November 2012 - Diocese of Austin

Transcripción

NOVEMBER 2012
T H E
V O L U M E 3 0, N U M B E R 10
O F F I C I A L
P U B L I C A T I O N
O F
T H E
D I O C E S E
O F
A U S T I N
Marble Falls welcomes home Olympic medalist
BY ENEDELIA J. OBREGÓN
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Austin Diocese
6225 Hwy. 290 East
Austin, Texas 78723
Periodical
Postage Paid
at Austin, Texas
Faith in God and his Catholic roots carried Leonel Manzano from humble beginnings to
the Olympic podium as the 2012
silver medalist in the 1500-meter
race in London.
Parishioners at St. John the
Evangelist Parish in Marble
Falls, where his family still worships, were among those who
proudly watched the young man
who made his rst holy Communion and was confirmed
alongside their own children.
Manzano, 27, returned to
Marble Falls at the end of September to a hero’s welcome.
The high school held a rally,
with former track coaches and
elected ofcials in attendance. In
nearby Granite Shoals –– where
the family lives –– he helped
break ground on the Leo Manzano Hike Bike and Run Trails.
Since becoming the rst U.S.
middle-distance runner to medal
since 1968, Manzano has been
to the White House and made
appearances on television talk
shows. But he remains grounded by his Catholic faith and the
wise counsel of his parents,
María and Jesús Manzano Sr.
“Since I was young, my faith
was impressed upon us by my
grandmother,” María said. “She
taught us to pray the rosary and
say the Our Father. She had a
very strong faith.”
The couple continued those
traditions, praying the rosary together every night and attending
Mass every Sunday at St. John
Parish. The children received
their sacraments. She arranged
rides for religious education
classes since she didn’t drive
when they were young and it was
too far to walk from their home.
Jesús Sr. said he and his wife
are proud their son has continued that rich heritage.
“He can’t deny he’s Catholic,” Jesús Sr. said with a chuckle. “He was born two blocks
from the Cathedral.”
His parents pray he never
strays from the right track on
which they have placed him.
“We always entrusted ourselves to God and the Virgen (de
Guadalupe),” he said. “Whatever
step we took we would cross ourselves. We did it upon getting up
and at bedtime.”
Their eldest son said he prepares for each competition with
prayer, and always makes the
Sign of the Cross before the
start of a race.
“I feel God is always with
me,” Leonel said. “Some people focus or get in the ‘zone’
through music. I get into the
‘zone’ with prayer. I pray a lot
and do a lot of self-talking.”
LEONEL
MANZANO, a
parishioner of St.
John the Evangelist
Parish in Marble
Falls, won a silver medal in the
1500-meter race in
the 2012 Olympics.
He was born in
Mexico, but came
with his parents to
the U.S. when he
was a child. (Photo
by Enedelia J.
Obregón)
Faith has carried them in
good times and bad. It gave
them strength to leave their
native Mexico. Jesús Sr. came
rst from Dolores, Guanajuato,
searching for work. María followed when Leonel was 4 and
his sister Laura was 2.
Jesús Sr. gained legal residency under the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act.
But it took 10 years for the
rest of the family to gain legal
residency. Leonel became a U.S.
citizen in 2004 and competed in
the Beijing Olympics representing his adopted country. His
siblings Lulu and Jesús Jr. were
born in the U.S.
They moved to Granite
Shoals from Flatonia within a few
weeks after María arrived with
the two oldest children. Jesús Sr.
got a job at Capitol Aggregates
Inc., which crushes stone for
roadways. He still works there,
FRONTLINE
FAITH
NEW SAINTS
Pope Benedict XVI
canonized seven new
saints on Oct. 21.
Page 17
Local organization helps
soldiers keep the faith
while on the front lines.
Page 4
BISHOP’S
ESPAÑOL
INTERVIEW
Co-op de Austin ayuda
a los trabajadores
a iniciar negocios.
Página 28
Bishop discusses
spiritual drought and
longing for the Lord.
Page 20
while María cares for elderly residents in their homes.
“I do have a strong foundation through my family as well,”
Leonel said. “They try to make
the best decisions and right
decisions about us. With God
and faith, we do the right thing.”
Fellow parishioners remember Leonel as a smart, quiet and
polite student who worked very
hard to get ahead.
See LEO on Page 4
2
THE MISSION OF THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
As the ofcial newspaper for the Roman Catholic Diocese
of Austin, the CATHOLIC SPIRIT is dedicated to providing information, education and formation for the Catholic community
of Central Texas. This mission calls for the newspaper:
• to provide readers with an understanding of our Catholic
faith and traditions;
• to be a primary source of information on Catholic issues
relevant to the community;
• to be a unifying element for faith communities, both rural
and urban, throughout Central Texas;
• to show respect for and appreciation of all cultural groups
and traditions;
• to emphasize topics afrming the Catholic community and
life, while acknowledging the humanity of the community and
examining, with courage, topics that challenge and encourage
growth in the faith;
• to carry a commitment to social justice that will support
the renewal of the church in Central Texas.
HOW TO SUBMIT INFORMATION
Deadline for submission of articles or information for the
CATHOLIC SPIRIT is the 10th of the month for publication in the
following month’s edition.
Deadline for the December issue is Nov. 10.
You can submit material in any of the following ways:
• E-mail to [email protected].
• Mail to CATHOLIC SPIRIT, 6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, TX 78723.
For additional information, call (512) 949-2443 or e-mail
us at [email protected]. CATHOLIC SPIRIT has
unrestricted editing rights.
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Readers are encouraged to express their opinions on
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The views expressed in the letters do not necessarily represent those of the editor or the publisher of CATHOLIC SPIRIT.
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though name will be withheld from publication on request.
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send check payable to Catholic Spirit to CATHOLIC SPIRIT,
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Send all address changes to CATHOLIC SPIRIT, 6225 Hwy.
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STAFF
Publisher: Most Rev. Joe S. Vásquez, Bishop of Austin
Editor: Shelley Metcalf; (512) 949-2400,
[email protected]
Assistant Editor: Christian R. González; (512) 949-2400,
[email protected]
Advertising: Shelley Metcalf;
(512) 949-2400, [email protected]
Spanish translation: Beatriz Ferrer Welsh
Columnists: Barbara Budde, Mary Lou Gibson and Rev.
Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
Correspondents: Cristina Lopez, Amy Moraczewski, Enedelia
Obregón, Michele Chan Santos and Mary P. Walker
Catholic Spirit subscribes to Catholic News Service
(CNS) and is a member of the Catholic Press Association.
Copyright 2012 by the Austin Diocese. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any editorial content, photograph,
art or design is prohibited without written permission of the
publisher CATHOLIC SPIRIT (ISSN 0896-2715) is published 11
times annually (monthly except one issue in July/August)
by the Austin Diocese. Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, publisher,
6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, TX 78723. Periodicals Postage
Paid at Austin, Texas.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Catholic Spirit,
6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, Texas 78723.
VOICES
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
And my mouth will proclaim your praise
BY SHELLEY METCALF
CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
Bishop Joe Vásquez welcomed the Year of
Faith with a beautiful prayer service on Oct. 10.
It was a nice evening and as I drove home these
words from the bishop echoed in my head and in
my heart.
“This is truly a time of grace. In this Year of
Faith, the church reminds us that people come to
believe in Jesus Christ through credible and joylled witnesses ... The world is yearning to know
Christ. There is a deep hunger in all people to
know the living God and we who have met and
encountered him can make him known to others,”
the bishop said.
That evening for the first time since Pope
Benedict XVI announced the Year of Faith, I realized that the year was not just about re-discovering
my own Christian faith, but it’s also about helping
other discover Christ.
