-go meal at no cost to the family.

Schools can also choose to offer a morning snack or a grab-n-go breakfast as an additional option for families.

This will be served at 8 a.m.

As part of the pro-gram, schools will also offer these com-plementary meals to children who are not enrolled in a Catholic school. This means families with younger children may pre-order meals and pick them up at the desig-nated time and loca-tion. Children up to 18 years of age are eligi-ble for the free meal. More information on the procedures for this option will be available on the school website.

“We hope this pro-gram will be helpful to families during these challenging times,” said Jackie Kaiser, director, School Lunch Program for the Diocese of Covington.

For more informa-tion visit your school website or contact the school office or cafete-ria manager.


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For all employees and volunteers of the Diocese of Covington who in any way provide a safe environment for children. Step 1: Contact parish/school institution leader to review the Policies and Procedures and fill out the Application and Acceptance Forms. Step 2: Go to www.virtus.org and click on Registration. Follow the prompts to create an account and to request a background check. Selection.com is a secure site; the background check is posted on your account and you receive a

copy if you request it during the registration process. You will sign up for a virtual VIRTUS class during the registration. Step 3: Join the virtual VIRTUS session. The day before the session, you will receive an e-mail with 4 documents attached to print. On the day of the session you will receive an invitation to join the session. No children, please. Step 4: Your account becomes active when your background check, VIRTUS session and Acceptance Form are posted on your account.

You will receive 12 bulletins per year. You will receive e-mail notices at [email protected] unless your computer program blocks them. Bulletin: n Oct. bulletin: posted

Sunday, Oct. 4; due Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Virtual Training: n Tuesday, Oct. 20,

12:30–4 p.m.

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Congregation of Divine Providence Sister Elizabeth Kelemen (for-merly Sister Mary Agneta) died peacefully at Holy Family Home Sept. 24, 2020. She was a professed member of the Congregation of Divine Providence for 74 years. Born in Cumberland, Kentucky in 1927 to Andrew and Anna Kelemen, she made her first profession of vows in 1946 and professed her final vows in 1951.

Sister Elizabeth began her ministry of teaching in 1946 at St. Vincent de Paul School, Newport and taught in several other elementary schools in Kentucky and Maryland until 1977 when she went to St. John School, Dry Ridge, Ohio. Her long tenure there in the classroom conclud-ed in 2001. She continued serving St. John’s by helping to raise funds for the school until 2008 when she retired to Holy Family Home in Melbourne. There she served in a variety of ways until she moved to the Health Care Center in 2018.

She was a well-liked classroom teacher, whose students kept up with

her for many years. She enjoyed good conversation and fun with friends and sisters and especially enjoyed opportunities to visit or have meals together in local restaurants.

She will be missed by her reli-gious community, the Sisters of Divine Providence, her brother Elmer and her many nieces and nephews who visited with her regularly. Her sis-

ters, Anna and Sister Teresa Ann, CDP and her brothers Andrew, John, Anthony, Joe, Dennis and Louis pre-ceded her in death.

A private Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated in Immaculate Conception Chapel, Holy Family Home, Melbourne on Wednesday, September 30 at 9 a.m. with her burial in the convent cemetery following Mass. A public celebration of her life will take place at a future date. Memorials to the Congregation of Divine Providence, 5300 Saint Anne Drive, Melbourne, KY 41059.

Obituary

Sister Elizabeth Kelemen, C.D.P.

Notre Dame Sister Marianna Rumpke was born Aug. 15, 1933, to Herman and Mary Rumpke in Cincinnati, Ohio, the sixth of seven children. She described her large family as loving and faith-filled. Mary Ann, her given name, attended St. Charles School, Carthage, Ohio, and then graduated from Our Lady of Angels High School, St. Bernard, Ohio, in 1951. Shortly, after graduating, she entered the Sisters of Notre Dame, where she made her profession of vows on Aug. 25, 1954.

