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Volume 6, Issue 5
Serving More Than A Million Catholics in the Diocese of Brownsville
NOVEMBER 2014
Men of
the Gospel
Two new permanent
deacons ordained
The Valley Catholic
Month of the
Holy Souls
Photos by Ric Vásquez/Ric Vásquez Photography, San Antonio
Catholics have always believed in the importance of
praying for those who have died. We call this a spiritual
work of mercy.
Aside from the time of mourning, the month of November,
especially All Saints Day and All Souls Day, is a
traditional time for visiting grave sites to offer prayers
and to place flowers.
“These traditions remind us of our obligation to Christ
to ask God to forgive those who have died, especially
our loved ones,” Bishop Daniel E. Flores said. “I ask that
you keep remembering your loved ones during Mass and
while praying your Rosary. Do not let death break the
bonds of love and friendship that were cultivated in life.
“With God’s mercy and forgiveness, may the souls of all
our faithful departed rest in peace.”
ADVENT BEGINS
CONSECRATED LIFE
THOSE WHO SERVE
BROWNSVILLE — Two
men were ordained to the Sacred
Order of Permanent Deacon by
Bishop Daniel E. Flores on Oct.
11 at the Immaculate Conception
Cathedral in Brownsville.
Michael Myers of San Benito
and Sergio Gonzalez of Weslaco
received the sacrament of holy
orders, becoming members of the
clergy.
Deacon Myers, 72, was assigned to his home parish of
Our Lady Queen of the Universe
Church in San Benito while Deacon Gonzalez, 64, was assigned to
St. Pius X Church in Weslaco, his
home parish.
During the rite of ordination,
the men promised respect and
obedience to the bishop and his
successors to show loyalty to the
bishop as the shepherd of the diocese.
The men prostrated themselves on the floor as the faithful
chanted the Litany of the Saints to
signify humble submission before
God.
After the bishop lay hands on
each man, the new deacons received a stole and dalmatic, which
are signs of the office of deacon
and the role the deacon plays in
the celebration of the Eucharist.
Among the many functions
deacons perform in parishes,
they may preside at baptisms,
weddings, quinceañerasrites of
Christian burial, assist the priest
at Mass, proclaim the Gospel and
deliver homilies. A deacon may
also preside at Eucharistic exposition and benediction, the celebration of the Liturgy of the Hours
and other liturgical rites.
Many deacons are also active
in ministry outside of the parish,
ministering in places such as hospitals and detention centers.
Married men can be ordained
permanent deacons and in the
United States, 90 percent of them
are married, according to statistics from the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
EN ESPAÑOL
Artículos sobre la fiesta
de Cristo Rey, el Adviento
y la violenta persecución
de cristianos en el Medio
Oriente.
“VERBUM MITTITUR
SPIRANS AMOREM”
(“The WORD is sent
breathing love.”)
The season of Advent begins
Nov. 30
Page 3
Pope dedicates year to religious
priests, brothers and sisters
Page 8
Deacon Robert Ledesma
Page 9
Páginas 11-13
DIOCESE
2
La indiferencia
moderna
y la alegría
del Evangelio
E
l Santo Padre habla a menudo
sobre el tema de la cultura de
indiferencia. Es una cultura
que ni oye el llanto de los pobres ni
ve sus sufrimientos. ¿Qué es este
fenómeno de la indiferencia? Claro,
en la base de la indiferencia existe
la actitud que dice “si no me afecta,
no me importa”. El famoso Chesterton compuso un verso aplicable
al fenómeno: Mientras tanto “la
reina fría del norte mira, atenta, el
cristal; la sombra del Valois bosteza,
pasando páginas de su misal”. Es
una actitud tan antigua como la de
Caín preguntando si a caso soy yo
el guardián de mi hermano. Y es tan
calculada como la actitud del doctor
de la ley preguntándole a Jesús: ¿y
quién es mi prójimo? Sin embargo,
vale la pena buscar las raíces más
profundas del fenómeno así como
se manifiesta hoy en día. De hecho,
pienso que existen elementos nuevos en la indiferencia actual.
Recientemente, leí una novela
del autor español Arturo Pérez-Reverte, titulado El pintor de batallas.
Es la historia de un reportero de
guerras, un fotógrafo, que había
pasado su vida adulta viajando a
las zonas más violentas del mundo,
tomando fotos para que el publico
pudiera ver las imágenes de guerra
y conflicto. Es un libro dificultoso
para leer. El esfuerzo narrativo
arrastra el lector por los senderos
de los conflictos sangrientos de
las últimas décadas del siglo 20:
Somalia, Bosnia, Croacia, Beirut,
Gaza, y muchos otros. Al culmen de su carrera el fotógrafo se
retira del público; compra un faro
abandonado en una playa aislada, y
empieza a pintar sobre sus paredes
una escena dramática de la última
batalla apocalíptica del mundo.
Lo dramático del cuento surge
del dialogo entre el fotógrafo vuelto
pintor y un hombre mal-afeitado
quien al principio de la novela
aparece y anuncia que tal vez termine su visita con matar al pintor.
El visitante es alguien reconocido
por el pintor, pero que jamás había
The Valley Catholic -
On the poverty of indifference
and the joy of the Gospel
T
he Holy Father speaks often of the
culture of indifference. It is a culture
that neither hears the cry of the poor,
nor sees their suffering. What is this phenomenon of indifference? Surely, at the bottom of
indifference is an attitude that says: If it does
not affect me, I don’t really care. There is a
Chesterton verse that has some applicability
here: meanwhile the cold queen of the north is
looking in the glass; the shadow of the Valois is
yawning at the Mass. It is an attitude as old as
Cain who asks if I am my brother’s keeper. And
it is as calculating as the doctor of the law who
asks Jesus who is my neighbor. Still, it would
be worthwhile to dig a little deeper in search
of the roots of modern indifference, because
I think that there are new elements operating
within much of the indifference we see today.
Recently, I read a novel by the noted Spanish author Arturo Perez-Reverte, entitled El
pintor de batallas, (The Painter of Battles). It
is the story of a war-correspondent, photographer, who spent his adult life traveling to
places of violence and conflict across the globe
taking pictures, so the general population
could see images of war. It is a difficult book
to read. The narrative pulls the reader through
paths that pass through the bloody conflicts of
the last decades of the 20th Century: Somalia,
Bosnia, Croatia, Beirut, Gaza, and countless others. At his prime as a photographer
he retires from the public eye, he buys an
abandoned light-house on a secluded beach
and begins to paint upon its interior walls a
dramatic scene of the final apocalyptic battle
of the world.
The drama of the story is in the dialogue
between the photographer turned painter
and a man who at the beginning of the novel
appears and announces that more than likely
he will conclude his visit by killing the painter.
The man is someone the painter recognizes
but had never met; he is a veteran of the conflict between Croatia and Serbia whom the
painter had once photographed. The photo
made the man’s features famous on magazine
covers around the world. The visitor intends
to kill the painter, but not before explaining to
him how the photograph altered the course of
encontrado; es un veterano del
conflicto entre Croacia y Serbia
quien el pintor había fotografiado.
Por medio de las portadas de las
revistas mundiales, la foto hizo
famosa la cara del visitante. El
croata tiene intenciones de matar
al pintor, pero no antes de contarle
700 N. Virgen de San Juan Blvd., San Juan, TX 78589-3042
Telephone: 956/781-5323 • Fax: 956/784-5082
Bishop Daniel E. Flores
Publisher
Brenda Nettles Riojas
Editor
Rose Ybarra
Assistant Editor
The Valley Catholic email:
[email protected]
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November 2014
a publication of the
Diocese of Brownsville,
is published monthly
Member of
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MOST REVEREND
DANIEL E. FLORES
BISHOP OF BROWNSVILLE
his life.
The novel is a brutal narrative of how
this modern man had insulated himself from
pain. Our photographer could not make sense
out of the suffering he chronicled, so he cut
himself off interiorly from the possibility of
any relation to those affected, and from the
possibility of assuming any responsibility for
what they were suffering.
Without giving you the ending, you
should know that the dialogue between the
painter and the man he photographed engenders in him a more profound self-awareness.
He realizes that a life cut off from the suffering of others produces a pain as cruel as the
cruelty he photographed from his objective,
impersonal and comfortable distance.
I (not the author of the novel) would call
this effort to prevent personal connections
with people bearing intense suffering an attitude of “relational contraception.” Human
encounters and the relations between persons
they generate open up a space for compassion and a kind of response; but we know
that to open ourselves to compassion implies
a willingness to accept in some way to suffer
also, with another person. In order to prevent
this possibility in life, a human being can
hold himself at a distance from the suffering
of others. In fact, this mentality prevents the
generation of authentic societal life.
Such perhaps is a way to understand the
individualism and indifference of many in
contemporary society. It is the disciplined
indifference of those who would rather avoid
the pain of hearing and seeing and thus relating to those who suffer. The painter of battles
lives a self-imposed exile from relationships in
como la foto había cambiado el
curso de su vida.
La novela propone al lector
una narración brutal sobre como
este hombre de nuestra época
actual se había protegido del dolor.
Había impedido que el sufrimiento que observaba de cerca le causara formar una relación real con
las personas sufriendo. Nuestro
fotógrafo no hallaba sentido en
el sufrimiento que encontraba, y
por eso se había separado interiormente de la posibilidad de
relacionarse con los afectados, y
de la posibilidad de sentir alguna
responsabilidad por lo que ellos
estaban padeciendo.
Sin revelar la conclusión de la
novela, sepa Ud. que el dialogo entre el pintor y el hombre que había
fotografiado sí engendró dentro
del pintor un autoconocimiento
profundizado. Se da cuenta que
una vida separada del sufrimiento
que viven otras personas produce
un dolor tan cruel como la crueldad que el señor había fotografiado desde su distancia objetiva,
impersonal y cómoda.
Yo (no, el autor de la novela)
llamaría este esfuerzo para preve-
a futile attempt to build a private space where
the pain he witnessed could not touch him.
He lives within the reduced horizon of the
modern windswept world, where he is alone
with absurdity. He sees this private space as
not much, but in the end all he could hope for.
It is a pitiable stance, and in some way ought
to generate compassion. He too suffers.
The novel reminds me of Cardinal Ratzinger’s remarks in Dogma and Preaching that
modern atheism is largely an armchair and
television phenomenon. Looking at a television or computer screen, people say look at
all that suffering, how could a good God exist
and let such things happen? Let us make sure it
never comes here. But, as the future Benedict
XVI emphasizes in that essay, the people who
actually work with others to alleviate suffering
are usually the ones with deepest faith. And
often the people living in the poorest regions
of the world are the ones who maintain the
liveliest faith in God, and they are often the
most generous to others in need.
A world hiding behind objective indifference needs the joy of the Gospel. We can be
credible evangelizers if we first open ourselves
to human encounters, seeking to embrace
other persons and to alleviate the suffering
they experience. The Lord is present with
those who suffer; we believe this. But, it is
somewhat difficult for the modern world to
believe in the Good God; it needs help. Out of
compassion, we have to show with the work of
the Gospel that God is not found on a screen
while one sits on a sofa. He is present in the
poor, and in those who offer themselves for
the good of others.
But the world will not believe us when
we say God is to be found there, in that place
where a brother or sister suffers, unless they
see the Church in that place where the human
encounter and the helping of one another to
carry the Cross prevail. To announce the Gospel is equivalent to saying to the indifferent:
Come with us to meet the Christ present among
those who suffer. I think this is what Pope
Francis means in Evangelium Gaudium when
he speaks of evangelization and says he wants
a Church which is poor and for the poor.
nir lazos personales con personas
viviendo el sufrimiento intenso
una actitud de “anticonceptivo
social”. El encuentro personal y
las relaciones entre personas que
engendran abren espacio para la
compasión y un tipo de respuesta;
pero sabemos que abrirse uno a la
compasión implica aceptar sufrir
de alguna manera con la otra
persona. Para evitar esta posibilidad en la vida el ser humano
puede mantenerse a distancia del
sufrimiento de los demás. Realmente, esta mentalidad previene la
generación de una autentica vida
social.
Quizás la novela nos ayude
a entender algo del individualismo y la indiferencia en nuestros
tiempos. Es una disciplinada
indiferencia que prefiere evitar el
sufrimiento que surge cuando uno
toma la opción de relacionarse
con los que sufren. Es un exilio
autoimpuesto con el fin de construir un espacio privado donde
el sufrimiento no nos puede tocar.
El pintor vive dentro del horizonte
reducido del mundo moderno y
azotado por el viento, donde se
encuentra sólo con lo absurdo. Él
reconoce que este espacio privado
no ofrece mucho consuelo, pero al
fin de cuentas piensa que no hay
mucho más que esperar. Es una
postura de vida lastimosa, y debe
engendrar compasión. También
él sufre.
La novela me recuerda de algo
que dijo el Cardenal Ratzinger
en su libro Dogma y Predicación.
Observa que el ateísmo moderno
es en gran parte un fenómeno de
sillones y pantallas. El hombre
moderno, sentado y mirando
la pantalla, dice: Mire todo el
sufrimiento en el mundo. ¿Cómo
puede existir un Dios bueno que
permite tales cosas tan horribles”?
Hay que prevenir que tal sufrimiento venga para acá. Pero como
enfatiza el que eventualmente
tomaría le nombre de Benedicto
XVI, los que actualmente salen a
trabajar para aliviar el sufrimiento
de otros suelen ser los que tienen
una fe profunda. Además, las
personas que viven en regiones de
pobreza y sufrimiento son los que
con más frecuencia mantienen
una fe viva en Dios, y suelen ser
» Please see La Indiferencia p.12
Bishop Flores’ Schedule November 2014
Nov. 1
9 a.m.