Yes, I have a lot to work on in my own spiritual
life. This column is proof that I struggle on a continual basis to be open to Christ and to let him be
in charge. But I have even more work to do when
it comes to helping others know Christ and open
themselves to him.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord
while my introvert tendencies keep my lips locked
tight. I need to work on letting my lips verbally
profess what I feel so keenly in my heart.
“Confessing with the lips indicates in turn that
faith implies public testimony and commitment.
A Christian may never think of belief as a private
act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as
to live with him.,” writes Pope Benedict XVI in
“Porta Fidei.”
I am looking forward to this next year because I think it’s going to move me out of my
comfort zone. The image that comes to mind is
that of a re that has dwindled to red hot coals.
When more wood is added and the coals are
stoked, the coals ignite and catch the new wood
on re also, which produces more warmth and
light.
During this Year of Faith, my goal is to learn
more about my faith so that I can help others
ignite their own faith. I pray my lips will learn to
speak the faith that my soul proclaims.
SHELLEY METCALF lives in Cedar Park
with her husband and two children.
They are parishioners of St. Margaret Mary Parish.
Father Bob Herald died Oct. 7 in Hearne
Father Robert P. Herald died on Oct. 7 at the
age of 64. He was born Nov. 8, 1947, in Fountainhill, Pa. His parents were Alexander Herald and
Florence Donnellan Herald.
He graduated from Seton Hall University in
1970 and received a master of Divinity degree from
St. Meinrad Seminary in 1989. He was ordained a
priest of the Diocese of Austin on May 27, 1989,
at St. Louis Parish in Austin by Bishop John E.
McCarthy.
He served in various parishes in Central Texas,
including St. Theresa in Austin, St. Mary in Hearne,
St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, St. Louis in Austin,
St. Mary in Mexia, St. Joseph in Bryan, St. Ann in
Somerville, St. Joseph in Rockdale, Our Lady of
Lourdes in Gatesville and St. Joseph in Waco.
Father Herald was a Fourth Degree member
of the Knights of Columbus and a Knight Commander in the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. He previously assisted in the
Tribunal of the
Diocese of Austin and served as
a prison chaplain.
He is survived
by his brother,
sister, half-brother and numerous
nieces and nephews.
Bishop Joe
Vásquez celebrated the Mass of
Christian Burial
Oct. 12 at St. Mary Parish in Hearne and burial was
at St. Mary Catholic Cemetery in Hearne.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Seminarian
Education Endowment at the Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Austin, 6225 Hwy. 290 E.,
Austin 78723.
EIM workshops in November, December
The Ethics and Integrity in Ministry policies of the Austin Diocese were established in 2002 to
educate Catholics on how to help prevent sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults. According
to the policies, all employees and those volunteers who minister to youth or vulnerable adults in
the diocese are required to complete an Application for Ministry, which permits the diocese to run a
criminal background check. Additionally, all new applicants are required to attend a three-hour EIM
workshop for adults within 60 days of their EIM application submission. Every three years employees
and volunteers must attend an EIM refresher course or the three-hour EIM workshop.
Upcoming EIM workshops are listed below. Please call the location you would like to attend at
the phone number listed so that enough materials are available. For more information regarding the
diocesan EIM policies, visit www.austindiocese.org or call (512) 949-2400.
Three-hour courses
Nov. 3 from 9 a.m. to noon at San Jose Parish, Austin; (512) 444-7587
Nov. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon at St. Mary, Church of the Assumption, West; (254) 826-3705
Nov. 17 from 9 a.m. to noon at St. Margaret Mary Parish, Cedar Park; (512) 259-3126
Dec. 1 from 1 to 4 p.m. at St. Mary Parish, Caldwell; (979) 567-3667
Refresher courses
Nov. 6 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at University Catholic Center, Austin; (512) 476-7351
Nov. 11 from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at St. Mary Parish, Lockhart; (512) 398-4649
Nov. 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at St. Thomas More Parish, Austin; (512) 258-1161
Nov. 27 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Christ the King Parish, Belton; (254) 939-0806
Dec. 15 from 9 to 10:30 a.m. at St. Louis Parish, Austin; (512) 454-0384
November 2012
CENTRAL TEXAS
3
Jack Buckley: Keeping Christ in the healing process
Editor’s Note: The Year of
Faith began on Oct. 11 and will
run through November of next
year. Each month during the
Year of Faith, the Catholic Spirit
will feature lay men and women
who live their faith in a variety
of ways. To suggest a lay person
to feature, write catholic-spirit@
austindiocese.org.
BY MARY P. WALKER
When those who were sick
or in need of care went to Jesus,
he listened to them and healed
them. Today, Christ’s healing
work is often accomplished
through a complex system of
health care professionals, hospitals, clinics, treatment options, medications and insurance. Honoring Christ’s healing
presence in the midst of such
complexity has been the focus of Jack Buckley’s career in
health care administration.
Known for his rock-solid
Catholic values and sound business sense, most of Buckley’s
career has been within Catholic
health care systems. Through
the years, he has worked with
10 congregations of religious
orders, and received recognition for his professional and
civic activities. His opinion has
been sought and respected by
health care professionals, as well
as bishops, who, like Buckley,
believe that a Catholic hospital
should be a living manifestation
of the church’s care.
Buckley came to the Austin
Diocese in 2003, as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of St.
Joseph Regional Health Center
in Bryan. In 2005, he was named
president and CEO of St. Joseph Health System, which is
sponsored by the Sisters of St.
Francis of Sylvania, Ohio and
includes hospitals, clinics and
long-term care facilities.
Retiring in 2008, Buckley
continues to share his professional expertise. He is a consultant, an executive in residence
at Texas A&M Health Science
Center’s Department of Health
Policy Management, and is part
of a team working to improve
services and reduce the costs of
delivering care to those who rely
on Medicaid.
When asked what led to him
to a career in Catholic healthcare, Buckley credits his mother,
a convert to Catholicism, who
set an example of faith-filled
living and devotion. He also
credits the many congregations
of sisters who have touched his
life along the way. His love and
admiration for them began in
grade school with the School
Sisters of St. Francis. In fact,
Buckley has been described as
having a true Franciscan spirit.
He is faithful, devout and able
to get things done.
Buckley’s eyes light up and
he smiles when he talks about
working with different religious
orders through the years.
“We wouldn’t have the
health care system we have today without the sisters,” said
Buckley, who expressed wonder
JACK BUCKLEY (left) says one of the highlights of his career in Catholic health care was
when Pope John Paul II visited Phoenix in
1987. (Photo above by L’Osservatore Romano;
photo at left by Mary P. Walker)
in how they are able to solve
problems and get people to
work together. Whenever he
attends a conference, he enjoys
reconnecting with those who
inspired and influenced him.
He is also respected as a mentor, taking the time to help and
advise others in their careers.
Because the spiritual care of
Bishop Vásquez welcomes Year of Faith
DURING AN EVENING PRAYER SERVICE at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin on Oct. 10,
Bishop Joe Vásquez and several hundred people prayed Evening Prayer and ushered in
the Year of Faith. “Brothers and sisters, this is truly a time of grace. In this Year of Faith,
the church reminds us that people come to believe in Jesus Christ through credible and joylled witnesses. We are witnesses to all that Jesus has done in our lives,” the bishop said.
During the prayer service, the bishop blessed the Year of Faith banners that were distributed
to the parishes and Catholic schools in the diocese. The Year of Faith runs through Nov.
24, 2013. For more information, visit www.austindiocese.org. (Photo by Shelley Metcalf)
the patient, their families and
even the employees is part of
the mission, Buckley believes
that a Catholic setting offers
great benets for delivering and
receiving health care. He also
appreciates having the teachings of the church to guide the
ethical decisions that arise when
treating the sick and dying.