Sister Marianna (for-merly Sister Mary Herman Joseph) started her ministry teaching elementary school in the dio-ceses of Covington, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio. She received her BS in Elementary Education at Our Lady of Cincinnati College, and a few years later earned a Master of Education Reading Specialist from Eastern Kentucky University.

Sister was then missioned for seven years to Holy Trinity Parish and School in Harlan, Kentucky, as a teacher and tutor. Sister Marianna and the other sisters there started an outreach for the entire Harlan community. It included a front-porch pantry for distributing food, diapers, clothing, and money for medicine.

They turned no one away. In 1973, Sister returned home to

Northern Kentucky and ministered as principal and administrator in sev-eral local schools. She worked many of those years as principal at St. John’s elementary school, Covington (now known as Prince of Peace Montessori). After over 57 years of teaching and working with children, sister retired to Lourdes Hall, but her ministry did not stop after teaching. At St. Joseph Heights, she shared her gift of needle work and sewing. Sister Marianna created beautiful stuffed animals and dolls for the annual Fourth of July Festival. It was rare to see her without a needle in hand. If she was not creating, she was partici-pating in a friendly Scrabble game or puzzle with other sisters and staff

members. She will be greatly missed. Sister Marianna Rumpke went home to God

Sept. 25, 2020. Sister is preceded in death by her parents, her brothers Albert, Edward, Raymond, Herman, and her sister, Virginia Ollinger. She is survived by her dear sister, Dorothy Compton, as well as many beloved nieces and nephews.

Due to the current health-care restrictions on gatherings, a private Catholic Mass took place at St. Joseph Heights chapel, followed by burial in the convent cemetery. A celebration of Sister Marianna’s life will be held for family and friends at a later date. Memorials are suggested to the Sisters of Notre Dame, Covington, Ky.

Obituary

Sister Marianna Rumpke, S.N.D.

Colleen Rowan Catholic News Service

FOLLANSBEE, W.Va. — West Virginia’s Catholic bish-op had a message Sept. 29 for members of police and fire departments, Emergency Medical Services personnel and those serving in the U.S. military: “Hold your heads high. You have noble professions.”

Bishop Mark E. Brennan, who heads the statewide Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, made the remarks dur-ing a Blue Mass he said at St. Anthony Church in Follansbee. The Mass draws its name from the traditional uniform colors associated with these professions.

The congregation included local dignitaries, as well as the family members and community members who sup-port these men and women who risk their lives in public service.

Bishop Brennan began his homily noting that Jewish and Christian traditions have honored the angels and seen them as a true ministry of God toward mankind.

Most notably, he pointed to the Archangels Michael, Raphael and Gabriel: Michael is the defender of God’s peo-ple; Raphael’s angelic mission on earth was to heal; and Gabriel was the messenger of divine comfort, most partic-ularly when he reveals to Mary that she will be the mother

of our Savior. “God uses these archangels to serve

his people, to serve his creation,” Bishop Brennan said. “And those who serve in and among the police and fire depart-ments, first responders and in the mili-tary imitate, among human beings, what these archangels do.”

“All of these folks are agents of com-fort and providers of security in our communities, and it is right to honor them for what they do,” the bishop said. “Sometimes they have to risk their health and their lives to do their jobs.”

Bishop Brennan also called to mind the many police and firefighters who have been killed doing their jobs.

“We also hear of the bad apples,” the bishop said. “It is true there are some bad apples. ... And bad apples have to be dealt with.” He warned that there can be a culture of silence and circling the wag-ons mentality, which can prevent progress and reform that are needed.

“The bad apples, my friends, are not the whole story. They simply aren’t,” Bishop Brennan said. “In my experi-ence over many years most police and fire, medical, first responders, and those serving in the military are dedicated to serving others. And they try to do it faithfully.”

Bishop Brennan said he believes the majority of people recognize this. “If you ask people in poor neighborhoods in some of our great cities, do they want the police to be defunded? Do you know what they say? No. They want police protection.”

At this Mass, the bishop said the community honors those who dedicate their lives and their energies to the peo-ple, to keeping all safe and responding when problems occur.