San Juan
Amor Conference
Nov. 1
6 p.m.
Mission
Juan Diego Academy Gala
Nov. 2
1 p.m.
San Juan
Memorial Mass at Nursing Home
Nov. 15
4 p.m.
McAllen
Mass to Conclude Walking Pilgrimage 2014 at OLPH
Nov 16
9 a.m.
Peñitas
Mass & Reception for Lumen Christi Award at St. Anne Church
Nov 23
8 a.m.
Monte Alto
Mass at Christ the King Church
Nov. 24
9 a.m.
Brownsville
Mass for Diocesan Teacher In-Service St. Joseph Academy
- The Valley Catholic
years
40 of faith
NOVEMBER 2014
St. Luke Parish
in Brownsville
celebrates milestone
Parish in Brownsville.”
Msgr. Doherty was also the
first pastor of Mary, Mother of
the Church Parish.
“The rectory at St. Mary’s was
the last thing that we built and we
moved into it on Dec. 15, 1973,”
Msgr. Doherty said. “I moved out
a month later to be the pastor of
St. Luke’s.”
Msgr. Doherty said a population boom in the area was the
reason for establishing St. Luke
Parish.
“It was at that time a very new
community,” he said. “There were
a lot of young families and upand-coming professionals in the
neighborhood. A lot of people
came from the north and east
The Valley Catholic
to work in various projects that
Msgr. Patrick Doherty, the first pastor
were going on in Brownsville.”
of St. Luke Parish in Brownsville,
Without a church building
along with several parishoners,
to call their own, the commubreak ground on the church on June
nity of faith gathered at Hanna
29, 1975. Pictured below is Father
High School, where the first
Fernando Gonzalez, the current pastor Mass was celebrated on Jan. 19,
1974. Sunday Masses were held at
of St. Luke Parish.
the school until a sanctuary was
dedicated more than two years
later. Saturday Vigil Masses were
celebrated at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Old Alice Rd.
The parish community broke
ground on the new church on
June 29, 1975.
Msgr. Doherty said many living within the parish boundaries
continued to attend Mass at the
other churches in town so while
the new church was under construction, he went door to door,
visiting families and handing out
a schedule of the Masses and confession times.
Both Msgr. Doherty and Father Gonzalez said the parish’s
sense of family was established in
those days.
By ROSE YBARRA
The Valley Catholic
BROWNSVILLE — “When I
arrived at this parish, everything
was in place – a beautiful temple,
a thriving school, wonderful parishioners, great programs, you
name it, “ said Father Fernando
Gonzalez, pastor of St. Luke
Church for the last three years.
As St. Luke Church celebrates
its 40th anniversary in 2014, Father Gonzalez reflects on how
much the parish has evolved
since 1974 and prays for those
who have come before him, for
the pastors and parishioners who
labored to make the parish what
it is today.
“Somebody else worked so
hard for what we have and it is
the same for us,” he said. “We are
called to work hard so that future
generations will receive the benefits of our actions today.”
The parish community of St.
Luke Church was born on Jan. 15,
1974, formed from the northern
part of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Parish.
Msgr. Patrick Doherty, a familiar face in Brownsville, was
selected as the parish’s first pastor
and served the community for six
years.
“I was chosen to be the pastor
of the new parish mainly because
I knew many of the parishioners,”
said Msgr. Doherty, who is now
retired. “I had been in Brownsville since 1964 having served as
pastor of Christ the King Parish
and Mary, Mother of the Church
» Please see St. Luke Parish p.15
The season of Advent begins
How Christians should celebrate Advent and Christmas
By JOHN FEISTER
Special to The Valley Catholic
Did you ever notice that dessert is the first dish in line at many
buffet restaurants? Yes, you could
eat dinner backwards—starting
with dessert, then moving on to
the appetizer and main course. In
the end you eat all the food, but
it’s nowhere near as fulfilling as
enjoying each part of the meal in
its proper place. Or worse, dessert
could fill you up before you eat a
balanced meal.
Sometimes we suffer the same
temptation with Christmas. Our
culture tends to skip Advent and
start celebrating Christmas after Thanksgiving—if we’re lucky
to make it that far! Then it’s all
packed up and stored away by
New Year’s. This year, consider
returning to the ancient practice
of seeing the whole Christmas
“cycle”—the period that embraces
both the Advent and Christmas
seasons—as one unit of joyous celebration. Preparation comes first,
then comes celebration extending
a few weeks after Christmas Day.
The focal point of the Christmas cycle is obvious: God becoming one of us in Jesus, the Incar-
Catholic News Service
The Advent season, which begins on Sunday, Nov. 30 and ends on Dec. 24, is a
time of preparation that directs our hearts and minds to Christ’s second coming at
the end of time and also to the anniversary of the Lord’s birth on Christmas.
nation. All three phases of the
cycle—Advent, Christmas and
Epiphany—hinge on and celebrate
that point. These celebrations help
us to name the ways our lives are
caught up in the “big story” of
Christ. And these feasts tie our
lives to Christians throughout history. The tradition of the Church,
the living gospel, is the real-life experience of Christians like you and
like me, and those who have gone
before us.
During Advent, which begins
in 2014 on Nov. 30, we emphasize the joy that some would compare to the months before a child
is born: excitement, wonder, joy,
expectation, even exhilaration at
the life that is in our midst right
now, yet also a hope and longing,
and a carefulness to get things into
order.
During the Christmas season
we celebrate the wonder of the
Incarnation. How wondrously we
are made that the Word of God
would become one of us! God
shows us how to live fully: by
pouring out our lives for others.
That is what the days of Christmas
are all about.
Epiphany and the Feast of
the Baptism of the Lord celebrate
Christ becoming manifest—that
is, present—to all peoples. On
Epiphany we focus on the three
Wise Men symbolizing the many
races for whom Christ was born.
The baptism of Jesus marks the
beginning of his public ministry.
God’s “Christmas gift” of the Incarnation is a gift for everyone!
—
Copyrighted material used with
permission of Franciscan Media.
DIOCESE
3
»News Briefs
Lumen Christi
Award to be
presented Nov. 16
PEÑITAS — Father Jack Wall,
president of Catholic Extension
Service and Bishop Daniel E.
Flores will officially present Sister
Carolyn Kosub, Sister Emily
Jocson and Sister Fatima Santiago
of the Missionary Sisters of the
Immaculate Heart of Mary with
the national 2014 Lumen Christi
Award on Sunday, Nov. 16.
Bishop Flores will celebrate
Mass at 9 a.m. at St. Anne Church in
Peñitas. The Mass will be followed
by a community celebration.
In 2004, the Sisters created
Proyecto Desarrollo Humano (The
Project for Human Development),
an outreach center dedicated to
health, social services, education
and evangelization.
Catholic Extension is a
national organization dedicated to
supporting and strengthening the
Catholic Church in the poorest
regions of the United States.
For the past 37 years, through
its Lumen Christi Award, Catholic
Extension has recognized a priest,
woman religious or layperson
whose work is transforming the
hearts and lives of the people they
serve. As the 2014 recipients,
the sisters will receive a grant
of $25,000 in support of their
ministry; in addition, the Diocese
of Brownsville, which nominated
the sisters, also will receive a grant
of $25,000.
Sharing Basket
project to
provide meals for
5,000 families
Volunteers are needed to help
feed more than 5,000 families in
time for Thanksgiving through
the annual Sharing Basket project,
which is sponsored by Catholic
Charities of the Rio Grande Valley,
Channel 5 and Peter Piper Pizza.
The baskets will be assembled
by volunteers between 8 a.m. and
5 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at the
Basilica Auditorium in San Juan
and at the Catholic Charities of
the Rio Grande Valley offices, 955
W. Price Rd., in Brownsville from
9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Civic, school and
church groups are welcome and
encouraged to volunteer.
The baskets, which also include
either a chicken or turkey, are
distributed to parishes throughout
the diocese. Please call your parish
to inquire about receiving a basket.
Volunteers of all ages and
abilities are needed. Call (956)
702-4088 for more information.
Bishop’s
Annual Dinner
set for Dec. 5
The Bishop’s Annual Dinner
is scheduled for Friday, Dec. 5 at
La Sierra Event Center, 3742 U.S.
Highway 77, Harlingen. Please
contact the Stewardship and
Development Office at (956)7845092 to reserve a table for this event.
Money raised will fund Bishop
Flores’ charitable giving throughout
the Diocese of Brownsville. The
silent auction, drinks and hors
d’oeuvres begin at 6 p.m. and the
dinner and dance begin at 8 p.m.
DIOCESE
4
November 2014
»Women speak for themselves en la Frontera
Remembering who came before us
I
don’t always celebrate
Mother’s Day in May. I prefer
to celebrate it in November.
This Nov. 9 marks the 22-year
anniversary of my mother’s death.
She was 50 years old at the time. I
was in my mid-twenties balancing
a new career and motherhood.
My two-year-old son demanded
all my attention. I was not prepared for her passing or for what
it meant to lose a mother.
Her death has helped me look
at life differently; it helped me
understand that we must honor
each day on this pilgrimage walk.
At the same time, I want to honor
her memory, and to acknowledge
the gift of her life.
I was drawn to Dia de Los
Muertos (Day of the Dead) celebrated on All Souls’ Day Nov. 2.
The practice of setting up an altar
in memory of family and friends
and placing ofrendas before their
image, items our loved ones liked
while alive, served as a way to
celebrate my mother, a woman
who devoted her life to her children. The tradition has helped me
understand our transient walk on
this earth, and to celebrate those
who came before us.
In this month dedicated to remembering the dead and praying
for the souls in purgatory, I find
comfort in knowing that death
does not mean the end. “Life is
changed, not ended,” says Father
Gregory Labus, coordinator of the
Memory in the
Glow of a Candle
Brenda
Nettles Riojas
Editor of The
Valley Catholic
Office of Liturgy and Worship for
the Diocese of Brownsville says.
Father Jorge Gomez, Chancellor of the Diocese of Brownsville
and pastor of Holy Family Church
in Brownsville, reminds us, “For
God no one is dead, everyone is
alive, and we celebrate their lives.”
The Feast of All Souls he said, is
a way to commemorate and remember people we love. “As long
as we remember, they’re still alive
in our hearts and minds.”
I particularly like the festive tone of the tradition and the
bright colors used – the vivid
orange of the cempazuchitl (marigolds) and the primary colors of
the papel picado.
“The colors are alive,” says
Father Ignacio Luna, pastor of St.
Benedict Church in San Benito.
“They manifest the joy because
there is no sadness, no mourning,
no use of black. There is simply
joy and happiness because their
souls are already in God’s hands.”
“Es una fiesta no para llorar, sino
» Please see Women p.12
My mother’s green eyes, their vigilant watch over her legacies, show no fear
of the dark, show no signs of the enemy
that left her bedridden before her goodbye. Her youth restored on this altar. Here
a great grandmother, rifle in hand, keeps
guard, una soldadera in my rendering
of a catrina, her breasts crisscrossed by
artillery, whose legend holds mystery in
a face I’ve never seen, next to her frail
frame daughter in black and white and
our Virgencita Morena on the side. On
this altar, we choose our narrative, the
memories we keep. Speak not of rape,
bruises or burns.
Three generations joined together in
the glow of a candle; women whose voices
echo beyond the beatings, beyond kidnappings, droughts, famine, cancer. Here,
an echo fused in new life. The molcajete,
the chile piquin, the game of loteria,
memory keepers posed next to the red hibiscus flowers, reminders of spiced dishes,
laughter, gardens in bloom.
We come to the altar, layout our
ofrendas, bring history forward, as skeletons, our transience signifiers, dance in
the candlelight held by calaveras. Our
memento mori. Our temporal selves not
afraid, convinced that “all is vanity and a
chase after wind.”
She escaped the confines of a cave,
died after giving birth; she swept a dirtpacked floor, made coronas for los difuntos; she baked cakes for strangers, cleaned
other people’s homes on foreign land; she
takes chances across continents, writes
about other people’s lives.
By Brenda Nettles Riojas
»Family Life
Thanking God for marriage
T
he Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that
“The intimate community
of life and love which constitutes
the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed
by him with its own proper laws…
God himself is the author of marriage. God who created man out
of love also calls him to love- the
fundamental and innate vocation
of every human being. For man is
created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love.
Holy Scripture affirms that man
and woman were created for one
another: “It is not good that the
man should be alone.” The woman,
“flesh of his flesh,” his equal, his
nearest in all things, is given to
him by God as a “helpmate”’ she
thus represents God from whom
comes our help.” (1603 -1605)
These beautiful words remind
me of how grateful I am for The
Sacrament of Matrimony and for
my own marriage. Mauri and I
celebrated our fortieth wedding
anniversary on Aug. 31, 2014. We
received a blessing after Sunday
Mass followed by a Covered Dish
Anniversary luncheon. More
than anything, it was a wonderful
opportunity to express gratitude:
to God and to the family, friends,
and colleagues in ministry that
accompanied us for their love
and support through these forty
wonder-filled years of matrimony.
It gave us a chance to publicly
thank God for our daughter Liana
(the greatest gift God has given us
in our marriage), our grandson,
Elian, my mother, siblings, extended family, Pastoral Center colleagues and in a special way to our
Marriage Preparation Retreat Presenters who collaborate with our
Family Life Office in presenting
Lydia Pesina
Director, Family
Life Office
22 Marriage Preparation Retreats
yearly. These presenters work
tirelessly in building up God’s
kingdom through their ministry
to marriage and family life and are
a great witness to Mauri and me
and to the 800 couples who attend
these retreats annually.