One of the highlights of his
career was when he was president and CEO of St. Joseph
Hospital and Medical Center
in Phoenix. In 1985, Bishop
Thomas O’Brien asked Buckley if Pope John Paul II were
to come to Phoenix, would
the hospital be prepared for a
visit. Buckley committed that his
team would do whatever necessary to be ready for the pope.
On Sept. 14, 1987, the visit
became a reality. Because the
pope was scheduled to meet
patients and speak outdoors,
security was a concern. There
were credible threats against
the life of the pontiff; and for
protection, sharpshooters were
stationed on roofs. The pope
was to speak from behind a twoinch thick steel podium with
Buckley and the bishop nearby.
Buckley knew that if shots were
red, they would have to bodily
shield the pope and get him inside the podium –– a daunting
and dangerous responsibility.
Fortunately, the pope’s visit was
both inspirational and safe.
Wherever he has lived, Buckley has participated in parish life,
and served as an extraordinary
minister of holy Communion.
When he became a member
of St. Mary Catholic Center in
College Station, he approached
Father David Konderla, the pastor, and offered to help. For a
man of Buckley’s talents, Father
Konderla had a particular job
in mind.
St. Mary is a college Catholic campus ministry and faces
different challenges than those
of geographic parishes. For
the last three years, Buckley
has chaired the statewide leadership committee that advises
on how to grow and improve
campus ministry programs for
the students of Texas A&M
University and Blinn College.
Because students come from
all over Texas and the world,
the impact of Buckley’s dedication and the unique way
that he shares his faith reach
far beyond the local community.
For his efforts, Buckley received the diocese’s Lumen
Gentium Award, which recognizes lay persons who live their
baptismal call in an extraordinary way through stewardship
and leadership.
“Since I rst met him, Jack
has been open and generous
with his talents and skills. He
is a great inspiration to me personally and professionally, and
his example of leadership and
self-service is one I hope to
emulate,” Father Konderla said.
4
CENTRAL TEXAS
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Helping soldiers on front lines keep the faith
Cheri Lamonte was interviewing the mother of a military member when she asked the woman
what she could do to help her son.
The response shocked the
Austin-based radio host of
“Mary’s Touch.” It also led to the
launching of a program to serve
the spiritual needs of military
personnel.
“She asked that I pray for her
son, who was 19 and in Afghanistan, and had not seen a priest in
nine months,” said Lamonte of
the encounter in 2009. “I was sitting in my chair and when I heard
that I came out of my chair and
said, ‘That can’t be!’”
Lamonte, whose program is
carried nationwide on 100 radio
stations –– including Central
Texas on Relevant Radio 970
–– mulled over the situation and
thought to herself, “Perhaps I
can change that.” She credits
the Holy Spirit for helping her
nd a way.
“If this were my work, it never
would have gotten off the ground.
But it was the Holy Spirit, and
if the Holy Spirit is calling you
to do it, you know you have to
do something,” said Lamonte, a
parishioner at Emmaus Parish in
Lakeway.
Strengthened in her resolve
by prayers and contacts she
had made through the years,
she quickly launched Frontline
Faith, which provides MP3
players preloaded with Christian content to members of the
armed forces.
Since launching the project,
the nonprot organization has put
more than 30,000 MP3 players in
the hands of military personnel.
The goal is 6,000 for 2012.
One of those recipients is SFC
Paul Rodríguez, chaplain’s assistant in the Texas National Guard
with the 36th Infantry Division
and a deacon at St. Margaret Mary
Parish in Cedar Park. He was in
Seattle preparing to leave with
his division for deployment to
Iraq in December 2010 when his
chaplain gave him an MP3 player.
“I looked for information
about it online and saw that it was
part of “Mary’s Touch,” a program I had listened to,” Deacon
Rodríguez said. “I contacted her
and asked her for 50. She sent
150. They went so fast I asked her
for another 400.”
He said having the MP3 players is a big help to men and
women on the front lines because
there are not enough chaplains to
meet their spiritual needs.
“I was a division senior assistant chaplain in charge of South
Iraq,” he said. “There are only 20,
which is about one per brigade.”
He said the MP3 players are
small enough to t in pockets and
the ear buds allow each individual
to use them as needed. They also
are very portable and rechargeable.
The MP3 players contain
music as well as a talk by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a Mass
recorded at the National Shrine
of the Immaculate Conception,
letters read from students at the
Cathedral School of St. Mary in
Austin and the Warrior’s Rosary.
It also contains an examination
of conscience by Chaplain Col.
Jim Evans, a retired priest of the
Austin Diocese, who is on the
board of the Frontline Faith and
serves as the organization’s spiritual director.
Father Evans, who was in
the Air Force for four years
and the Texas National Guard
for 20 years where he served in
the Middle East, said Catholics
make up the largest number of
Christians in the military. Of the
1.2 million active duty personnel, about 375,000 are Catholic. There are only 300 priests
ministering to them and their
dependents.
“At times, there may be only
a handful of priests in Iraq and
Afghanistan. Compare that to
World War II, where there were
3,200 Catholic chaplains,” he said.
Military personnel are served
by priests from the Archdiocese
from home, she and her husband pray he will continue living
the values with which he has
been raised.
She also is proud that he has
not forgotten his roots, spiritual
and cultural as noted by his decision to drape himself with the
U.S. and Mexican ags at the
Olympics, which raised some
controversy in this country.
“The Olympics celebrate
friendly competition,” Leonel
said. “Countries stopped wars
and came together without armaments or disputes. When I
carried both ags, it was more
or less symbolic, trying to bring
two countries together.”
Leonel plans to compete in
the 2016 Olympics in Rio de
Janeiro.
“I love running,” he said.
“If it’s God’s will I will continue
doing it ... It’s something I was
blessed with. But I still have to
work out. God gave me the gift
but without hard work and time
put in, there’s no way I could
have done what I did.”
To youngsters who look up
to him, he advises nding something they like to do and doing it
to the best of their abilities.
“Everybody has gifts,” Leonel said. “Some people think
they don’t. But even time is a
gift. Everybody has that.”
Mostly, Leonel said he is
grateful to God for everything
he has received.
“I always thank God for
everything he’s given me –– for
the good and the bad,” he said.
“Sometimes a lot of good can
come from the bad. You just
don’t see the big picture. You’ve
got to thank him even in rough
times. It’s all part of his plan. We
just don’t understand it.”
CHERI LAMONTE, founder of Frontline Faith, shows Deacon Paul Rodríguez one of the
MP3 players the organization sends to soldiers who are serving in the military. The devices are loaded with music, a talk by Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a Mass recorded at the
National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, letters read from students at the Cathedral
School of St. Mary in Austin and the Warrior’s Rosary. (Photo by Enedelia J. Obregón)
LEONEL
Continued from Page 1
“He’s a nice kid who’s a
hard worker,” said Father Jairo
López, pastor of St. John Parish.
“He is very humble and so are
his parents.”
Sara Dutch, a first-grade
teacher and fellow parishioner,
said Leonel was always a high
achiever.
“He’s a great role model for
kids,” she said.
Leonel said he just wants
to help kids follow through on
their dreams, especially Hispanic
youngsters.
“Maybe they think, ‘he looks
like me’ and if they see success
in someone who looks like them
it plants the idea in their minds
that this Hispanic guy who is
only 5’5” is doing well maybe
there’s no reason they can’t succeed,” he said.
María said that as her eldest
child spends more time away
for the Military Service, USA,
which is led by Archbishop Tomothy P. Broglio.