“I encourage you, who are in these wonderful public service professions, hold your heads high. As there are angels that serve and continue to serve God so you do by serving your fellow human beings,” the bishop said.

“You have noble professions,” he continued. “Never let anyone take that away from you. Honor God, trust him, and pray as we heard in the psalm, When I called, you answered me. You built up strength within me.”

patroness of the hospital, blessed the space and led those gathered in prayer.

“Let us ask for God’s blessing on all the sick who are patients, and on those who devote themselves to caring for them,” he prayed. “We ask a divine blessing on this center, dedicated to the care of those in need. … Grant that, com-forted in their illness, the patients will quickly regain their health and joyfully thank you for the favors they have received.”

Bishop Foys expressed his gratitude for the new center and all the good work it will do. “One of the primary things that Jesus did in his life, beside teaching, was healing the sick … this facility continues the work of the Lord Jesus,” he said. “I’m so pleased to be here.”

As part of the dedication, Jospeh Bozzelli, staff chap-lain, read from Scripture and led those present in a respon-sory psalm and prayers of the faithful.

Debbie Simpson, Board of Trustees chair, also addressed those gathered. “I’m extremely proud to know that this cen-ter is being built for the benefit of our community and through the support of the community,” she said. “The structure signifies the unity of people throughout our region, who have come together to change cancer outcome for our region. … Together we will change the cancer narra-tive for our family, our friends and our community.”

The idea was conceived about three years ago after a Community Needs Assessment, according to Dr. Doug Flora, MD, executive director. The St. Elizabeth staff sur-veyed educators, politicians and local community leaders on what they thought the most pressing needs were for healthcare in the region. The results showed it was cancer care, cardiac care and mental health and addiction. Two other centers, dedicated to cardiovascular care and mental health care, were completed since then.

“This was the final cog in the wheel for us,” said Dr. Flora.

Kentucky is currently first in the country for cancer-related diagnoses and deaths, first for lung cancer deaths and first for colon cancer. St. Elizabeth’s solution is the region’s first world-class cancer center, featuring screening and prevention, precision medicine and genomic health, clinical research and the most advanced technology in the field. Ground was broken in 2018, and the center has contin-ued in construction since then, leading up to fall 2020 and the grand opening.

The center, Dr. Flora said, is a promise. “I feel like we have had thousands of meetings, planning and scheduling and schematics … now we’re actually inviting patients into our home. To finally have these guests who are able to take advantage of the gifts of this building means a lot to me.”

As a former cancer patient himself, Dr. Flora said he made sure the new center was built around the patients and their convenience. At every level of decision making, even

interviewing for navigator positions, patients set the bar. One of the major advantages of this facility, said Dr.

Flora, is its capacity for multidisciplinary care. “All of the providers that a patient would need to see can combat that cancer under one roof … You can see three or four doctors in a half day in the same clinic, that’s unique. Sometimes these things take three or four weeks and different offices to get through the queue of medical oncology and surgeons and radiation doctors. Now we’re all going to see you on a Tuesday morning, within an hour and a half of each other … I think that relieves some of the burdens off the patients themselves and also makes us expect a little bit more of our-selves as caretakers to make sure that the process is built around the patients themselves, rather than around the doc-tors, which has been the traditional way.”

Another asset is the attitude around the center of addressing the whole person — body, mind and spirit.

“We’ve got places for prayer and quiet reflection, for mas-sages or acupuncture, in addition to cutting edge clinical trials … This is worthy for our patients, they deserve access to clinical trials,” said Dr. Flora.

“What we’re going to do here is challenge the rest of the community to keep up, and if you want to provide the same level of care that we’re going to afford our patients, you’d better be ready to do screening detec-tion, precision medicine, cooking classes, all of these softer touches I think will distance us from the field and maybe make the other centers realize that it’s about the whole person and not just the cancer,” he said.

The center opens for its first chemotherapy infu-sion on Oct. 1, and the fol-lowing Monday the medical oncologist practice moves in. Mr. Colvin said overall, it’s taken 700,000 people hours, employing 2100 employees during a pan-demic. “When the world slowed down, this building kept going. We were able to do it safely, on time, and for this community.”