During our luncheon, Mauri
and I shared a little about our life
together. We pulled out several
meaningful items from a suitcase
including: (1) my high school
diary: I read the entry from May
28, 1969 in which noted that I met
Mauri on the last day of school
my 9th grade year at a Going
Out of School Dance at the Pharr
Community Center. The entry
read: “I met a very nice boy named
Mauricio Pesina; I think he likes
me”. (2) The size one yellow dress
I was wearing when we met along
with the yellow shirt Mauri wore;
which I take out of our closet
every year on May 28th. (3) My
wedding dress. I noted that Father
Jack O’Malley who witnessed our
vows at St. Anne’s Church mentioned in his homily that he never
noticed brides’ wedding dresses
but he noticed mine because he
knew I had made it. He said that
he knew Mauri and I would never
go without clothes or food because
I could sew and we both worked
for Kentucky Fried Chicken! (4)
My honeymoon shorts which I
try on every year. (5) My “Las
Rancheritas” mariachi outfit (our
honeymoon was a mariachi trip to
Florida).
I am so grateful to God for
Mauri: a man of few words but
big action. He teaches me about
“unconditional love” …… he will
do anything I, Liana, or Elian ask
or he sees we need. Whether he
is sick or tired, he never says no;
anytime of day or night, he will do
it. For me it is an example of what
Jesus teaches us about “self-emptying love”. One of the things I love
about marriage is that we have fun
together: in my work/ my family
life ministry I go to parishes all
across the diocese and whenever
Mauri and I are in the car together,
I feel like we are on vacation. We
enjoy our car time together; I read
to him or we listen to audio books
and we make sure to have weekly
dates.
The vows that we made on our
wedding day are still so important
to us: “I promise to be true to you,
in good times and in bad. In sickness and in health, I will love you
and honor you, all the days of my
life”. We have had good times and
bad/ health and sickness. Those
times are growing times when we
recall that God is with us at every
single moment of our lives to give
us the wisdom and strength to
keep working on being the person
He has created us to be with the
help of our spouse (with whom
we can trust, learn from, grow
with, laugh with, cry with, and
talk with in regards to just about
anything). Last year at the World
Marriage Day Celebration there
were 4 couples married more than
70 years. I don’t know what the
Lord has in store for us, none of
us do, but I can say unequivocally
that I am grateful for these first 40
years!!!
The Valley Catholic
Proceeds from the walking pilgrimage provide two new pairs of shoes for local
children in need.
Walk by faith
Youth to take
spiritual pilgrimage
to streets of McAllen
The Valley Catholic
McALLEN — The young
people and their families of many
McAllen parishes are preparing
to take their faith to the streets of
the city.
On Nov. 15, dozens of middle
school and high school youth and
their families will make a spiritual pilgrimage.
The walking pilgrimage, or
“caminata”, will begin at 9 a.m.
at St Joseph the Worker Church,
continue to Sacred Heart Church,
then Our Lady of Sorrows
Church, and conclude at 5 p.m.
at Our Lady of Perpetual Help
Church.
The pilgrims will pray the
Holy Rosary, adore the Blessed
Sacrament in Exposition, experience the Stations of the Cross,
and celebrate the Holy Mass with
Bishop Daniel E. Flores.
Pilgrimages are part of the
long tradition of the Church and
the faith expression of the faithful. The annual celebrations of
the Via Crucis and posadas are
important faith and cultural expressions of what we believe and
how we experience God in our
midst.
St. John Paul II wrote, “To
go in a spirit of prayer from one
place to another, from one city
to another, in the area marked
especially by God’s intervention,
helps us not only to live our life as
a journey, but also gives us a vivid sense of a God who has gone
before us and leads us on, who
himself set out on man’s path, a
God who does not look down on
us from on high, but who became
our travelling companion.”
“There is a palpable sense of
solidarity of the pilgrim church
in events such as these,” said Angel Barrera, the director of the
Diocesan Office of Youth Ministry. “Walking down the streets of
McAllen is a powerful experience
of faith that unites our young
people with one another and
with God. I would invite young
people and their families to come
out and join us on this very special experience.”
The $25 registration fee includes the event, meals and a tshirt. The proceeds of this event
afford two new pairs of shoes to
local young people in need.
CARITAS, a service organization of Our Lady of Perpetual
Help Church, is partnering with
the Office of Youth Ministry in
this event.
The shoe distribution is
scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22
at Palmer Pavilion in McAllen.
For more information, visit
www.CDOBYM.org or call Angel
Barrera at [email protected].
The Valley Catholic
The Jail Ministry of the diocese facilitates retreats for those in detention centers.
Prison ACTS Retreat
By FATHER
ALFONSO GUEVARA
The Valley Catholic
EDINBURG — God is blessing our diocese in many ways
and is leading us to carry out the
mandate of Pope Francis to reach
out to those most in need.
On Oct. 4-6 a wonderful
demonstration of God’s grace
took place in the Segovia Prison
Unit in Edinburg when members
of ACTS gave an ACTS retreat to
40 inmates.
The retreat was led by director
Jaime Hinojosa and assisting him
were J. M. Casas and Eric Garcia.
The experience was powerful for both the team and for the
inmates. On a scale of 1 to 10 we
could say that it was a 14.
Half of the men are Catholic
and the other half are from other
denominations. (This was a requirement of prison system).
The men who lived the weekend felt as if they were not in jail
but rather that they were someplace else where understanding,
acceptance and brotherhood
were deeply experienced.
NOvember 2014
DIOCESE
»Sunday
Readings
The Word of God in the Life
and Mission of the Church
NOV. 2
(The Commemoration of All the
Faithful Departed (All Souls))
Reading1
WIS 3:1-9
Responsorial Psalm
PS 23:1-3A, 3B-4, 5, 6
Reading 2
ROM 5:5-11 or ROM 6:3-9
Gospel
JN 6:37-40
NOV. 9
(Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome)
Reading 1
EZ 47:1-2, 8-9, 12
Responsorial Psalm
PS 46:2-3, 5-6, 8-9
Reading 2
1 COR 3:9C-11, 16-17
Gospel
JN 2:13-22
NOV. 16
(Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary
Time)
Reading 1
PRV 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31
Responsorial Psalm
PS 128:1-2, 3, 4-5
Reading 2
1 THES 5:1-6
Gospel
MT 25:14-30
NOV. 23
(The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, King of the Universe)
»Making Sense of Bioethics
I
Reading 2
1 COR 15:20-26, 28
Gospel
MT 25:31-46
NOV. 30
(First Sunday of Advent)
Reading 1
IS 63:16B-17, 19B; 64:2-7
Responsorial Psalm
PS 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19
Reading 2
1 COR 1:3-9
Alleluia PS 85:8
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Show us Lord, your love;
and grant us your salvation.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
MK 13:33-37
The word of the Lord abides for ever.
This word is the Gospel which was
preached to you” (1 Pet 1:25; cf. Is
40:8).
With this assertion from the First
Letter of Saint Peter, which takes up
the words of the Prophet Isaiah, we
find ourselves before the mystery of
God, who has made himself known
through the gift of his word.
This word, which abides for ever,
entered into time. God spoke his
eternal Word humanly; his Word
“became flesh” (Jn 1:14).
This is the good news. This is the
proclamation which has come down
the centuries to us today.
‘Redefining’ marriage?
n the current debate over gay
marriage, people sometimes
ask: Who should define marriage? Democrats or Republicans
in Congress? The Supreme Court?
Should it be put to a referendum,
allowing the majority to choose a
definition?
We can identify two kinds of
“definitions” when it comes to
marriage. The first touches on the
essence, the objective reality, or the
truth about marriage. The second
involves a legal or political position, advanced through the media,
judicial decisions, or other legislative means. While these secondary
definitions of marriage can be of
interest, their true level of importance is properly gauged only in
reference to the first and objective
definition.
Notable errors are sometimes made in these secondary
definitions of marriage. In the
mid-1960’s, to consider but one
example, prohibitions existed in
more than a dozen states which
outlawed persons of different
races from marrying one another.
A white man and a black woman
could fall in love in those states,
but could not legally tie the knot.
The Supreme Court overturned
those restrictions in 1967, recognizing that the ability to enter into
marriage doesn’t depend on the
skin color of the man and woman
getting married.
Gay marriage advocates today
sometimes attempt to draw a
parallel between such mixed-race
marriage laws and state laws that
would prevent two men (or two
women) from getting married
to each other. They suggest that
legally forbidding two men from
getting married stigmatizes those
Reading 1
EZ 34:11-12, 15-17
Responsorial Psalm
PS 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6
5
E
Father Tadeusz
Pacholczyk
Priest of the
Diocese of Fall
River
men in much the same way that
preventing a black man from marrying a white woman stigmatized
both of them. Yet there is really
no parallel at all between the two
cases. While marriage as an objective reality is certainly color-blind
to the racial configuration of the
spouses, it can never be “genitalblind,” because male-female sexual
complementarity stands squarely
at the heart and center of marriage
itself.
To see this fundamental point
about marriage, however, we have
to step beyond the cultural clichés
that suggest that marriage is
merely an outgrowth of emotional
and erotic companionship. The institution of marriage does not arise
merely out of loving sentiment.
It is born, rather, from the depths
of the commitment assumed by a
man and a woman as they enter
into the total communion of life
implied in the procreation and
education of children flowing from
their union. To put it another way,
marriage arises organically and
spontaneously from the radical
complementarity of a man and a
woman.
Sexual intimacy between men
and women involves the possibility of children. No other form
of sexual or erotic interaction
encompasses this basic, organic,
and complementary possibility.
Without parsing words, Profes-
sor Jacques LeClercq put it this
way more than 50 years ago: “The
human race is divided into two
sexes whose reason for existence
is physical union with a view to
continuing the species.” More recently, Professor Robert P. George
similarly described marriage as
“a union that takes its distinctive
character from being founded,
unlike other friendships, on bodily
unity of the kind that sometimes
generates new life.” There are
many kinds of love, ranging from
maternal love to brotherly love to
love of friends to love of neighbor
to romantic love, but only one that
is proper and integral to marriage, namely, spousal love with
its inscribed complementarity and
potential for human fruitfulness.
Marriage teaches us that men
need women and women need
men and that children need both
mothers and fathers. In this sense,
marriage and the family represent foundational realities, not
constructs that can be invented,
defined, legislated, or determined
by popular vote or culture. Marriage, in fact, is the “primordial
first institution,” flowing out of
the intimate and creative union of
male and female. It precedes other
societal institutions and conventions, and is essentially ordered
towards creating and caring for
the future in the form of the next
generation. Marriage is a given
reality that we come to discover in
its authentic design, not a concept
for us to“define” according to our
own agenda or desires.
Gay marriage proponents deny
these foundational truths about
marriage. Through vigorous legislative efforts, they are striving to
» Please see Marriage, p.15
All Saints, All Souls and Sinners
very year during the month
of November the Catholic Church celebrates the
Solemnity of All Saints on Nov.
1(Church triumphant) and commemorates the faithful departed
- All Souls day, Nov. 2 (Church
Suffering).
On All Saints day, which
is a holy day of obligation, the
Church honors all those who have
achieved “beatific vision” and are
enjoying life with God in heaven:
“Those who die in God’s grace
and friendship and are perfectly
purified live forever with Christ.
They are like God for ever, for
they “see him as he is,” face to
face” (Catechism of the Catholic
Church, 1022).
All Saints day is a solemnity
which is the highest rank of a
feast day in the liturgical calendar
year of the Church and commemorates all those saints and
martyrs (those who suffered for
the faith) who don’t have an official declared feast day.
It gives all Catholics an opportunity to venerate all the saints,
to pray to them and ask for their
assistance (intercession) and to
imitate their Christian lives of
witness to the gospel as well as
their prayer life.
There is a saying that “every
saint has a past and every sinner
has a future” because none of us
are perfect. However, we too are
called to holiness aided by the
grace of our own baptism. Saints
are those who made their will and
Deacon
Luis Zuniga
Director, Office for
Pastoral Planning
& San Juan Diego
Ministry Institute.
the will of God one; therefore,
they serve as examples for those
of us still struggling with sin and
that is why we imitate their relationship with God.
The feast of All Saints gives
us hope that those who were
baptized, marked with the sign of
faith and lived on earth and have
gone before us are now enjoying
eternal life in heaven.
On All Souls day the Church
recalls and prays for the dead in
purgatory as they await the day
when they too will join the company of the saints. Catholic tradition holds the belief that souls in
purgatory do benefit from and
need our prayers and works of
charity and mercy as spiritual
help to overcome their spiritual
separation from God. This is the
main reason why we offer Masses
for our faithful departed as we
pray for their eternal rest.
In the Apostles Creed, we profess our belief in the Communion
of Saints. As Catholics we believe
that the saints (both canonized
and beatified) in heaven compose
the Church triumphant, because
they have gained the crown of
victory, heaven. The souls in pur-
gatory (being purified) compose
the Church suffering, because
they still have to expiate for their
sins before they can enter heaven.
The faithful on earth compose the
Church militant, because we have
to struggle against the enemies of
our souls, which is sin and evil.
The Catechism of the Catholic
Church describes the Communion of the Church of heaven and
earth: “When the Lord comes
in glory, and all his angels with
him, death will be no more and
all things will be subject to him.
But at the present time some of
his disciples are pilgrims on earth.