“A lot of people think the
military or the government is
responsible for the spiritual
needs of the men and women
the armed forces,” Father Evans
said. “The military makes available a wide array of religious
services.” However it’s up to
the church to ensure that there
are priests available to preside at
Mass and offer the sacraments.
Father Evans said it’s not unusual for priests to y by helicopter into a base, celebrate Mass,
hear confessions, minister to the
wounded and y out elsewhere a
few hours later.
When priests are not available,
chaplain assistants such as Deacon
Rodríguez pick up the slack.
“It felt good giving the
soldiers something with some
‘meat’ on it,” he said of the MP3
players. “I didn’t have to improvise because I knew it came
from good Catholic sources. It
made my job a lot easier being
able to give them that along with
pamphlets and rosaries.”
Deacon Rodríguez said that
a lot of evangelizing occurs in the
military, and he teaches the Rite
of Christian Initiation for Adults
and classes on the sacraments at
military camps.
Lamonte said the idea for
the MP3 players came after talking to Alan Graham, founder of
Mobile Loaves and Fishes, who
previously suggested them for the
homeless.
“The things on the MP3 players
are timeless,” she said. “The presentation that Bishop Fulton Sheen
gave to West Point was in the 1950s,
but it’s still appropriate. The Mass
and rosary are never dated.”
She also called on military
families, who quickly responded.
One of the recordings is by
Rosie Babin of Round Rock,
whose son, Alan –– a medic ––
was severely wounded in Iraq in
2003.
“She talks about the ‘new
normal’ for the family,” Lamonte
said. “They are stories of how anyone can make it, no matter what
happens … anything is possible
with God.”
Linda MacFarland, a military
wife for 20 years, got several
bishops to each record a decade
of the rosary.
“I know it was the Holy Spirit
because I began making calls and
those people put me in touch
with others and before I knew it
I had seven hours of material,”
Lamonte said.
She said she’s had military
personnel call her show and tell
her they fall asleep at night listening to the recordings because
it helps calm them down after
stressful days.
“Listening to Mass or the
rosary helps them relax and
lifts their spirits,” Lamonte
said. “And isn’t that what it’s all
about?”
At noon on Veterans Day
(Nov. 11), Frontline Faith asks
everyone pause to remember
those who have died in the line
of duty and to pray for those
who serve in the military.
It costs $24 to get an MP3
player into the hands of a man
or woman in the military. To
make a donation or get more
information on the program,
go to www.frontlinefaithproject.
org. Donations can be mailed
to Frontline Faith, P.O. Box
341991, Austin, TX 78734.
November 2012
CENTRAL TEXAS
5
Catholic Archives of Texas moves to Pastoral Center
BY MICHELE CHAN SANTOS
CORRESPONDENT
The Catholic Archives of
Texas possess fascinating records
that span more than four centuries. The Archives are nationally
recognized for preserving the history of the Catholic Church in
the Southwest.
The collection includes priceless pieces of Texas history, including letters to and from Sam
Houston during the Republic of
Texas period.
Holdings of the Catholic Archives of Texas include records
of the Texas Catholic Conference and the Texas Knights of
Columbus and its Historical
Commission, Texas Catholic
Historical Society, and religious
associations, societies and Catholic clubs in Texas; papers of Paul
J. Foik, William H. Oberste, Sam
Houston, Charles S. Taylor, Francis Bouchu; personal papers and
biographical les of the bishops
and clergy in Texas; dioceses and
parish collections; documents
dealing with various religious
orders formed or stationed in the
state; and newspapers, photographs, sacramental records on
microlm, Texana and Catholic
books, and artifacts relating to the
history of the Catholic Church
in Texas.
Formerly housed at a site
near Shoal Creek in Austin, the
Archives recently moved to the
Diocese of Austin Pastoral Center at 6225 Highway 290 East in
Austin.
The Archives facility occupies approximately 3,000 square
feet, and the collections make
up about 2,000 linear feet. The
Archives has its own heating and
air conditioning system to make
sure the historic items are kept at
appropriate temperatures.
Founded in the 1920s, the
Catholic Archives of Texas have
been part of the Texas Catholic
Conference since 1984. The
conference is the primary funding
source for the Archives. Additional funding comes from private grants, including a large grant
from the Knights of Columbus.
“Now that we are housed in
the Diocese of Austin Pastoral
Center, we can really share the
collection and expand what we
can make public,” said Maria
Huemmer, communication director for the Texas Catholic Conference. “We can work with other ministries more easily because
of the convenient location.”
The Archives are a wonderful resource for “researchers of
all stripes,” said Susan Eason,
director of The Catholic Archives
of Texas. “We have reference
collection books on every aspect
of Catholicism in Texas and
beyond,” Eason said. “We have
les on almost all the parishes
in Texas. You can research your
own parish or your own region.”
Genealogists come to the
Archives because of the historic
sacramental documents, Eason
said. Documents from the early
to mid-1800s are available for
people researching the genealogy of their families. The collection is open during Pastoral
Center hours: 8:30 a.m. to 5
p.m. Monday through Friday.
Appointments must be made
in advance.
Limited records of baptism,
marriage, confirmation, first
communion and death are available.
“Regarding sacramental records for genealogical research,
most of our holdings for this type
of record are from the areas now
comprised of the present-day
dioceses of Austin, Brownsville
and Victoria,” Eason said.
The staff is delighted to help
researchers. Eason is the director
and the assistant archivist is Eric
J. Hartmann.
“Our archivists are a great
tool, and the knowledge they
have is a real asset,” Huemmer
said. “They are easily able to pinpoint what someone is looking
for to tie it all together.”
The Archives’ staff works
closely with the Texas Catholic
Historical Society. The society
draws from the resources of the
Archives to create the journal
“Catholic Southwest: A Journal
of History and Culture.” This
journal has won several awards
from the Catholic Press Association for its excellence. The
journal’s content reflects not
only history, but the Catholic
experience expressed through art,
architecture, literature, music and
other subjects.
The move to the Pastoral
Center “is a blessing,” Huemmer
said. “It’s an opportunity for expansion. This is important. This
is our faith, and the history of our
church.”
For more information
about the Catholic Archives
of Texas or the Texas Catholic Historical Society, visit
http://catholicarchivesoftx.
org/. To make an appointment to visit the Archives,
call (512) 476-6296 or e-mail
[email protected].
THE ODIN CHALICE is part of the collection at the
Catholic Archives of Texas. It was given to Bishop Jean
Marie Odin, the rst Bishop of Galveston, in 1845. (Photo
by Shelley Metcalf)
Conference promotes life, dignity of all
BY MICHELE SANTOS
CORRESPONDENT
Loving others without exception was a strong underlying
theme of the “Living the Good
News” conference held in September at St. Catherine of Siena
Parish in Austin. It was presented
by the Charity and Justice Secretariat of the Diocese of Austin.
The conference addressed
the Gospel call to promote the
life and dignity of every person
from conception, throughout
their lives until natural death.
Bishop Joe Vásquez led the
opening prayer and addressed the
assembly.
“This is an opportunity for
us to talk about social justice,”
he said. “Our faith is never
abstract. It’s about the realities taking place here and now.
We’re ready to address the issues
of the day. Our faith is practical,
it’s down to earth. It’s taking
care of the poor and the sick
and the imprisoned. Jesus said,
‘what you did to the least of my
brothers and sisters you did to
me.’ It’s about the reality we live
in, right now.”
Jack Jezreel, the founder and
executive director of JustFaith
Ministries in Louisville, Ky., was
the keynote speaker. Jezreel has
a master of Divinity degree from
the University of Notre Dame.
He spent six years in a Catholic
Worker community and 12 years
in parish ministry. He is a dynamic, expressive speaker with
a passionate delivery and good
sense of humor.