“Today is a momentous day for the fight against cancer in Northern Kentucky,” said Mr. Colvin in conclusion.


New cancer center (Continued from page 1)

‘Hold your heads high,’ West Virginia bishop tells first responders, military

CNS photo/courtesy Diocese of Portland

Members of a multijurisdictional honor guard attend a Blue Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, Maine, Sept. 20, 2020. The principal celebrant was Bishop Robert P. Deeley.

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CRS report says poverty, not religious conflict, causes Sahel violence

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The rise in violence in West Africa’s Sahel region is a result of unequal access to wealth rather than clashes of religious beliefs, a new report from Catholic Relief Services said. “While the crisis may be painted by some as reli-gious or ethnic in nature, it’s actually a result of perceived inequality and a growing discontent with government,” CRS said in a Sept. 30 press statement. “The daily atrocities we’re seeing reflect an extremely complex reality that is rooted in despair,” said Patrick Williams, CRS program manager for the Sahel Peace Initiative. “We’re talking about communities where the number of unemployed people far exceeds the number of those able to earn a meaningful living,” he said. The initiative is a multicountry Catholic response to the crisis that focuses on Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which are at the epicenter of the violence, but also includes neighboring Ivory Coast and Ghana. Although Catholics comprise a small percentage of the total population in Sahel, the Church is respected by the population “regardless of their faith and is seen as a neutral, objective and nonpolitical actor across the region,” said the CRS report, titled “Steps Towards Peace.”

Trump administration drops refugee cap to historic low

WASHINGTON — The steep slope, appearing almost as a verti-cal line, is a stunning mark by the Trump administration on what was once a refugee program recognized around the world as a model to welcome the tyrannized and persecuted masses. Late Sept. 30, the administration announced it would bring the refugee cap — the maximum number of displaced people the country decides to resettle in a federal fiscal year — to a historic low: 15,000. The average during presidencies of both Republicans and Democrats had been around 95,000. But the announcement on the new cap doesn’t mean the bad news for refugees, or organizations that help them, ended there. “It’s not official, the president still has to sign it,” so no refugees can enter the country until that hap-pens, said Ashley Feasley, director of policy for Migration and Refugee Services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Auxiliary Bishop Mario E. Dorsonville of Washington said Oct. 2 the low number was “heartbreaking,” given “the global need and the capacity and wealth of the United States.”

Pandemic stimulus bill excludes Catholic school students, their families

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the U.S. bishops’ education committee said Oct. 1 “it is unconscionable” the HEROES Act stimulus bill proposed in the House is excluding Catholic school students and their families. The bill includes $225 billion for edu-cation, including $182 billion for K-12 schools, but “provides no equitable services for students in nonpublic schools and main-tains language that prohibits any funds from being used to pro-vide financial assistance to nonpublic school children,” said a news release about the measure from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. “This has the effect of excluding virtually any aid to students, families and teachers in nonpublic schools,” the release stated. In his statement, Bishop Michael C. Barber of Oakland, California, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on Catholic Education, noted the COVID-19 pandemic “has affected all Americans, including those whose children are enrolled in Catholic and nonpublic schools. It is unconscionable that this lat-est aid proposal would exclude these American children and the schools they attend from emergency aid that would ease the finan-cial burdens they have borne as a result of the pandemic,” he said.

Cardinal Farrell to lead commission determining confidential contracts

VATICAN CITY — Continuing his efforts to ensure financial

transparency and accountability, Pope Francis named Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life to lead a commission that determines which economic activi-ties remain confidential. The pope also named Archbishop Filippo Iannone, president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, as secretary of the newly formed “Commission for Reserved Matters,” the Vatican announced Oct. 5. The pope named several members to the committee, including Bishop Fernando Vergez Alzaga, secretary general of Vatican City State; Bishop Nunzio Galantino, president of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See, which handles the Vatican’s investment portfolio and real estate holdings; and Jesuit Father Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves, prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy. The commission was a part of the new transparency laws enacted by the pope in June covering contracts for the purchase of goods, property and services for both the Roman Curia and Vatican City State offices, and was part of further centralizing control over the Vatican’s finances. The goal of the new laws was also to save money by establishing central purchasing offices at the Governorate for Vatican City State and at the administration of the patrimony of the Holy See for offices of the Roman Curia.