Others have died and are being
purified, while still others are
in glory, contemplating ‘in full
light, God himself triune and one,
exactly as he is”’(CCC, 954).
The Catechism then describes our Communion with
the dead. “In full consciousness
of this communion of the whole
Mystical Body of Jesus Christ, the
Church in its pilgrim members,
from the very earliest days of the
Christian religion, has honored
with great respect the memory
of the dead; and ‘because it is a
holy and a wholesome thought to
pray for the dead that they may
be loosed from their sins’ she offers her suffrages for them.” Our
prayer for them is capable not
only of helping them, but also of
making their intercession for us
effective. (CCC, 958).
During Mass at the second
» Please see Saints, p.15
Courtesy photc
An icon of St. Leo the Great in Rome.
»Feast Day
- Nov. 10
Spotlight on
St. Leo the
Great
Catholic News Agency/EWTN
Nov. 10 is the Roman Catholic Church’s liturgical memorial
of the fifth-century Pope Saint
Leo I, known as “St. Leo the
Great,” whose involvement in
the fourth ecumenical council
helped prevent the spread of error on Christ’s divine and human
natures.
St. Leo intervened for the
safety of the Church in the West
as well, persuading Attila the Hun
to turn back from Rome.
Pope Benedict XVI said in
a 2008 general audience on the
saint, “he was truly one of the
greatest pontiffs to have honoured the Roman See and made
a very important contribution to
strengthening its authority and
prestige.”
Central authority was beginning to decline in the Western
portion of the Roman Empire. At
some point between 432 and 440,
during the reign of Pope St. Celestine’s successor Pope Sixtus III,
the Roman Emperor Valentinian
III commissioned Leo to travel
to the region of Gaul and settle
a dispute between military and
civil officials.
As early as 445, Leo had intervened in this dispute in the
East, which threatened to split
the churches of Alexandria and
Constantinople. Its eventual resolution was, in fact, rejected in
some quarters – leading to the
present-day split between Eastern Orthodoxy and the so-called
“non-Chalcedonian churches”
which accept only three ecumenical councils.
As the fifth-century Christological controversy continued,
the Pope urged the gathering
of an ecumenical council to resolve the matter. At the Council
of Chalcedon in 451, the Pope’s
teaching was received as authoritative by the Eastern bishops,
who proclaimed: “Peter has spoken through the mouth of Leo.”
Pope St. Leo the Great died
on Nov. 10, 461. He was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church
by Pope Benedict XIV in 1754.
A large collection of his writings
and sermons survives, and can be
read in translation today.
Eastern Catholics and Eastern
Orthodox Christians also maintain a devotion to the memory of
Pope St. Leo the Great. Churches
of the Byzantine tradition celebrate his feast day on Feb. 18.
6
DIOCESE
Catechetical Convocation Highlights
Buscadores Retreat Nov. 21-23
The Valley Catholic
Campus & Young Adult
Ministry (CYAM) is hosting a
Buscadores Retreat Nov. 21-23
at Casa de Oracion Rosa Mistica
in Brownsville. Buscadores is
a retreat in Spanish for young
adults ages 25-39 which provides
Photos by Mobile Journalists, St. Joseph Church in Donna/The Valley Catholic
Hundreds of catechists from throughout the Rio Grande Valley gathered for an afternoon of prayer and fellowship at the
annual Catechetical Convocation on Sept. 27 at the McAllen Convention Center. Bishop Daniel E. Flores served as the
keynote speaker and commissioned the catechists for their ministry.
November 2014
young adults with an opportunity
to pause and reflect on their faith
journey with other people their
age.
To register online visit
charisministries.org. For more
information please contact Raul
Cabrera at [email protected] or
call (956) 784-5093.
November 2014
DIOCESE
Catechists Honored
7
Photos by Mobile Journalists, St. Joseph Church in Donna/The Valley Catholic
Catechists from throughout the Rio Grande Valley were awarded service pins
by Bishop Daniel E. Flores at the Catechetical Convocation on Sept. 27.
40 Years
Brownsville Deanery
Christ the King – Brownsville
Josefina G. Hernandez
St. Luke – Brownsville
Rosa Gamez
Weslaco Deanery
Holy Spirit – Weslaco
Mary Latigo
McAllen-Edinburg Deanery
Our Lady of Perpetual Help –
McAllen
Pura Reyna
30 Years
Brownsville Deanery
Norma Garcia and Marisela Garcia
Villarreal
Holy Family – Brownsville
Esiquia Deanda
Harlingen Deanery
St. Mary – Santa Rosa
Rene C. Rangel
Weslaco Deanery
St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus –
Edcouch
Suzanne Espericueta
25 Years
Brownsville Deanery
Miceala Cantu, Patricia Rivera and
Martha Rosenbaum
Our Lady, Star of the Sea – Port
Isabel
Petra M. Orta
Pharr Deanery
St. Margaret Mary – Pharr
Manuela Cabrera
1Mary, Mother of the Church –
Brownsville
Joe M. Di Grazia
Sacred Heart – Edinburg
Minerva Alvarado and Maria Teresa
De Jesus
St. Luke – Brownsville
Tabitha Coronado, Eduardo Garza,
Carlos Paul Sanchez, Lynette Marie
Sanchez
Our Lady of Sorrows – McAllen
Olga Ramirez
20 Years
Brownsville Deanery
Anita Zepeda
Holy Family – Brownsville
Maribel Quiroz
Mary, Mother of the Church –
Brownsville
Betty C. Bonnet
San Benito Deanery
St. Cecilia – Los Fresnos
Francisco Guerrero Jr.
Pharr Deanery
Marisa G. Vela
McAllen
Esperanza Romero and Elodia
Villarreal
St. Joseph the Worker – McAllen
Maria M. Guzman
Julie Ann Alderette, Gilbert Garza
and Reynaldo Garza
Mission Deanery
St. Mary – Santa Rosa
Gloria Castillo, Maria Elena Flores,
Bertha Mireles, Maria Criselda Prado
and Cynthia Rodriguez
Weslaco Deanery
St. Theresa of the Infant Jesus –
Edcouch
Mary Cazares and Noelia Martinez
Pharr Deanery
Sacred Heart – Hidalgo
Gertrudis Garza
Maria De Jesus Garza
Rosario Francis
St. John the Baptist – San Juan
Nora Casas
Carmen Donaji Herrera
McAllen
Cynthia Gonzalez
Our Lady of Sorrows – McAllen
Denia De Los Reyes, Melida G.
Lopez, Waltar A. Miramontez and
Belen Teran
Sacred Heart – McAllen
Jesse Cruz and Pablo Oliva
Ruben De Jesus
Blanca L. Garza
10 Years
St. Joseph – Edinburg
Marisela A. Pardo
Gloria Medina Gonzales, Ruben E.
Lopez and Rosalinda Medina
Rio Grande Deanery
Our Lady of Refuge – Roma
Dora Canales
»Hope in Action:
A Spotlight on Youth
Our Lady of Mercy
senior is a role model
to the community
Special to The Valley Catholic
I’ve attended Our Lady of
Mercy since early childhood. I was
a part of the church choir before I
became an Altar Server at the age
of 10.
I’m currently a senior at Weslaco East High School and I’ve done
countless community service projects with National Honor Society and the Law Dawgs Criminal
Justice Club. Some of the projects
I’ve participated in include: Walkathon for the Aurora House, Beach
clean-ups, H-E-B’s feast of sharing,
Brighter Christmas projects and
other benefits to help the people in
our community and school.
My parish involvement includes Altar Serving, helping set up
and organize festivities throughout the year, helping with our food
pantry, teaching first grade catechism for two years now, helping
organize the majority of our plays
and staring as “Mary” in most of
them, participating in the Youth
Group, and helping teach Summer
Bible School.
Name: Cassandra Trevino
School/Grade: Weslaco East
High School; Senior
What I do: Altar Server,
Youth Group, 1st grade Catechist,
summer softball program, “Mary”,
Posadas.
Talents/Gifts: Dancing,
Cheering, Color guard, Studying.
Best Movie Ever: God’s not
Dead
Most Listened to Song on my
iPod: I just want to dance with
you- George Strait
TV Show I Never Miss: Once
Upon A Time
Book I’d Read Again (and
Again): The Twilight Saga
Future Plans: I plan on attending Baylor University next fall
to study Psychology
Meaningful Quote: “We have
the potential to be Monumental”
Influential people: My parents
have definitely made the biggest
impact in my life. They molded me
into the young lady I am today &
I don’t know what I’d do without
them. They are my rock; they’ve
St. Anthony Parish
Harlingen Deanery
Our Lady of Holy Rosary – Mission
Guadalupe Rodriguez
Brownsville Deanery
Ground Breaking at
Courtesy Photo
Cassandra Trevino, a senior at Weslaco
East High School, serves her community
and Church.
supported me in anything I’ve chosen to do and push me to test my
limits.
They’ve showed me what I can
accomplish with hard work and
dedication and taught me to always
put God first in my life. My parents
are strong in their faith, and it’s
by their example that I’ve learned
about the power of prayer, the true
meaning of being a Catholic, and
most importantly that God is the
main focus in our lives.
—
If you would like to nominate a
student to be featured in “Hope in
Action: A Spotlight on Youth,” please
email Angel Barrera, director of
Youth Ministry, at abarrera@cdob.
org.
Courtesy Photo by Michael Swartz/The Valley Catholic
Father Lawrence Klein, left, and Bishop Daniel E. Flores break ground on a new multipurpose facility at St. Anthony Parish in Harlingen on Sept. 27. The old St. Anthony Church
which was located at the corner of 10th St. and E. Harrison Ave., was demolished to make
way for the new facility that will feature a gymnasium/banquet space, kitchen facilities,
classrooms and smaller meeting rooms.
»Birthday & Anniversary Wishes
The list of birthdays and ordination anniversaries is provided so that parishioners
may remember the priests, deacons and religious in their prayers and send them a
note or a card.
November
» Birthdays
5
9
10
16
17
20
22
23
28
Rev. Mario Castro
Rev. Eduardo Gomez
Rev. Raju Antonisamy, OMI
Rev. Ruben Delgado
Rev. Jose J. Ortiz, CO
Rev. Lawrence Klein
Rev. Luis Fernando Sanchez
Msgr. Agostinho Pacheco
Rev. Esteban Hernandez
7
10
11
12
14
15
20
20
24
28
29
30
Deacon Genaro Ibarra
Deacon Catarino Villanueva
Deacon Israel Sagredo
Deacon Juan F. Gonzalez
Deacon Inocencio Diaz
Deacon Alberto X. Chapa
Deacon Jesus Reyes
Deacon Benito Saenz
Deacon Juan Barbosa
Deacon Heriberto Solis
Deacon Francisco Garza
Deacon Graciano Rodriguez
5
7
13
13
Sister Patricia McGraw, ISM
Sister Rosalia Vadala, OSF
Sister Luella Walsh, OSB
Sister Cynthia A. Mello, SSD
» Anniversaries
27 Rev. Jose Rene Angel, JCL
28 Rev. Samuel Arispe
4 Deacon George Terrazas
11 Deacon Jose Luis Mendoza
30 Deacon Reynaldo Q. Merino
»
1
1
9
10
11
15
December
Birthdays
Rev. Oliver Angel, JCL
Rev. Andres Gutierrez
Rev. Emmanuel Kwofie
Rev. Simon Brzozowski, MSF
Rev. Msgr. Gustavo Barrera
Rev. Arturo Castillo
25 Rev. Ignacio Luna
29 Rev. Jerzy E. Maika
30 Rev. Gregory Labus
24 Sister Margarita Ortiz, OP
9
17
22
31
Deacon Jose G. Gonzalez
Deacon Gilberto Lopez
Deacon Roberto Cano
Deacon Crawford A. Higgins
3
8
13
13
13
17
19
19
30
Rev. Gustavo Obando
Rev. Alejandro G. Fajardo
Rev. Genaro Hernriquez
Rev. Joel Grissom, SM
Rev. Rodolfo Franco
Rev. Msgr. Juan Nicolau, Ph.D
Rev. Francisco Acosta
Rev. Thomas Pincelli
Rev. Robert DeLong, MSF
2
9
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
10
Deacon Hector Garcia
Deacon John F. Schwarz
Deacon Gerardo Aguilar
Deacon Antonio M. Arteaga
Deacon Ramiro Davila Jr.
Deacon Paulo Escobar
Deacon David Espinoza
Deacon Francisco R. Flores
Deacon Reynaldo I. Flores
Deacon Javier A. Garcia
Deacon Oscar Garcia
Deacon Silvestre J. Garcia
Deacon Jose G. Gonzalez
Deacon Gilberto Guardiola Jr.
Deacon Crawford A. Higgins
Deacon Amando Peña Jr.
Deacon Graciano Rodriguez
Deacon Gerardo J. Rosa
Deacon Rodolfo Sepulveda Jr.
Deacon Raymond Thomas Jr.
Deacon Nicolas E. Trujillo
Deacon Catarino Villanueva
Deacon Armandin Villarreal
Deacon Luis Zuñiga
» Anniversaries
8
DIOCESE
November 2014
Year of Consecrated Life
Vatican highlights
religious priests,
brothers and sisters
Religious communities serving in our diocese
Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate
By CAROL ZIMMERMAN
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an
effort to help lay Catholics gain a
deeper understanding of religious
life, priests, brothers and women
religious intend to open their convents, monasteries, abbeys and religious houses to the public one day
next February.
“If you’ve ever wondered what
a brother or religious sister does
all day, you will find out,” said Dominican Sister Marie Bernadette
Thompson, council coordinator for
the Conference of Major Superiors
of Women Religious.