Jezreel described the overwhelming feeling of love and
devotion he felt upon cradling
his rst child, a girl, when she had
just been born.
“The God we believe in loves
every one of us a million times
this,” he said, saying his affection
for his child was only a tiny fraction of what God feels for us.
“The best of Christian prayer
includes an openness to God’s
will,” Jezreel said. “I would invite
us to a posture of prayer throughout the day.”
Knowing he was addressing
many people who have leadership roles at their parishes or in
the diocese, he said, “Traditionally there has been a chasm between pray-ers and doers.” The
stereotype, he said, is that people
who pray don’t do a lot; and that
people who do a lot of the every-
day work of ministry don’t pray.
“If you do good and don’t
pray,” he said dryly, ”you become
crabby.” The audience responded
with laughter. “The saints do
both –– they pray and they do,”
he said. “They recognize God is
in control and not us.”
Jezreel spoke intensely of the
difference between philia –– loving your own family and friends
–– and agape. Agape means
love without exceptions, loving
everyone including our enemies,
criminals, those who are different from us and those who don’t
agree with us.
“Our Christian journey is
moving from philia to agape,”
Jezreel said.
After his address (which
earned him a standing ovation),
conference participants attended
sessions on topics including
“Criminal Justice: Identifying
Parish and Community Resources,” “The Right to Life
and the Common Good,” “A
Firsthand Report from Haiti,”
“Dignity of the Dying: A Catholic View of End of Life Issues,”
“A Catholic View of Immigration,” “Spirituality of Sidewalk
Ministry” and many more.
At “How a Catholic Looks
at the Death Penalty,” Bob Van
Steenburg of the Texas Coalition
to Abolish the Death Penalty
(www.tcadp.org) spoke of the
reasons the death penalty should
be abolished.
“The Catholic Church says
we don’t need the death penalty
because societies can protect
themselves without it,” Van
Steenburg said. “Non-lethal
punishment is preferable because it is more in conformity
with the dignity of the human
person.”
Van Steenburg clearly demonstrated how the death penalty
is unnecessary, arbitrary and part
of a system that is broken. He
spoke of the many errors that
have occurred and led to innocent men being sentenced to
death.
“There are good reasons for
every person of faith to oppose
the death penalty,” Van Steenburg said.
Attendees were enthusiastic
about how much they were learning at the conference. Susana
Carrion of St. Margaret Mary
Parish in Cedar Park came to the
event because of her involvement
in the Respect Life group at her
parish.
She attended Jezreel’s breakout session on “Roots of Good
News.”
“He showed us this is what
we need to do –– we need to
pray,” Carrion said. “We are so
busy doing everything we don’t
start with ourselves by praying.
I’ve learned a lot here.”
Geneva Abdelioua and Sylvia Frost are part of the prison
ministry at Holy Family Parish
in Copperas Cove. In the St.
Dismas ministry, they share their
faith with imprisoned women at
the Mountain View Correction
Facility in Gatesville. Their ministry group also holds retreats
for men in different units.
Abdelioua said she was
moved during Jezreel’s address.
It touched her “when he emphasized we need to focus on seeing
everybody,” she said.
Frost said, “I feel very good
that I came here today because
I’ve learned a lot. I learned not to
be afraid. Whatever comes, you
take into account how to help
people.“
For more information
about social justice issues in the
Austin Diocese, visit www.austindiocese.org or contact Barbara Budde at (512) 949-2471.
6
CENTRAL TEXAS
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Austin’s Cooperation Texas receives CCHD grant
When María Muñoz was
14, she started working as a
domestic servant. She cared for
children, ironed clothes, cleaned
house –– even washed windows
–– and cooked meals.
“One felt humiliated,” said
Muñoz. “They treated us badly,
but we didn’t have a choice. If
you complained they would re
you and quickly nd someone
else who would take the job.”
There were not many employment options in the small
community in the Mexican state
of Guanajuato, and her income
was needed to help her parents
and nine siblings.
Today, however, Muñoz
is part owner of the Dahlia
Green Cleaning Services in
Austin with Lorena Hernandez, Cyndi Jiménez, Brenda
Jiménez and Eva Marroquín.
The business was launched
in June with the help of Cooperation Texas, an Austinbased nonprot organization
founded in 2009 to create
sustainable jobs through the
development, support and
promotion of worker-owned
cooperatives.
For the rst time, Cooperation Texas received money
from the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development
(CCHD), which allowed them
to help Dahlia this summer.
Barbara Budde, director of
the diocesan Ofce of Social
Concerns, said that for many
years CCHD has funded economic development grants because “work with good pay is
the best path out of poverty.”
That nancial aid made a
big difference.
“Without training and
money to help us get started
we would not have been able
to do this,” Muñoz said.
As part of the application
process for CDHD aid, the
diocese met with the executive
director and a worker who
was about to become a worker-owner of a new business.
“The excitement and
pride she had was incredible,”
Budde said. “She told stories
about working for others who
asked her to use chemicals
for cleaning she knew would
be harmful. She was so ready
to launch her business, to do
great work and do it in a way
she knew would be better for
her and for her customers.”
Budde said the committee
voted unanimously to recommend approval of the grant
to Bishop Joe Vásquez. The
other bishops who review the
approved grants agreed with
Bishop Vásquez and gave approval for the project.
“Through the generous
donations of Catholics to the
CCHD collection, workers
can be trained to own and run
their own businesses, giving
them a path out of poverty,”
Budde said. “It is a real investment in human life and dignity and is a great way we can
act on our faith as we support
these workers.”
On a recent Sunday morning, Muñoz and Carlos Pérez
de Alejo were reconciling the
books for the new business.
Pérez de Alejo is executive
director of Cooperation Texas
and helped Muñoz go over
the business’s bank statement
and copies of the cancelled
checks. The ve women take
turns doing the bookkeeping
and all vote on business decisions.
Cooperation Texas also
provides the legal and educational support to help businesses succeed, which is vital
for success, since small businesses have a high failure rate.
According to startupbusinesshub.com about 85 percent
of small businesses fail within
the rst year; the failure rate
is reduced to 55 percent by
year four and 35 percent after
10 years. The most prevalent
reasons are lack of business
experience, poor planning and
under capitalization.
Pérez de Alejo said the coop is a tool to lift people out
of poverty and has a proven
track record in low-income
communities. Cooperation
Texas is the only worker cooperative development center
in Texas and provides education, training and technical assistance to existing and startup worker cooperatives.
“Studies have shown that
cooperative businesses have
a lower failure rate than conventional businesses,” Pérez
de Alejo said. “Multiple people are investing money and it
spreads the risk and benets
versus having one or two people. It democratizes the wealth
and ownership.”
So far, Cooperation Texas
has launched Dahlia, a worker-owned green cleaning cooperative, and the Red Rabbit
Cooperative Bakery, a workerowned vegan bakery whose
products are available in several retail businesses.
Instead of being driven
solely by prots, worker cooperatives also measure success
by the well-being of workers,
CARLOS PÉREZ DE ALEJO, executive director of Cooperation Texas, helps María Muñoz
with bookkeeping for Dahlia Green Cleaning Services. Muñoz is one of ve women who
co-own the business with help from Cooperation Texas, which received a grant from the
Catholic Campaign for Human Development. (Photo by Enedelia J. Obregón)
the sustainability of the business and overall contribution
to the community and the
environment.
The co-op method focuses
on creating jobs that are dignied for people and the planet,
that help lift people out of
poverty and generate wealth
for future generations.
Pérez de Alejo said the
beauty of a co-op is that the
workers are the owners; therefore, they are empowered to
make the best decision not
just for the bottom line, but
for themselves and their families.
Muñoz, 29, likes being her
own boss.