Bishops offer good wishes, prayers for Trumps, all suffering from COVID-19

WASHINGTON — Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said he was praying for President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump, adding, “May God grant them full healing and may he keep their family safe and healthy.” “Let us keep praying for all who are suffering because of the novel coronavirus, especially the sick and dying and their families, and all those who have lost loved ones,” he said in a statement late Oct. 4. “May God give them hope and comfort, and may he bring an end to this pandemic.” In a tweet just before 1 a.m. Oct. 2, the president announced he and the first lady had tested positive for COVID-19. Late Oct. 2, President Trump was flown by helicopter to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center just outside Washington in Bethesda, Maryland, for a few days out of “an abundance of caution,” the White House said, adding the 74-year-old president was experiencing “mild symptoms.” Early Oct. 5, his doctors said it was possible he would be discharged to return to the White House later that day.

Pope Benedict had approved the Vatican-China agreement

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican-China agreement on the appointment of bishops was a pastoral, not political agreement, that also had been approved by Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican Secretary of State said. Every pope, from St. Paul VI to Pope Francis, has tried to resolve what Pope Benedict described as a diffi-cult situation “of misunder-standings and incomprehen-sion” that did not benefit “either the Chinese authorities nor the Catholic Church in China,” Cardinal Pietro Parolin said, according to Vatican News Oct. 3. Pope Benedict himself, the cardinal said, approved “the draft agreement on the appointment of bishops in China,” which was signed in 2018 by the Holy See and Chinese officials and is due for renewal at the end of October. The cardinal was speaking at a conference in Milan, marking the 150th anniversary of the presence of missionaries of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in China. Vatican offi-

cials repeatedly have said that the agreement with China deals only with the appointment of bishops, a question essential for the unity and survival of the Catholic Church in the country.

Russia’s Catholic Church warns against proposed curbs on clergy

WARSAW, Poland — Catholic Church officials in Russia criti-cized planned religious law changes that will require all clergy who studied abroad to retrain in a Russian college. “Like other confessions, we find it absurd to talk of recertifying priests who are already in service and of having to send our archbishop back to seminary for a course in Russian history and spirituality,” said Father Kirill Gorbunov, vicar general of the Moscow Archdiocese. “Of course, Catholic priests coming here from Poland, Italy or Spain need some kind of acculturation, and we don’t always have the opportunity to provide this. But this shouldn’t be regulated by the state,” Father Gorbunov told Catholic News Service Oct. 1. Church officials’ concerns stem from draft amendments to Russia’s 1997 Law on Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, which would bar “clergy who receive religious edu-cation abroad” from ministering unless they obtain “recertifica-tion within a Russian religious organization” and “receive addi-tional professional education.”

Cardinal hopes Barrett will not face ‘grilling’ on her faith by senators

NEW YORK — Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York recalled how the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg “was not afraid to say that the values of her Jewish faith animated how she lived and how she judged. Nobody found that controver-sial,” he said Sept. 30 during the show “Conversation with Cardinal Dolan” on SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel. But the deep Catholic faith of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald Trump’s nominee to fill the court vacancy left by Ginsburg’s death Sept. 18, has come under scrutiny and much crit-icism, he said. “What I admired in the accolades to Ruth Bader Ginsburg (after her death), there were a lot of articles about her deep Jewish faith,” he said. Cardinal Dolan also noted one recent article told of how Ginsburg “always said she faced three biases: a woman, a mother and a Jew. Well, it seems like Judge Barrett is facing woman, mother and Catholic (bias).” Trump officially nom-inated Barrett, 48, a wife, a mother of seven children and also a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, in the Rose Garden at the White House Sept. 26.

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