The open house is just one of
the events for the upcoming Year of
Consecrated Life, which begins the
weekend of Nov. 29-30 — the first
Sunday of Advent is Nov. 30. It will
end Feb. 2, 2016, the World Day of
Consecrated life.
The special year dedicated to
consecrated life was announced
by Pope Francis and is similar to
previous themed years announced
by popes such as Year of the Priest
(2009-2010) or Year of St. Paul.
(2008-2009).
The year also marks the 50th
anniversary of “Perfectae Caritatis,”
a decree on religious life, and “Lumen Gentium,” the Second Vatican
Council’s Dogmatic Constitution
on the Church. The purpose of the
yearlong celebration, according to
a Vatican statement, is to “make a
grateful remembrance of the recent
past” while embracing “the future
with hope.”
Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of
Raleigh, North Carolina, chairman
of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Clergy,
Consecrated Life and Vocations,
announced the Year of Consecrated
Life events at an Oct. 1 news conference at the USCCB headquarters
in Washington.
He said the scheduled events
will provide an opportunity, especially for young people, to see how
men and women religious live. He
also urged heads of religious orders
to let his committee know of activities they are planning so they can
be publicized.
Sister Thompson said the pur-
pose of the open house gatherings
will be to provide people with an
encounter with men and women
religious and also an encounter
with Christ.
Sister Marcia Allen, a member
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kansas, and president-elect
of Leadership Conference of Women Religious, said another initiative for the upcoming year is called
“Days with Religious,” during
which laypeople will have opportunities to join men and women religious in works of service throughout the summer of 2015.
She said these opportunities, to
be announced locally, will not only
give laypeople the chance to “work
with us side by side” but will also
enable them to become aware of
the charisms of different orders.
Sister Allen said she hoped the
experience would be a “coming together for the sake of the church’s
presence” in the modern world.
The third major initiative for
the year is a day of prayer scheduled Sept. 13, 2015.
“We will join hands and hearts
with you that day,” said Father
James Greenfield, president of the
Conference of Major Superiors of
Men, who noted that throughout
that day people will be invited to
join religious men and women for
vespers, rosary or holy hours.
The priest, who is a member of
the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales
of the Wilmington, Delaware-Philadelphia province, said he hoped
the year would not only encourage
new vocations but also would allow
people to “see our commitment
with fresh eyes and open their
hearts to support us with a renewed
energy that stirs us all to embrace
our pope’s ongoing call for the new
evangelization.”
Although the year’s events are
intended to give laypeople a deeper
understanding of consecrated life,
the men and women religious also
said they will most likely benefit.
“Whenever you think you are
giving something you always end
up receiving more,” she said.
Founded by: St. Eugene de Mazenod in Aix-enProvence, France in 1826
How long has your community served our diocese?
The Oblates arrived in 1849 to serve as Texas
missionaries. Wearing long black cassocks, cowboy
boots and an Oblate cross around their necks, the priests
evangelized the area on horseback, traveling from
ranch to ranch to celebrate Mass and administer the
sacraments.
Charism:The Oblates are not specialized, except in
facing urgent needs. We are essentially missionaries
who work in 67 countries and are available for every kind
of apostolic work. The Oblate constitution states, “We
are men set apart for the Gospel, men ready to leave
everything to be disciples of Jesus.”
Apostolate: We provide pastoral care at Our Lady of
Refuge Parish in Roma and its four missions Holy Family
Church in Los Saenz, Holy Trinity Church in Falcon
Heights, Lamb of God Church in Fronton and St. Joseph
Church in Salineño; Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in
Mission; St. Eugene de Mazenod Parish in Brownsville
and the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Brownsville.
Contact information: Call Father Charles Banks,
vocation director in San Antonio at 1-800-358-4394
or contact any Oblate priest to learn more about our
community; Website: www.omiusa.org
Courtesy photo
The Oblate priests of the Southwest Area gather regularly for
prayer and fellowship. The priests are pictured at La Lomita Chapel
in Mission, which was first built in 1865 and rebuilt in 1899 after
a flood caused major damage to the structure. There are more than
4,000 Oblate priests and brothers throughout the world.
The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament
Courtesy photo
Pictured, from left, Sister Marilyn
Springs, Sister Irma Gonzalez, Sister
Evelyn Morales, Sister Vianney Uyeno,
Sister Theresa Nguyen of Brownsville.
Not pictured, Sister Therese Ann
Ridge and Sister Emma Marie
Stillman of Edinburg.
Founded by: Venerable Jeanne Chézard de Matel in Lyon, France in 1625
How long has your community served our diocese? The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament came to
Brownsville on March 2, 1853. The Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament were the first Sisters to serve in this area.
Last year we celebrated 160 years of service in Texas.
Charism(s): Our charism in the Church is to live and proclaim the incarnation of the Word. Centered in the Person of Jesus, the
Incarnate Word, and inspired by the vision of our foundress, we live life differently, in a manner that is contemplative, communitarian
and apostolic.
Apostolate(s): We proclaim the truth of God’s unconditional love with many voices. You can recognize us as teachers or
administrators in Catholic schools. You will find us in parishes as directors of religious education or as leaders of adult spirituality
programs. You will notice us in diocesan departments and as hospital chaplains. You may also meet us at retreats, on college
campuses, in counseling, and in spiritual direction.
Contact information: Brownsville –Sister Irma Gonzalez, Vocation Contact, (956) 546-1685, [email protected]
Corpus Christi – Sister Anna Marie Espinosa, Vocation Director, (361) 882-5413, [email protected]; Website: www.iwbscc.
org; Facebook: IWBSCC (Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament of Corpus Christi)
We will feature religious communities serving
in our diocese every month throughout the Year of Consecrated Life.
November 2014
DIOCESE
Those Who Serve:
9
Deacon Robert Ledesma
Ministering to soldiers a lesson in sacrificial love
Deacon provides
Holy Communion
for Army Reservists
By ROSE YBARRA
The Valley Catholic
MISSION — Deacon Robert
Ledesma’s mother was pregnant
with his older sister when his father
was called to serve in World War II.
“My father didn’t meet my
sister until she was three-yearsold,” Deacon Ledesma said. “Our
service men and women give up
their homes and potentially their
lives for us. The price of freedom is
sacrificial love.”
Deacon Ledesma, 68, sees
parallels in serving God and
country.
“Sacrificial love is what we
are called to give as Catholics,” he
pointed out. “Jesus said, ‘if you
want to be my disciple, take up
your cross and follow me.’”
Deacon Ledesma, who is
assigned to St. Paul Church in
Mission, is one of six clergy in our
diocese who volunteered to serve
our troops.
These deacons and priests
have been trained and vetted to
offer Catholic services to Army
Reservists at their weekend training
events in Brownsville, Harlingen,
McAllen and Rio Grande City.
A reservist is a service member
who serves in a part-time capacity
(one weekend a month, two full
weeks a year) or in a time of war,
when they become “active duty.”
The Army Reserve has more than
2,000 units in the United States,
Guam, the Virgin Islands, Puerto
Rico and Germany, each one
trained in a specialized skill and
ready to support Army missions
around the world, according to the
U.S. Army web site.
Once the reservists report for
weekend drills, they cannot leave
the reserve centers until they are
released. They are allotted one hour
for worship on Sunday.
Non-denomination worship
services were offered to the soldiers
in the Rio Grande Valley, but the
chaplain, who is Baptist, wanted
to better serve the reservists and
reached out to the diocese for help.
“He saw the need for Catholic
services because the majority of
the soldiers from the Valley are
Catholic,” Deacon Ledesma said.
“The chaplain wanted to provide
them the opportunity to worship in
their faith tradition.”
The son and son-in-law of
military veterans, Deacon Ledesma
said he has a tremendous respect
Courtesy photo
Deacon Robert Ledesma of St. Paul Church in Mission officiates a Communion Service
at the Army Reserve Center in McAllen.
for the hard work and sacrifice of
our nation’s military and is honored
to minister to them.
“When Deacon Ledesma
found out that there was a need for
Catholic services for the reservists,
he ran with it,” said Gary Van Ness,
a parishioner of St. Paul Church. “It
was a cause that touched his heart.
He is the reason it’s going.”
The Catholic services began in
July at the Army Reserve weekend
drills.
Deacon Ledesma is serving the
McAllen unit; Deacon Francisco
Flores, a military veteran, is serving
in Rio Grande City; Deacon Javier
Garcia, a military veteran, serves in
Brownsville and Deacon Francisco
D. Pon serves the Harlingen unit.
Father Daniel Omaya and Father
Francois Tsanga also volunteered
to help and have been trained to
serve as needed.
The second of six children,
Deacon Ledesma was born and
raised in Harlingen.
He believes his vocation to
the permanent diaconate was
inspired by his mother, “a very
strong Catholic,” who hosted an
intercessory prayer group at her
home for more than 15 years and
his childhood pastor at Our Lady
of Assumption Parish in Harlingen,
Father Clemente Grzenia, a Polish
priest from the Missionaries of the
Holy Family.
“Father Clemente was quite an
influence on my life because he was
so dedicated,” Deacon Ledesma
said. “He used to walk around the
neighborhood, dressed from head
to toe in black, reading his Breviary.
He would visit the families who
didn’t attend Mass that Sunday and
ask why.
“He was very pastoral, very
compassionate and prayerful.”
Deacon Ledesma and his wife,
Rosa Lila, have been married for 45
years and have two sons, a daughter
and nine grandchildren.
The couple works in ministry
together preparing parents and
godparents for baptism.
Deacon Ledesma, who works as
an independent insurance adjuster,
is also an advocate for the diocesan
tribunal.
“He can be depended on to
serve wherever there is a need and
serve well,” said Father Gregory
M. Kuczmanski, who has served
as pastor of St. Paul Church in
Mission for more than seven years.
“He was ordained almost 25 years
ago. He knows what he’s doing.”
Deacon Ledesma, who also
plays the bass guitar in God’s
service, is accompanied to the
reserve center every month by one
of the choirs from his parish in
order to enhance the celebration
for the soldiers.
The communion services
are held in the dusty, un-air
conditioned gymnasium where the
soldiers train.
“The hem of my alb is filthy
by the time I leave and the heat is
often unbearable, but it is a small
sacrifice to make for those who
put their lives on the line for us,”
Deacon Ledesma said. “In ministry,
sometimes you get more out of it
than the people you serve. This is
one of those instances. It’s quite a
deal.”
10
IN THE NEWS
November 2014
Supreme Court blocks law that had
closed most Texas abortion clinics
12 clinics reopen,
local prayer
warriors needed
By PATRICIA ZAPOR
Catholic News Agency
During the Extraordinary Synod on the Family, synod priests acknowledged the
importance of improving marriage formation and in helping couples prepare for
the role of being faithful and Catholic parents.
Formation for marriage
can’t end at wedding
More resources
needed for married
couples, parents
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Catholic News Agency
ROME — As the Church continues to reflect on the pastoral
needs of the family following the
recent Synod of Bishops, there has
emerged the need for marriage
formation lasting well beyond the
day a husband and wife take their
vows.
Marriage preparation was one
of many topics on the agenda for
the Extraordinary Synod on the
Family, which concluded Oct. 19,
with the synod fathers acknowledging the importance of improving marriage formation.
“There is a real need for the
creation of a standard for the
preparation and formation for
marriage,” said John Noronha,
a PhD candidate in bioethics at
the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina
Apostolorum, in an email interview with CNA Oct. 2.
John and his wife Ashley,
both known for having hosted the
EWTN series “Vatican Report’s
Art & Faith,” moved to Rome
shortly after their marriage in
2008.
He noted how the marriage
preparation which is currently
available “can range from non-ex-
istent to substantially formative,”
depending on one’s diocese or parish. “Since the Church is universal
there needs to be uniformity,” he
said, “but also using the wisdom of
subsidiarity and solidarity, certain
fundamental norms and guidelines ought to be developed and
followed to ensure that the couple
is in fact ready, informed and fully
prepared for the important and sacred sacrament of marriage.”
“The Church has the spiritual and practical wisdom, but just
needs to find ways to reach out to
families to share it.”
“Married couples and those
considering marriage,” Ashley
Noronha said in the same interview, “need support from the local
church to offer guidance in how to
form strong families that are built
on sharing the love of the Lord
with each other and their local
communities.”
While acknowledging that
some churches offer instruction
to couples in the lead up to their
marriage, she stressed that this
“support should continue on after a man and woman take their
vows.”
“The Church can nurture
family life by teaching a Catholic
family how to tie in their domestic culture with that of their local
parish and the universal Church,”
Ashley Noronha said. “Stronger
families mean that more people
feel the love of Christ every day in
their homes, neighborhoods, cities
and countries.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The
Supreme Court Oct. 14 blocked a
Texas law that had meant all but
seven of the state’s abortion clinics
were closed because they failed to
meet new standards.
The block will remain in effect
while the 5th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals considers a legal challenge to the law itself. It will allow
at least 12 clinics that were closed
to reopen.
In a brief order posted after
normal business hours, the Supreme Court granted requests
by some of the affected abortion
clinics to block parts of the law.
It blocked statewide the requirement that abortion clinics meet
standards of an ambulatory surgical center, which a majority of the
Texas abortion providers could not
meet.
For clinics in McAllen and El
Paso only, the order also blocked a
provision requiring abortion clinic
doctors to have admitting privileges at hospitals within 30 miles
of the clinic. The order noted that
three justices “would deny the application in its entirety.” Those were
Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence
Thomas and Samuel Alito.