“We earn better salaries and
we control our hours,” she said.
“I want to be able to spend time
with my family.”
In Mexico, she earned very
little and lived with the family
she worked for, seeing her son
only on weekends. The community in which she lived was
a two-hour bus ride away from
the city in which she worked and
she couldn’t afford to go home
every night.
“He was calling my sister
‘mama,’” she said. “She took
care of him while I worked.”
She came to the U.S. in 2004
as a young widow with her toddler in tow because she wanted
a better life for him. She worked
as a live-in servant for ve years,
and was grateful she was given
a room to live in with him. But
there were others who were not
so generous, telling her they
would be back at a certain time
and arriving hours later, not
bothering to pay her extra.
She has since remarried
and now also has two daughters and she dreams of a different future for her three
children that includes a college education. She is strict
about homework and insists
on no television.
“I am doing this for their
future,” she said. “I want
them to have good jobs and
not suffer like me. This kind
of work is very hard.”
She hopes her co-op business will succeed so she can
help her family in Mexico.
She has not seen them since
she left because it is too dangerous due to the increasing
drug-related violence. Muñoz
knows it will take a lot of
work, but she is no stranger to
hard labor.
“Things here are easy compared to Mexico,” she said.
“That’s why when we come
here we do so much work other
people don’t want to do.”
Pérez de Alejo said coopera-
tives focus on systemic change,
which take time but benet lowincome communities better than
simple charity.
“The difference between
charity and solidarity is that in
solidarity the people affected by
inequality are in the driver’s seat.
They know the needs that need
to be addressed,” he said.
In the cooperative businesses, the worker/owners make the
decisions equally. Cooperation
Texas staff is there solely to
help.
“We need fewer sprinters
and more long-distance runners,” Pérez de Alejo said.
“Systemic change takes time.
Look at Civil Rights; those
changes were not provided
overnight.”
For information on the
Dahlia Green Cleaning Services,
visit www.dahlia.coop or call
(512) 786-4249. For information on Cooperation Texas, visit
www.cooperationtexas.coop or
call (512) 948-3423.
What is the Catholic Campaign
for Human Development?
The annual special collection for the Catholic Campaign for
Human Development will be taken up in parishes Nov. 17-18.
CCHD is dedicated to breaking the cycle of poverty by funding
community programs that encourage independence.
CCHD is the domestic anti-poverty program of the U.S.
Catholic Bishops which works to address the root causes of
poverty in the U.S. through promotion and support of community controlled, self-help organizations. CCHD works with
Catholic dioceses and their bishops to award grants to local,
low-income community groups working to address the causes
of poverty. By helping the poor to participate in the decisions
and actions that affect their lives, CCHD offers a hand up, not
a hand out, helping people and communities overcome injustice, escape poverty, and build bridges of solidarity. For more
information, visit www.usccb.org/cchd.
CENTRAL TEXAS
November 2012
7
Cavins comes to Emmaus in Lakeway
Kreeft visits St. John Neumann in Austin
Jeff Cavins, a well-known author and Catholic speaker, will visit Emmaus Parish
in Lakeway Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. On Friday evening, he will present “Defeating Our
Goliaths: Preparing Your Heart for the Season of Advent” from 7 to 9 p.m. This
event is free and open to the public. On Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Cavins will
present “Psalms: The School of Prayer.” The cost is $40 per person. Seating is limited,
so registration and payments must be made in advance. For more information, call
Emmaus Parish at (512) 261-8500, ext. 310 or e-mail [email protected].
St. John Neumann Parish in Austin will host several presentations by Dr. Peter
Kreeft, a theologian and writer of more than 40 books, on Dec. 1-2. A retreat entitled
“Whom Do We Meet in the Eucharist?” will be held Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Kreeft will also give a dinner presentation the evening of Dec. 1; he will explore Catholic
and Muslim relations. On Dec. 2 at 10:15 a.m., he will discuss “Everything You Ever
Wanted to Know About Heaven.” To register, visit http://peterkreeft.eventbrite.com.
Life Center hosts second benet dinner
The John Paul II Life Center of Austin will present “Let Freedom Ring” Dec.
5 at 7 p.m. at the AT&T Center in Austin. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop
of Galveston-Houston, will be the keynote speaker and will address the importance
of our First Amendment rights and the impending HHS Mandate. Bishop Joe
Vásquez will give the invocation. During the evening, the Dignity of Life Award
will be presented to Dr. and Mrs. Thomas Hilgers, founder of NaProTechnology
–– state-of-the art reproductive and gynecological health care. The John Paul II Life
Center opened in 2010 and seeks to build a Culture of Life throughout Central Texas.
Individual tickets are $50 and sponsorships at varying levels are available by visiting
www.JP2LifeCenter.org or by calling (512) 407-2900.
Men’s discernment retreat is Dec. 14-16
“Heart of Jesus,” a discernment retreat for Catholic men ages 18 to 45, will
be held Dec. 14-16 at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Belton. Men with
an openness to a priestly vocation and at varying stages of discernment are
invited to the weekend, which will include silence, prayer, meals and discussion. For more information, contact the Vocation Ofce at (512) 949-2430 or
[email protected].
MEDICAL
SERVICES
DIRECTORY
To advertise in the Catholic Spirit Medical Services
Directory, call (512) 949-2443, or e-mail
[email protected].
FAMILY DENTISTRY
family dentistry
tim tischler, d.d.s.
3821 Juniper Trace, Suite 201
Austin, TX 78738
phone (512) 402-1955
www.drtimtischler.com
Prayer service for deceased children is Dec. 9
St. Thomas More Parish in Austin will host an Ecumenical Prayer Service for
deceased children on Dec. 9. The evening will begin at 6 p.m. with appetizers and
fellowship, and the prayer service will begin at 7 p.m. This evening will be lled
with prayer, compassion, music, the reading of each child’s name and the lighting
of each child’s candle. Candles will be provided. For information, contact Dottie at
[email protected] or (512) 992-4921 by Dec. 1.
Men invited to learn more about the diaconate
Men interested in learning more about the formation process for the permanent
diaconate are invited along with their wives to attend one of the upcoming information sessions, which will be offered in both Spanish and English, Nov. 4, Nov. 18,
Dec. 9 and Jan. 13 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Pastoral Center in Austin. Men are encouraged to discuss this with their wives and they should have their pastor’s approval
before attending a session. Documents outlining the Qualities and Characteristics of
a Deacon and Requirements for Admission into Deacon Formation are available at
www.austindiocese.org/resources.php?dept_id=8. For information, contact Deacon
Tom Johnson at (512) 949-2410 or [email protected] or Deacon Dan
Lupo at (512) 949-2411 or [email protected] or Deacon Jessie Esquivel at
[email protected] or 1-806-773-5706.
OBSTETRICS & GYNECOLOGY
The Vitae Clinic
Jeremy Kalamarides, D.O.
The Jefferson Building
1600 W. 38th St, Ste 115
Austin, TX 78731
512-458-6060
The Vitae Clinic, Inc., provides wellness, prenatal, delivery and
postnatal care for women, expectant mothers and babies in accord
with the teachings of the Catholic Church in conformity with the
Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Healthcare services.
WEIGHT LOSS
Ideal Weight Loss
Medical Clinics
This will be your LAST Diet
No drugs 100% natural Medically monitored
Lose ONLY fat Preserve lean muscle
Anthony Hicks, MD, MPH
4100 Duval Rd., Bldg IV, Ste 202, Austin
(512) 577-6187
12912 Hill Country Blvd, Bldg F, Ste 238, Austin
(512) 470-9470
www.LastDietATX.com
OPTOMETRY
ORTHODONTICS
Oak Hill
Eye Care
Braces for Children and Adults
Examination & Treatment
of Eye Disease
Lasik Surgery
Contact Lenses & Optical
David W. Tybor, O.D.