Emily Horne, legislative associate at Texas Right to Life, told
Catholic News Service that the Supreme Court stay is a “discouraging
decision, but of course it’s not the
final one.”
The 5th Circuit has not yet
scheduled arguments on the lawsuit challenging the provisions, and
Horne said the court typically gives
The Valley Catholic
Pro-life advocates have started
gathering to pray on the public sidewalk
in front of the abortion clinic in McAllen.
To volunteer or for more information, call
the McAllen Pregnancy Center at (956)
631-4585.
several weeks’ notice before argument dates.
On Oct. 2, the 5th Circuit lifted
a lower court’s injunction blocking
the provisions from taking effect,
saying there was a strong likelihood
the legal challenge of the provisions
would be successful.
Horne said she’s also encouraged that other parts of the 2013
law have been allowed to take effect
without challenge, including the
admitting privileges requirement
for clinics in all but two cities and
a ban on abortions when a woman
is five months pregnant, based on
studies showing fetuses can feel
pain at that stage. She said the latter
provision has gone unchallenged
and has been in place for a year.
Since the abortion clinic in
McAllen reopened, there has been
a steady stream of traffic, said
Yolanda Chapa, founder of the
McAllen Pregnancy Center, a prolife pregnancy center located two
blocks from the abortion clinic.
Chapa serves as a sidewalk
counselor and prayer warrior. She
and other pro-life advocates stand
on the public sidewalk outside of
the abortion clinic praying and advising women and couples on their
way inside. It is one final attempt to
save the mothers and unborn babies from abortion.
“Well over 20 women walked
into the abortion clinic today,” Chapa said on Oct. 17. “It is alarming.”
Chapa said the clinic “reopened with a vengeance,” most
strikingly with the use of escorts
who provide a buffer between the
clients from the pro-life advocates.
Chapa appeals to all pro-life advocates to give of their prayers and
time to the sidewalk.
“We need your prayers and
presence at the foot of the Cross,”
she said.
For more information on how
to help the pro-life cause, please
call the McAllen Pregnancy Center
at (956) 631-4585.
—
With inforamtion from The Valley
Catholic.
Humanitarian Outreach
Responding to the call
Why do you volunteer at the immigrant respite center?
“From a very young age, I have been called to serve. I started volunteering
with the Red Cross as a young girl. When Sister Norma (Pimentel) informed me
that this need was here, I agreed to volunteer out of curiosity, to see what was
happening. Day by day, I have fallen in love with this ministry. We see the face
of Jesus in every person who walks through those doors and to be able to feed,
clothe and assist them is extremely fulfilling.
“I have a lot of work to do around the house, but as I try to complete my tasks,
my mind is here at the center. Nothing I have to do at home compares to the
work that is needed here and that’s what motivates me to come here every
single day.”
- Alma Revesz, 68, parishioner Our Lady of Sorrows Parish, McAllen
“I had read about the influx of immigrants and the need that there was for
volunteers and I felt very much called to be here. The people who walk through
those doors have been through long, very difficult harrowing journeys and they
tell stories that are just heartbreaking. They come here after that long journey
and they find human warmth. You can sense the relief. When they leave, they
are so optimistic and they are so grateful. They want to hug us and they are so
appreciative. They leave here believing in their futures and in what they can achieve.
”
- Jeffrey Crafts, 59, McAllen resident
Meet some of the volunteers who help refugees from Central America at the respite center at Sacred Heart Church
in McAllen. The center opened June 10 and hundreds of volunteers have served more than 10,000 people. To
volunteer call (956) 292-5852.
Noviembre 2014
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL 11
Amber Donaldson, Mobile
Journalist, Juan Diego Academy/
The Valley Catholic
Una estatua en la
Iglesia Cristo Rey en
Bluetown. La fiesta
de Cristo Rey, el 23
de noviembre, es
una de las fiestas
más importantes del
calendario litúrgico,
porque celebramos
que Cristo es el Rey del
universo. Su Reino es
el Reino de la verdad y
la vida, de la santidad y
la gracia, de la justicia,
del amor y la paz.
¡Viva Cristo Rey!
ACI Prensa/EWTN Noticias
La celebración de la Solemnidad de Nuestro Señor Jesucristo,
Rey del Universo, cierra el Año
Litúrgico en el que se ha meditado
sobre todo el misterio de su vida,
su predicación y el anuncio del
Reino de Dios.
La fiesta de Cristo Rey fue
instaurada por el Papa Pío XI el
11 de diciembre de 1925. El Papa
quiso motivar a los católicos a
reconocer en público que el mandatario de la Iglesia es Cristo Rey.
Durante el anuncio del Reino, Jesús nos muestra lo que éste
significa para nosotros como Salvación, Revelación y Reconciliación ante la mentira mortal del
pecado que existe en el mundo.
Jesús responde a Pilatos cuan-
do le pregunta si en verdad Él es el
Rey de los judíos: “Mi Reino no es
de este mundo. Si mi Reino fuese
de este mundo mi gente habría
combatido para que no fuese entregado a los judíos; pero mi Reino no es de aquí” (Jn 18, 36).
Jesús no es el Rey de un mundo de miedo, mentira y pecado,
Él es el Rey del Reino de Dios que
trae y al que nos conduce.
Al cerrar el año litúrgico con
esta fiesta se quiso resaltar la importancia de Cristo como centro
de toda la historia universal.
Es el alfa y el omega, el principio y el fin. Cristo reina en las
personas con su mensaje de amor,
justicia y servicio. El Reino de
Cristo es eterno y universal, es
decir, para siempre y para todos
los hombres.
12
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL
» La Alegría de Vivir
»Vida Familiar
A
l catequismo de la Iglesia
Católica nos recuerda en
los párrafos 1603 al 0605
que “La íntima comunión de vida
y amor que constituye el estado
matrimonial ha sido establecido
por el Creador y dotado por Él
con sus propias reglas apropiadas… Dios mismo es el autor del
matrimonio. Dios quien creó
al hombre por amor también
lo llama a amar la vocación
fundamental e innata de cada
ser humano. Ya que el hombre
es creado en la imagen y semejanza de Dios quien es amor. Las
Sagrada Escritura afirma que
hombre y mujer fueron creados
el uno para el otro: “No es bueno
que el hombre esté solo.” La mujer, “carne de su carne,” su igual,
su más cercano en todo, es dada
a él por Dios como su “ayudante”
así ella representa a Dios de quien
viene nuestra ayuda.”
Estas hermosas palabras me
recuerdan que tan agradecida
estoy por el Sacramento del
Matrimonio y por mi propio matrimonio. Mauri y yo celebramos
nuestro cuarenta aniversario el
31 de agosto del 2014. Recibimos
la bendición después de la Misa
del Domingo, seguida por una
comida cooperativa de aniversario. Más que nada, fue una maravillosa oportunidad para expresar
gratitud: a Dios y a la familia,
amigos y colegas en el ministerio
que nos acompañaron por su
amor y apoyo a través de estos
cuarenta maravillosos años de
matrimonio. Nos dio la oportunidad de agradecer públicamente
a Dios por nuestra hija Liana (el
regalo más grande que Dios nos
ha dado en nuestro matrimonio),
nuestro nieto Elian, mi madre,
hermanos y familia extendida,
colegas del Centro Pastoral y de
forma especial a nuestros presentadores del Retiro de Preparación
Noviembre 2014
El cigarro y la muerta Agradeciendo a Dios por el Matrimonio
caban de dar un veredicto
de billones de dólares para
una viuda que perdió a su
esposo debido a que era fumador
desde los 12 años. Pero entre las
apelaciones que meterán los abogados de las tabacaleras seguramente lograran que esa cantidad se
reduzca substancialmente.
En los Estados Unidos casi
un tercio de la población fuma,
aunque el ochenta por ciento de
esos fumadores desearía poder dejar de hacerlo, o eso dicen cuando
se le cuestiona, la verdad es que la
adicción a la nicotina tarde o temprano pasara factura acortando el
tiempo de vida o la calidad de vida
en los últimos años del fumador.
Se ha publicado un estudio
que relaciona el fumar con el
incremento en el número de suicidios, pues se observa que en los
estados donde hacen hincapié en
lo dañino del cigarrillo se registra
un menor número de suicidios.
Ahora que las campañas para
decir la verdad sobre los daños del
cigarro son más agresiva y se sabe
de las practicas de las compañías tabacaleras para instar a los
jóvenes a probar su producto, el
estado ha tratado de concientizar
a la población sobre lo costoso que
es para el estado el tratar a pacientes con enfermedades crónicas
por no haber dejado el cigarrillo a
tiempo.
Se calcula que solo un dos o
tres por ciento de la gente tiene
éxito en dejar de fumar, pues el
recaer y volver a fumar es una de
las conductas mas observadas en
quienes tratan de dejar el cigarrillo.
Ahora se ha comprobado
científicamente que el fumar es
más que un mal habito, pues la
fuerza adictiva de la nicotina se
compara a la que puede tener la
cocaína o el alcohol por ejemplo.
Pero a diferencia de las otras
drogas, la nicotina es legal y hasta
socialmente aceptada, por lo que
es mucho mas difícil romper la
cadena que nos ata a ella.
El cigarrillo forma parte de los
rituales sociales (fiestas, reuniones
de negocios, velorios y hasta algo
obligado después de una buena
comida) en donde todo el mundo
te ofrece un cigarrillo, y cuando no
lo aceptas te ves obligado a inhalar
el humo del cigarrillo del fumador
que esta a tu lado, cosa que no
ayuda para nada a quienes están
Msgr. Juan
Nicolau
Sacerdote jubilado
de la Diócesis de
Brownsville
tratando de romper con el habito
de fumar.
Como no se pueden pasar
leyes prohibiendo a las personas el
dejar de fumar el estado a comenzado a regular las áreas donde los
fumadores no pueden fumar, y se
le da difusión a estudios sociales que nos indiquen el porqué
algunas personas se esclavizan a
un habito que los llevara hasta la
muerte.
De hecho si tomamos en
cuenta las muertes causadas por
el alcohol, las drogas, accidentes
automovilísticos, homicidios y
suicidios, incluso también si contamos las muertes causadas por el
SIDA; no llegarían ni a la mitad
del numero de muertes causadas
por el fumar.
Y todo esto lo sabemos desde
hace muchos años, los fumadores
lo saben, todos hemos visto los
devastadores efectos del cigarrillo
en algún familiar o amistad cercana: enfisema pulmonar, bronquitis crónica, cáncer en la garganta o
la lengua, etc.
Sin embargo la gente sigue
fumando, lo que refuerza la idea
que el fumar no es una conducta
racional y que el poder de la nicotina sobre algunos individuos es
más fuerte que su voluntad. Si
te has decido a dejar el cigarro,
disminuye también el consumo de
cafeína, pues no solo es un detonante para volver a fumar, sino
que el cuerpo estará más sensible a
este compuesto y la necesidad que
siente por la nicotina se combinara
con la ingestión de cafeína y sus
efectos.
Haz un esfuerzo e intenta
reducir o eliminar el cigarro de tu
vida, veras como disfrutas mas los
alimentos y la convivencia con los
demás al ya no tener que aislarte
para fumar.
—
Mons. Juan Nicolau, Ph.D. STL es
un sacerdote jubilado de la Diócesis
de Brownsville. Es psicoterapeuta
familiar y consejero profesional con
licencias.
E
La Indiferencia,
continua de la pág. 2
los más generosos con otras personas pasando por dificultades.
Un mundo buscando esconderse detrás una indiferencia
objetiva e impersonal necesita
la alegría del Evangelio. Sólo
podemos evangelizar con credibilidad si primero nos abrimos a los
encuentros humanos, buscando
como abrazar a las personas y
como aliviar el sufrimiento que
Women
continued from pg. 4
para gozar,” he said.
Octavio Paz once wrote that,
“In the United States the word
death burns the lips, but the
Mexican lives close to it, jokes
about it, caresses it, celebrates
it, sleeps with it, it is his favorite
toy.” Hence some of the customs,
such as decorating the altars with
skeletons and skulls, poke fun
at death and serve as reminders
about our mortality.
Father Gomez said, “It’s
a cultural way of looking at
death… La muerte no triunfa.
We celebrate life, not death. We
are not afraid of death because
death does not have the final
word in this life.”
So this November, I honor
the woman who influenced me
Lydia Pesina
Directora, Oficina
de Vida Familiar
Matrimonial quienes colaboraron
con nuestra oficina de Family Life
al presentar 22 Retiros de Preparación Matrimonial cada año.
Durante nuestra comida,
Mauri y yo compartimos un
poco sobre nuestra vida juntos.
Sacamos varios objetos significativos de una maleta incluyendo:
(1) mi diario de la preparatoria:
leí un apunte del 28 de mayo de
1969 en el que anotaba que había
conocido a Mauri el último día
de escuela en el 9o grado en un
baile de fin de curso en el Centro
Comunitario de Pharr. El apunte
decía: “Conocí a un muchacho
muy lindo llamado Mauricio Pesina; creo que le gusto”. (2) El vestido amarillo talla uno que estaba
usando cuando nos conocimos
junto con la camisa amarilla que
Mauri usó; la cual saco de nuestro
closet cada año el 28 de mayo (3)
Mi vestido de novia. Señalé que el
Fr. Jack O’Malley, quien presenció
nuestros votos en la Iglesia Santa
Anna mencionó en su homilía
que nunca notaba los vestidos de
las novias, pero que había notado
el mío porque sabía que yo lo
había hecho. ¡Él dijo que sabía
que Mauri y yo jamás estaríamos
sin ropa o comida porque yo
sabía coser y ambos trabajábamos
en Kentucky Fried Chicken! (4)
Mis shorts de la luna de miel, que
me pruebo cada año (5) Mi traje
de mariachi “Las Rancheritas”
(nuestra luna de miel fue un viaje
de mariachis a la Florida).
Estoy tan agradecida con
Dios por Mauri: un hombre de
pocas palabras pero grandes
acciones. Él me enseña sobre el
“amor incondicional” …. él haría
cualquier cosa que yo, Liana, o
Elian le pidiéramos o el viera
que necesitemos. Aunque esté
enfermo o cansado, él nunca dice
no; a cualquier hora día o noche,
él lo hará. Para mí es un ejemplo
de lo que Jesús nos enseña sobre
el “amor entregado”. Una de las
cosas que amo del matrimonio
es que nos divertimos juntos;
en mi trabajo/ mi ministerio de
vida familiar voy a las parroquias
alrededor de la diócesis y cuando
Mauri y yo estamos en el carro
juntos, siento que estamos de
vacaciones. Disfrutamos nuestro
tiempo juntos en el carro; le
leo o escuchamos audiolibros y
nos aseguramos de tener citas
semanales.
Los votos que hicimos el día
de nuestra boda aún son importantes: “Prometo serte fiel en lo
próspero y lo adverso. En la salud
y la enfermedad, amarte y honrarte todos los días de mi vida”.
Hemos tenido buenos tiempos y
malos/ salud y enfermedad. Esos
tiempos son tiempos para crecer
en los que podemos recordar que
Dios está con nosotros a cada
momento de nuestras vidas para
darnos la sabiduría y fuerza para
seguir esforzándonos en ser la
persona que Él nos ha creado
para ser la ayuda de nuestro
conyugue (en quien podemos
confiar, de quien aprender, con
quien crecer, reír, llorar, y hablar
sobre cualquier cosa). El año
pasado en el Día de Celebración
Mundial del Matrimonio hubo
4 parejas casadas por más de 70
años. No sé lo que el Señor tiene
preparado para nosotros, nadie lo
sabe, pero puedo decir sin duda
que estoy agradecida por estos
primeros 40 años!
viven. El Señor está presente con
los que sufren; esto sí creemos.
Pero es algo difícil para el mundo
moderno creer en el Dios bueno;
necesita ayuda. Por compasión,
tenemos que enseñar con la obra
del evangelio que Dios no se encuentra en una pantalla mientras
esté uno sentado en el sillón. Está
presente en los pobres, y en los
que se entregan para el bien de
los demás.
Pero el mundo no nos creerá
cuando digamos que Dios está
entre los pobres, en ese espacio
donde sufren nuestros hermanos
y hermanas, si no ve a la Iglesia
presente en ese espacio donde
domina el encuentro humano y
el ayudar unos a otros con cargar
la Cruz. Anunciar el Evangelio
equivale decirles a los indiferentes: Vengan con nosotros a
encontrar al Cristo entre los que
sufren. Pienso que esto tiene
mucho que ver con lo que piensa
el Papa Francisco en Evangelium Gaudium cuando habla
de la evangelización y dice que
“quiero una Iglesia pobre, y para
los pobres”.
most – Marina Camila Trejo
Ruiz, la primera voz que oí. An
immigrant from Mexico, my
mother’s choice to cross el Rio
Bravo, to cross her life into the
United States, changed our
destiny. She never graduated
high school or went to college,
but I have shared before how the
most important lessons I learned
didn’t come from books or
school, I gained them from my
mother’s humble ways. Growing
up, we never left home without
her blessing. With the sign of
the cross on our foreheads she
was commending us, her three
daughters and a son, to God’s
protection. She taught us daily
to place our trust in God. She
also taught us to care for family.
On her only day off, she crossed
the border into Matamoros each
week to visit her mother and to
take her groceries or clothes and
supplies for her younger brothers
and sisters.
Through her actions, she
taught me the importance of
caring for those in our midst,
family, friends, strangers. She
also taught me to care for the
earth, the joy of gardening, and
the joy of drinking tea with the
comadres and telling stories.
My mother’s death influences
my daily pilgrimage. La primera voz nunca se olvida. I live
in God’s grace-filled moments,
knowing I must honor the gift of
each day. My daughter never got
to meet her grandmother, but I
make sure she meets her in the
stories I share.
How fortunate that we have
30 days in this November devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory to pray for the dead, and to
consider how we are living our
lives now. Does it honor God’s
will? Does it honor those who
came before us?
Noviembre 2014
NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL 13
¿Cómo debemos celebrar el Adviento y Navidad?
Prepararemos
nuestros espíritus
para la llegada de Díos
Por PADRE JOHN FEISTER
Especial para The Valley Catholic
¿Te has dado cuenta que el
postre es el primer plato en la línea
de muchos restaurantes buffet?
Sí, puedes comer la cena al revés
– empezar con el postre, después
continuar con el aperitivo y el plato
principal. Al final habrás comido
todo, pero no es tan satisfactorio
como disfrutar cada parte de la
comida en su momento. O peor, el
postre te llena antes de que comas
una comida balanceada.
Algunas veces sufrimos la misma tentación en Navidad. Nuestra
cultura suele saltarse el Adviento
y empezar a celebrar la Navidad
después del día de acción de gracias – ¡si tenemos suerte de llegar
tan lejos! Después se empaca todo
y se guarda para el Año Nuevo.
Este año, considera regresar a la an-
tigua practica de ver todo el “ciclo”
Navideño – el periodo que abarca
ambas temporadas de Adviento y
de Navidad – como una unidad de
celebración jubilosa. La preparación viene primero, después viene
la celebración extendiéndose un
par de semanas después del día de
Navidad.
El punto principal del ciclo
Navideño es obvio: Dios se convierte en uno de nosotros por medio de Jesús, la Encarnación. Todas
las tres fases del ciclo – Adviento,
Navidad y Epifanía – dependen
de y celebran ese momento. Estas
celebraciones nos ayudan a nombrar las formas en las que nuestras
vidas se encuentran en la “gran historia” de Cristo. Y estas ferias unen
nuestras vidas a Cristianos a través
de la historia. La tradición de la
Iglesia, el evangelio vivo, es la experiencia de la vida real de Cristianos
como tú y como yo, y aquellos que
se han ido antes de nosotros.
Durante el Adviento, el cual en
el 2014 empieza el 30 de noviembre,
enfatizamos la alegría que algunos
compararían con los meses previos
al nacimiento de un niño: emoción,
maravilla, alegría, expectativa, incluso euforia por la vida que está en
nuestro entorno, pero también una
esperanza y anhelo, y un esmero
por poner todo en orden.
Durante la temporada Navideña celebramos la maravilla de la
Encarnación. ¡Qué tan maravillosamente estamos hechos que la
Palabra de Dios se convertiría en
uno de nosotros! Dios nos muestra
cómo vivir plenamente: derramando nuestra vida por otros. De eso se
tratan los días de Navidad.
La Epifanía y la Fiesta del Bautismo del Señor celebran que Cristo
se manifiesta – es decir, presente –
a todas las personas. En la Epifanía
nosotros nos enfocamos en tres
Hombres Sabios que simbolizan
las muchas razas de las cuales nace
Cristo. El bautismo de Jesús marca
el comienzo de su ministro público.
¡El “regalo de Navidad” de Dios en
la Encarnación es un regalo para
todos!
–
Material registrado usado con
el permiso de Franciscan Media
www.FranciscanMedia.org.
Terry De Leon/The Valley Catholic
Una corona de Adviento en la Basilica de Nuestra Señora de San Juan del Valle. El
Adviento es el período de preparación para celebrar la Navidad y comienza cuatro
domingos antes de esta fiesta. Además se encuentra en el comienzo del Año
Litúrgico católico. Este año 2014, Adviento inicia el 30 de noviembre.
El Papa pide evitar que Medio
Oriente se quede sin cristianos
Familias huyen
la violencia
en Irak y Syria
ACI Prensa/EWTN Noticias
VATICANO – El Papa Francisco pidió el 20 de octubre no resignarse a la existencia de un Medio
Oriente sin cristianos, especialmente en Irak y Siria, donde el Estado Islámico (ISIS) está aplicando
“un terrorismo de dimensiones antes inimaginables” y frente al cual
la comunidad internacional debe
intervenir de manera adecuada.
El Papa hizo este llamado durante el Consistorio de Medio Oriente, donde también se presentaron
las causas de canonización del Beato José Vaz y de la religiosa María
Cristina de la Inmaculada Concepción. A este evento asisten 86 representantes, entre cardenales, patriarcas y los Superiores de la Secretaría
de Estado.
El Santo Padre recordó que “nos
une el deseo de paz y de estabilidad
en Oriente Medio y la voluntad de
favorecer la resolución de los conflictos a través del diálogo, la reconciliación y el empeño político”,
así como “brindar la mayor ayuda
posible a las comunidades cristianas para sostener su permanencia
en la región”.
“Como he tenido la ocasión
de reafirmar varias veces, no
podemos resignarnos a pensar en
Oriente Medio sin los cristianos,
que desde hace dos mil años confiesan el nombre de Jesús”, expresó
el Papa.
Sin embargo, denunció, “los últimos acontecimientos, sobre todo
en Irak y en Siria, son muy preocupantes. Asistimos a un fenómeno
de terrorismo de dimensiones antes
inimaginables. Tantos hermanos
nuestros son perseguidos y han
tenido que dejar sus casas, incluso
de manera brutal. Parece que se ha
perdido la conciencia del valor de
la vida humana, parece que la per-
Rodi Said/Catholic News Service, Reuters
Los cristianos de Irak huyen de la violencia, temiendo el final de su historia.
sona no cuenta y se la puede sacrificar por otros intereses Y todo esto,
lamentablemente, ante la indiferencia de tantos”.
“Esta situación injusta requiere, además de nuestra constante
oración, una respuesta adecuada
también de parte de la Comunidad
Internacional”, señaló el Papa.
En ese sentido, manifestó a los
asistentes su deseo de que con la
ayuda del Señor, en el encuentro
de hoy broten “reflexiones y sugerencias válidas para poder ayudar
a nuestros hermanos que sufren y
también para salir al encuentro del
drama de la reducción de la presencia cristiana en la tierra donde ha
nacido y desde la cual se ha difundido el cristianismo”.
La Santa Sede informó que en el
Consistorio han intervenido aproximadamente 30 personas, entre patriarcas y cardenales, donde se describió la situación y los problemas
principales de las Iglesias en Irak,
Siria, Egipto, Tierra Santa, Jordania,
Líbano y otros países de la región.
Los representantes señalaron
que Oriente Medio necesita urgentemente replantearse su futuro. “Se resaltó la importancia
de Jerusalén, como ‘capital de la
fe’ para las tres grandes religiones
monoteístas y se puso en evidencia
la necesidad de llegar a una solu-
ción del conflicto israelí-palestino y
sirio. Ante las violencias perpetradas por el ISIS se ha reiterado que
no se puede matar en nombre de
Dios”.
En ese sentido se pidió a la comunidad internacional garantizar a
los refugiados cristianos “la posibilidad de regresar cuanto antes a sus
hogares, estableciendo ‘zonas de seguridad’, por ejemplo en la llanura
de Nínive”. Además se exhortó a
no olvidarse de los secuestrados en
Oriente Medio.
También se defendió el derecho
fundamental a la libertad religiosa,
de culto y conciencia. En ese sentido, se exigió “que se reconozcan
a los cristianos todos los derechos
civiles de los demás ciudadanos, sobre todo en los países donde actualmente la religión no está separada
del Estado”.
Indicaron que “un Oriente Medio sin cristianos sería una grave
pérdida para todos, ya que juegan
un papel fundamental para mantener el equilibrio en esa zona y por
su gran compromiso en el ámbito
de la educación”.
“Es esencial alentar a los cristianos para que permanezcan en
Oriente Medio y perseveren en su
misión, también porque han contribuido al bienestar de los países
en que viven”.
14
DIOCESE
November 2014
Humanitarian Outreach
We serve together, we pray togther
“When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do him
wrong. The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native
among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were aliens in the
land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.”
- Leviticus 19:33-34
The Valley Catholic
Bishop Daniel E. Flores and religious leaders of many faiths gathered to pray for immigrant families
from Central America and for comprehensive immigration reform at a vigil on Sept. 30 at the Basilica
of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle-National Shrine.
The religious leaders are united in their belief that human beings are made in the image and likeness
of God and in their prayers for immigration reform as a way to protect workers and family unity.
Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley said the
prayer vigil brought together all the faith communities that have responded to helping refugee
families from Central America. “During this humanitarian crisis we came together to serve, now we
come together to pray.”
Pictured, from left, Father Amador Garza, rector of the basilica; Rev. Julio Guarneri, lead pastor of
Calvary Baptist Church in McAllen; Rabbi Claudio Kogan of Temple Emanuel in McAllen; Bishop
Daniel E. Flores; Rev. Javier Leyva of the United Methodist Church and Rev. Sylvia De La Garza, pastor
of St. John Lutheran Church in San Juan.
Mass for the Elderly
Courtesy photo
A Mass for the Elderly is celebrated
on the last Tuesday of every month at
the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan
del Valle-National Shrine. Bishop
Daniel E. Flores celebrated the Mass
on Sept. 30.
Adult day care centers, nursing
homes and rehabilitation centers
are invited to bring groups to the
monthly Mass.
For more information, call the
Basilica at (956) 787-0033.