Monday through Friday
8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
(512) 288-0444
6000 W. William Cannon
Bldg A, Suite 100, Austin
www.oakhilleyecare.com
Michael Dillingham, D.D.S.
2 convenient locations in Austin
Call (512) 836-7924 or (512) 447-5194 to
schedule a complimentary consultation
FAMILY PRACTICE
EAR, NOSE AND THROAT
FAMILY & INTERNAL MEDICINE
Joseph M. C. Leary, M.D.
William Stavinoha, M.D.
Diplomate, American Board of Otolaryngology
Pediatric and Adult
Including Ear Diseases Sinus Surgery
Thyroid and Neck Surgery
6811 Austin Center Blvd., Ste. 300
Austin, Texas 78731
(512) 346-8888
Dominion Family
Healthcare
Family Practice –– Board Certied
11671 Jollyville Road #102
Austin, TX
(512) 338-5088
www.stavinohamd.com
Board certied in Family
Medicine & Internal Medicine
(512) 834-9999
6301 Parmer Ln. W. Suite 102
Austin,TX 78729-6802
THYROID & ENDOCRINOLOGY
8
CENTRAL TEXAS
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
St. Joseph students promote the culture of life
BY MARY P. WALKER
For the last ve years, St.
Joseph School’s Eagles for Life
club in Bryan promoted the
culture of life primarily by focusing on the rights of the unborn.
As visible witnesses, they stood
and prayed outside a local abortion facility, led prayers after
Mass and marched to the Capitol in the Texas Rally for Life.
While continuing these efforts,
this student-led high school
club is broadening their pro-life
outreach to help those whose
human dignity is not always
honored by society.
“I believe that making students aware of the many ways
in which society marginalizes
the elderly, the poor, those with
disabilities, and of course, the
unborn, helps them feel an urgent need to reach out to make
a difference,” said Patty Blazak,
faculty adviser of Eagles for
Life.
As a result of this renewed
focus, the Eagles are volunteering at a local food bank and
have made an ongoing commitment to the Down Syndrome
Association of the Brazos Valley
(DSABV). This organization
provides information, assistance
and support to families and
those with Down syndrome, allowing them to be contributing
members of society and lead full
lives within the community.
Blazak explained that the
students’ work with DSABV is
a natural extension of their efforts on behalf of the unborn.
While statistics vary, the most
conservative estimates indicate
that well over half of the babies
diagnosed with Down syndrome
before birth are aborted. Even
those children welcomed into
loving families face challenges.
One challenge is isolation.
Sondra White, mother of 14year old Quentin and secretary
of the DSABV, said, “Although
kids with Down syndrome are
included in public schools, they
are still, in many respects, excluded in our society –– not
intentionally –– but because
we’ve not yet evolved to the
point where differences are truly
recognized and utilized, versus
shufed away and sometimes
hidden from view.”
Forming trusting friendships
is the antidote to isolation, and
the Eagles are volunteering
for projects that allow them to
get to know members of the
DSABV community. With little
or no experience being around
those with Down syndrome, the
students had to deal with their
own apprehension. However,
they were quickly inspired by the
welcoming, open and positive
attitude of the young men and
women they met.
“Their lives are so much
harder than our own. Yet, they
are so joyful and happy,” said
Joel White (no relation to Sondra), president of the Eagles.
The club began by volunteering to help with a cooking
class that the DSABV sponsors
each month. Learning how to
cook is not only an important
life skill, it also reinforces many
other skills. Cooking requires
following directions, measuring, manual dexterity and the
use of appliances and utensils.
Also, cooking is a way to teach
nutritious eating. The DSABV
learned that if the young men
and women cook their own
healthy food, they are more
likely to eat a healthy diet.
For the September class,
the Eagles volunteered to act
as mentors to help the participants learn how to make tacos. The mentor’s job was to
encourage, ensure safety and
help the aspiring cook follow
the recipe. In this one-to-one
partnership, the learning went
both ways.
“The value to the Eagles
is that they are experiencing
rsthand what it’s like to have
special needs, such as Down
syndrome. They see how difcult it is to do things that come
naturally to so many kids of that
age. They see our kids work
through these challenges until
they are successful,” said Sondra
White. Not only were delicious
tacos prepared, everybody had
fun in the process. The Eagles
plan to continue volunteering
with their new friends.
On Oct.7, the Eagles again
helped the DSABV during the
Buddy Walk in College Station. This annual community
event brought together approximately 1,500 to celebrate the
abilities and accomplishments
EAGLES FOR LIFE, a group at St. Joseph’s Catholic
School in Bryan, regularly volunteer at the Down Syndrome Association of the Brazos Valley. (Photo courtesy
Patty Blazak)
of those with Down syndrome.
The Eagles hosted a booth and
raised funds to walk the one
mile course.
Once again, the Eagles
learned valuable lessons. Society and media often focus on the challenges facing
those with special needs and
their families, while forgetting about the blessings that
come from accepting all people as gifts from God. Those
with Down syndrome are not
merely people who need help
and services. They have much
to give to any community willing to be open, patient and
accepting of their differences.
Bailey DiStefano, club vice
president, explained that the joy
and happiness of the children
and their families demonstrated
that having special needs is not
the same as having a “bad”
life. Rather, the love of caring
families and friends, including
high school volunteers, not only
makes a difference in the lives of
those with Down syndrome, but
also allows their gifts to enrich
the entire community.
Fire displaces residents at Annunciation in Georgetown
re displaced 14 young women
and 12 babies.
Christie Aaronson, cofounder of the home that
Annunciation Maternity shelters and educates teenHome in Georgetown needs agers and women experiencdonations and volunteers after a ing crisis pregnancies, said a
CHRISTIE
AARONSON
inspects the damage caused by a
grease re in the
kitchen of the Rita
House at Annunciation Maternity
Home in Georgetown. Fourteen
young mothers
and 12 babies
were displaced by
the re. (Photo by
Enedlia J.
Obregón)
grease re on the stove damaged the kitchen and living
room at the Rita House.
“They were homeless to
begin with and now they’re
homeless again,” Aaronson said.
The Oct. 7 re was quickly
contained by the Georgetown
Fire Department.
“It was mostly smoke damage in the kitchen and nearby
living room,” Aaronson said.
“But we’re going to have to
replace the stove and kitchen
cabinets and repaint.”
The furniture in the living
room next to the kitchen will
also need to be replaced, so
Aaronson is looking for gently-used living room furniture.
The dorm rooms received the
least damage since they are
away from the kitchen and
everything in them can be
washed and cleaned.
However, the home will
have to replace all baby items
other than clothing, which can
be washed, as well as utensils,
plastic ware, pots and pans,
and baby bottles, dishes and
toys.
“Anything that babies might
put in their mouths has to be
replaced,” she said.
Aaronson said the young
moms and moms-to-be are now
living with family or guardians.
Most of them are from Travis and Williamson counties,
although a few came from communities more than a two-hour
drive away.
“Thankfully, we didn’t have
anyone from out of state,” she
said, noting that they once had
a young woman from Pennsylvania.
Although the home has insurance, it will have to pay the
deductible, which will run into
the thousands of dollars, Aaronson said. Volunteers are taking
homework to the girls while
they are away and they have also
washed some clothing to take to
the girls.
To make a donation, volunteer or provide items for the
home visit www.thematernityhome.org. Monetary donations made out to Annunciation
Maternity Home and mailed to
3610 Shell Rd., Georgetown,
78628.