Thanksgiving Prayer
O Gracious God, we give you thanks
for your overflowing generosity to us.
Thank you for the blessings of the food
we eat and especially for this feast today.
Thank you for our home and family and friends,
especially for the presence of those gathered here.
Thank you for our health, our work and our play.
Please send help to those who are hungry, alone,
sick and suffering war and violence.
Open our hearts to your love.
We ask your blessing through Christ your son. Amen.
November 2014
DIOCESE 15
»Media
Resource
Center
Viva Cristo Rey
Recommended by SISTER
MAUREEN CROSBY, SSD
Coordinator of the Media Resource
Center - Diocese of Brownsville
Feast instituted
in a time of war,
deep secularism
»Worth Watching
U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops
Mother
Theresa
Format: DVD
Length: 177 minutes
Audience: High School/Adults
Production: Ignatius Press (2014)
The original, uncut, full length movie.
Her heart found the forgotten, her faith
found a way.
William
Bradford,
First
Thanksgiving
Format: VHS
Length: 30 minutes
Audience: Adults
Production: Living History (1992)
William Bradford sought to worship
God according to his own conscience,
but found it impossible with the Church
and government as the same entity. As
peacemaker, he befriended the Native
Americans who taught the struggling
pilgrims how to survive. The rest is
history.
»From the
Bookshelf
Great
Bibilical
Stories
Format: Audiobook
Length: 5 CDs
Audience: Adults
Narration: Howard Gray, S.J, Ph.D
Publication: Now you Know (2012)
Includes the following stories: The Book
of Ruth as a Love Story, Elisha and
Being a Magician for Peace, Jacob and
God’s Pedagogy, Jesus and His Call,
Jesus and the Compassion of God,
Jesus and Women, Jesus and Prayer,
Creating the Church, God as Narrator
and Becoming God’s Partner.
Sisters of the
Last Straw
Book 1 – The
Case of the
Haunted
Chapel
Format: Paperback book
Length: 82 pages
Audience: Children, ages 6-12
Author: Karen Kelly Boyce
Illustrator: Sue Anderson
Publication: Catholic Word (2011)
A Scary Mystery! Are there ghosts in the
Sisters’ chapel? If not, where are the
scary voices coming from?
In 1925, Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King
in his encyclical letter Quas Primas, in response to growing nationalism and secularism around
the world. He had the foresight
to realize that secularism could
soon wage awful wars against the
Church.
During the early 20th century,
in Mexico, Russia, and in many
parts of Europe, atheistic regimes
threatened not just the Catholic
Church and its faithful but civilization itself.
Pope Pius XI’s encyclical gave
Catholics hope and — while governments of men around them
crumbled — the assurance that
Christ the King shall reign forever. Pope Pius XI said that Christ
“reign[s] ‘in the hearts of men,’
both by reason of the keenness of
his intellect and the extent of his
knowledge, and also because he is
very truth, and it is from him that
St. Luke Parish
“Our parishioners, including
many who have been here since
the beginning, learned the importance of community during those
early days,” Father Gonzalez said.
“If we have community, we have
church. It’s not the building that
makes the church, but the people.
“I believe we are a stronger
community because of those days
Marriage
impose a profoundly false redesign for marriage upon society
so that, in the words of Professor
George, marriage becomes “an
emotional union for the sake of
adult satisfaction that is served by
Saints
part of the Eucharistic prayer
we always pray for our faithful
departed: “Welcome into your
kingdom our departed brothers
and sisters, and all who have left
this world in your friendship.
We hope to enjoy forever the
vision of your glory, through
Christ our Lord, from whom all
» Calendar of Events
Amber Donaldson, Mobile
Journalist, Juan Diego Academy/
The Valley Catholic
An image from Cristo
Rey Church in Monte
Alto. The feast of
Christ the King, Nov.
23, establishes
Christ’s royalty over
men, that is, Christ
is God who wields
supreme power over
all things, and that he
is our Redeemer and
head of the Church.
All Day
All day
6:30 p.m.
1
All Saints Day
1
Juan Diego Academy
Annual Gala (Mission)
2
All Souls Day
2
St. Anthony Church Fall
Festival (Harlingen)
2
Mass for children with special
needs and their families (Holy
Family Church, Brownsville)
6
Advisory Team
(Catechesis)
7-9 Catholic Engaged Encounter
(Family Life Office)
8-9 Sacred Heart Church Fall
Festival (McAllen)
truth must be obediently received
by all mankind.”
While we hope and pray that
the dark times of almost a century
ago remain in the past, a troubling
recent Pew Forum report shows
that religious intolerance is on the
rise worldwide, including in the
United States.
Therefore, we must remain
vigilant when our first American
freedom protected under the First
Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is threatened.
Religious liberty gives us the
ability not just to worship at Mass
but the freedom to feed the hungry, serve the needy, and tend to
the sick. During this time when
we come together as a nation in
thanksgiving for our many blessings, let us thank God for the gift
of religious liberty and ask that it
not be taken for granted.
13 Professional Day
(Catechesis)
15 Walking by Faith Pilgrimage
(Youth Minsitry)
15 Matachines Festival
(St. Frances Cabrini Church, Pharr)
15 St. Theresa Church Festival
(Faysville)
15 Our Lady of Guadalupe
Church Fall Festival
(Raymondville)
15-16 Retiro PreMatrionial
without a church home. Our parishioners worked very, very hard
to build this church and they will
never take it for granted.”
The new sanctuary, rectory,
church offices and parish hall
were blessed and dedicated by
Bishop John J. Fitzpatrick on April
4, 1976.
Msgr. Doherty said the parish really began to blossom when
the community moved into the
church and the number of parishioners and ministries increased
steadily.
In response to the needs of the
growing parish, St. Luke School
was established in 1992.
The school serves students in
grades Pre-K3 to eight and has an
enrollment of 190.
Other pastors of St. Luke Parish include Father Armando Escobedo; Father Gregory Kuczmanski; Msgr. Juan Nicolau; Father
Terance Fowler; Father Juan Victor Heredia; Father Esteban Hernandez and Msgr. Heberto Diaz.
mutually agreeable sexual play,”
thereby undermining its intrinsic
connection to complementary
bodily union between men and
women. This forced reconfiguration of marriage is no more
defensible than the efforts of
those who socially or legislatively
attempted to impose a notion of
“racial purity” upon marriage or
society in former times.
—
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
earned his doctorate in neuroscience from Yale and did postdoctoral work at Harvard. He is a
priest of the diocese of Fall River,
MA, and serves as the Director
of Education at The National
Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. See www.ncbcenter.org for
more information.
27 Happy Thanksgiving
Diocesan Offices Closed
good things come.” (Eucharistic Prayer, III). This is a special
moment for us during
Mass
to bring to mind and pray for all
our loved ones who have gone
before us.
As we celebrate and venerate
all of our saints and we remember the souls of our beloved
departed brothers and sisters
let us be mindful that we live in
the hope that we will see them
again. Meanwhile we ask the
Lord Jesus to give us strength
and peace as we grieve for if we
cry, for them it is because we
have loved them and miss them.
We are also mindful that as
Catholics death doesn’t exist,
there is no such thing as “la
santisima muerte” porque la
muerte no existe ni es santa. For
when Christ died on the cross
for us he destroyed our death
and when he rose from the dead
he has restored our lives.
5
Bishop Emeritus Raymundo J. Peña’s Calendar
November 5
November 10-13
November 26
November
Priests’ Assembly
USCCB General Meeting
Evins Ministry
San Juan
Baltimore
Edinburg
On going:
8 a.m. Mass Monday - Saturday at St. Joseph Chapel of Perpetual Adoration, 727 Bowie St., Alamo
2nd: Vocations to the Permanent Diaconate the deacons
(permanent and transitional) of the diocese and their
families
3 p.m. Mass at St. Joseph Chapel of Perpetual Adoration,
727 Bowie St., Alamo
3rd : Vocation to Married Life: for the welfare and
sanctification of all the families in the diocese and for
building up the Kingdom in our domestic churches
7 p.m. Holy Hour Weekly every Thursday at 727 Bowie
St., Alamo
1st: Vocations to the Consecrated Life (active and
contemplative) and for the Sisters and Brothers in our
diocese and the success of their mission
4th: Vocations to the priesthood and the priests of the
diocese for the success of their ministry
5th: Vocations to the Pro-Life Intentions
16 Mass and Reception for
Lumen Christi Award
(St. Anne Church, Peñitas)
17 Theology Class
(Office of Catechesis)
18 Clase de Teologia
21-23 RCYC Oklahoma
(Youth Ministry)
22 Convalidation Conference
28 Thanksgiving Holiday
30 First Sunday of
Advent
December
4-7 NCCYM in San
Antonio (Office of YM)
Advent Day of Reflection
6-7 For Better Forever
7
Mass for children with special
needs and their families
(Holy Family, Brownville)
8
Immaculate Conception
12 Feast of Our Lady of
Guadalupe
12 Incarnate Word Academy
Truck Raffle (Brownsville)
15 Bishop’s Annual Dinner
24 Christmas Eve
25 Christmas Day
26 Christmas Holiday
Please submit your schedule to be published
in The Valley Catholic by the first Friday of
each month by email at [email protected]
or fax: (956) 784-5082.
16
DIOCESE
Our Catholic Family
November 2014
‘The youth of today want a faith journey’
Director of religious
education promotes
service, ministry
By ROSE YBARRA
The Valley Catholic
BROWNSVILLE — Betty
Bonnet has been a catechist at
Mary, Mother of the Church Parish
in Brownsville for more than 20
years and the director of religious
education since 1999.
She received a pin for 20
years of service to the Diocese of
Brownsville from Bishop Daniel E.
Flores at the annual Catechetical
Convocation on Sept. 27.
“For her, being the director of
religious education is a ministry
more than a job,” said Msgr.
Heberto Diaz, pastor of Mary,
Mother of the Church Parish. “She
is very dedicated to catechesis and
to making sure that the students
and the parents learn about their
faith.”
In her time as a catechist,
Bonnet, 61, has seen many patterns
and themes with the students, most
of them positive, but what she is
witnessing in the youth these days,
is particularly inspiring.
“I’m finding that our youth are
hungry for something, especially
for God,” she said. “Most of
them have everything, materially
speaking. They are lacking
nothing, they don’t have to work
to make money for the family like
generations past, but there is still
a void there. They are looking for
God.”
And these youth are not
only Catholic in name. They are
Catholic and can tell you why.
“In the past, if you asked a young
person why they were attending
religious education classes, many
would have said because it is
a tradition in my family to be
Catholic or because my parents are
making me,” Bonnet said. “Today,
they ask a lot of questions. They
want to know why we do what we
do as Catholics and they want the
truth.”
Bonnet said the catechists at
her parish are teaching scripture to
those preparing for confirmation.
“You cannot understand the
Mass or have a love for the Mass
unless you know scripture,” she
said. “It’s the same thing with the
sacraments. You can’t understand
why we do what we do as Catholics
until you read scripture.”
Bonnet said it was her own
children who brought her back to
the Catholic Church. Like many
young adults, she and her husband
both fell away from the faith in
their 20s.
“My children were asking me
things about our Catholic faith that
I didn’t know and I felt bad,” she
said. “I asked myself, ‘what is the
best way to learn about your faith?’
That is when I began volunteering
as a catechist.
“I didn’t know then what
‘catechist’ meant, but that’s given
me the opportunity to learn more
about my faith and that is where it
really began for our family.”
Bonnet and her husband,
David, have been married for
almost 35 years and have four
children, four grandchildren and
another grandchild on the way.
David Bonnet is the head of
the religion program at St. Joseph
Academy, a Catholic high school in
Brownsville, and also volunteers as
a catechist at their parish.
He gave up a lucrative career in
engineering to serve God and his
Church.
Bonnet credits her family’s faith
for keeping them united.
“If it wasn’t for the Church and
our faith, I think our marriage
would have broken up a long
time ago,” she said. “Our children
brought us back to our faith and our
faith has kept us going. Now, we’re
both passionate about our faith. We
both eat and sleep Church. We’re
here all the time. We can’t say no.
“Whenever we have financial
problems, somehow, the money
comes. The Lord takes care of you
when you work for him.”
Bonnet is energized by the
youth in her parish and their drive
to serve.
She noted that of the 100-plus
students who were confirmed last
Eric Sánchez/The Valley Catholic
Betty Bonnet, director
of religious education
at Mary, Mother of
the Church Parish in
Brownsville, leads a
program of 521 students.
She was honored for
20 years of service as a
catechist at the annual
Catechetical Convocation
in September.
year, more than half have come
back, wanting to volunteer at the
parish in some way.
“In the past, maybe 10 or so
wanted to help,” she said. “The
youth of today want a faith journey
and they want to put their faith into
action.”
“Betty has a great heart for
ministry and for young people,”
said Angel Barrera, director of
youth ministry for the diocese.
“She is willing to accompany the
youth on their faith journeys and
encourages them to explore their
faith in greater depth.”
Bonnet believes this generation
may finally reverse the trend of
baptized Catholics falling away
from their faith as young adults.
“They are going to marry
sometime soon and their children
are going to grow up right,” she said.
“They are going to be Catholic, not
because I told you so or because it’s
a tradition, but because God loves
you, therefore we are going to be
part of this Church because we are
all one in Christ Jesus.
“This generation, when they
reach their 20s or 30s, they are not
going to leave their faith. I think
they are the strongest group that we
have had in years. I believe they are
going to bring the Catholic Church
out of its lukewarmness.”

View - Catholic Diocese of Brownsville

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