CENTRAL TEXAS
November 2012
9
Diocesan appeal kicks off in parishes Nov. 3-4
BY CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
The Catholic Services Appeal for the Austin Diocese
kicks off in parishes Nov. 3-4.
This year’s theme is “Go and
Make Disciples.”
Scott Whitaker, diocesan
director of Stewardship and
Development, said the Catholic
Services Appeal supports the
diocese in its mission of making,
forming and nourishing disciples, and assisting the clergy,
religious and lay people who
carry out this mission across
Central Texas.
Through donations to the
CSA, parishioners help sup-
port men in their education and formation for the
priesthood or the diaconate
and they help care for retired priests; they provide
leadership and liturgical
training for youth ministers and those serving our
multicultural communities;
through Catholic Charities,
they extend a helping hand
to the poor and to families
in need; they help support
thousands of students and
teachers in Catholic schools
and catechists who teach religious education to thousands
Through gifts to the Cathoof children and adults; and they
enhance the spirituality and wor- lic Services Appeal, donors enable parishes to carry out the
ship of parishioners.
programs and ministries
that they otherwise would
not be able to fund themselves, Whitaker said.
There are currently
43 seminarians in the
diocese. Half of the
money raised through
CSA goes to support the
seminarians as they prepare for their day of ordination. Whitaker said
donors who give to the
CSA help to eliminate
that financial burden on
our future priests, thus freeing the seminarians “so they
really can focus on their work,
their studies, and their formation to become better priests.”
He also stressed that every
gift to the Catholic Services
Appeal is important and appreciated because every dollar goes
toward helping the local church.
Even if a family is unable to
nancially support the appeal
this year, a gift of prayers is even
more important.
“Every gift in support of the
CSA counts. You don’t have to
make a large gift to be counted.
Anything helps,” Whitaker said.
Pledge cards have been
mailed and will be distributed
at all the Masses during the
first week of November. To
donate, ll out the pledge card
and mail it in or donate online at
www.austindiocese.org.
Aggie Knights named Outstanding College Council
THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS named Texas A&M University
Council 10624 in College Station the Outstanding College Council
of 2011-2012. The award was presented at the annual college
conference in New Haven, Conn., Sept. 28-30. This marks the
third time in six years the council has received this award.
“The Aggie Knights are extremely honored. We thank all who
made it possible and look forward to continuing to serve our
church and community,” said Grand Knight Will Rooney.
Service has been the hallmark of the council throughout the year.
Projects included rebuilding the local parish rectory’s garage,
transforming a run-down rental property into a home for a single
mother and her children, providing hundreds of holy cards, religious medals, rosaries, scapulars and copies of the Catechism of
the Catholic Church to military personnel deployed in Afghanistan,
hosting a number of social events and a youth retreat, standing vigil during a local “40 Days for Life” campaign, helping to
organize the “Run for Their Lives” 5K fundraiser that brought in
$2,000 for scholarships to help pregnant and parenting students
on campus, and sponsoring a “Go Roman Week” campaign to
recruit new members in the fall semester. (Photo courtesy Knights
of Columbus)
COURAGE OF AUSTIN
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10
IN OUR WORLD
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
‘Unafliated’ numbers point to evangelization needs
The number of self-identified Catholics has remained
relatively constant, changing
from 23 percent in 2007 to 22
percent in 2012.
Mark M. Gray, director of
Catholic polls and a research
associate at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied
Research in the Apostolate, or
CARA, said that while most of
Pew’s data ts with what CARA
has found, he disagrees with one
oft-repeated explanation for the
unchanged percentage of Catholics in the country.
Pew senior researcher Greg
Smith said the percentage of
Catholics is likely unchanged because immigrants are balancing
out those who leave the church.
But Gray said the math for that
assumption doesn’t add up.
The rate of immigration
has leveled off, he said. So as
the overall population rises, if
the number of Catholics was
dependent upon immigration,
the percentage of Catholics in
the country would be showing more of a decline. Instead,
Gray said “reverts,” or Catholics
who return to the church after
a time away, account for some
of the steady numbers. He also
thinks that Catholics who don’t
tants to identify themselves as
unafliated.
CARA’s studies show “there
Majorities of the 20 percent of Americans who are not
are a lot of nonpracticing Cathoreligiously affiliated believe in God and think of
A Pew study on the increase
lics who still identify as Cathothemselves as religious or spiritual.
in the number of religiously
lics,” he said.
unafliated people and a sharp
Gray said Pew’s numbers for
LIC
decline in the number of those
people under 30 who are unafUB
LP
ED
A
who consider themselves Protliated with any faith is a sign
AT
ED
R
ILI
AT
NE
F
E
F
ILI
estant may show no drop in
for concern, however.
G
A
F
.
F
N
S
A
U
U.
How important is
numbers of Catholics, but anaThe study said just 18 per%
%
%
religion in your life?
lysts say it’s still a cautionary tale
cent of Catholics are between
very/somewhat
80
33
91
for the church.
the ages of 18 and 29, while
not too/not at all
18
65
8
The “’Nones’ On The Rise”
35 percent of the country’s restudy released Oct. 9 by the Pew
ligiously unafliated are in that
Forum on Religion & Public
age bracket.
Do you believe in God
or universal spirit?
Life needs to be taken by the
Younger Catholics are living
church as guidance to focus
in a society that’s more inteyes, certain
69
30
77
more on the basic teachings
grated across faith lines, Gray
yes, less certain
23
38
20
of Jesus, said several people
noted, adding social pressures
no
7
27
2
who work in shaping leaders in
to a natural tendency of young
Catholic ministry.
adults to distance themselves
Frequency of prayer
The study found that in four
from their parents’ religion.
daily
58
21
66
years, the percentage of AmeriTwo professors who work
weekly/monthly
21
20
22
cans describing themselves as
in the area of Catholic evangeseldom/never
19
58
11
unaffiliated with any religion
lization see in the study clear
grew from just more than 15
signs for what the church needs
Think of self as...
percent to just less than 20 perto do.
religious
65
18
75
cent. It found that a third of
“We have to view this as
spiritual, not religious
18
37
15
adults under 30 have no relia call and an opportunity,”
not spiritual or religious
15
42
8
gious afliation, compared to
said Julie Burkey, coordinator
21 percent of the next older age
of the Center for Workplace
Source: Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life
©2012 CNS
bracket, 30-49, 15 percent of 50Spirituality and adjunct proto 64-year-olds and 9 percent of
fessor of pastoral theology at
Pope Benedict has been say- encourage “the faithful to be
those over age 65.
Seton Hall University and Im- ing “let’s put forth who Jesus heralds of good news.”
Most of those who said they
maculate Conception School Christ is first,” Burkey said.
For instance, preaching
are “nothing in particular” or
should be inviting, engaging
otherwise unaffiliated with a
people on the “good news” of
faith (including atheists and ag- “There’s an opportunity here, when you hear that people faith, he said. “What do young
nostics), apparently previously are not afliated but they believe in God ... Deep inside the adults want? Are there parishes
identied as white Protestants,
where young adults are onwhose numbers were down to human person there is recognition of a God, a creator.”
line, with a robust social media
–– Julie Burkey, professor who works with Catholic evangelization presence and events that cover
48 percent nationwide from
53 percent in 2007. Black and
young adults’ range of interests?
“other minority” Protestant
Do events take place at times
churches showed no decline in practice the faith regularly may of Theology in South Orange, “That relationship, that love, and places that are convenient
the same period.
be more reluctant than Protes- N.J.
that importance in our lives for them? Can young adults see
She noted that this month, makes others want to be a part themselves in the church?”
THE PERCENTAGE OF RELIGIOUSLY UNAFFILIATED
bishops and other leaders from of it: If you want to be a part of
Ryan, a church historian by
AMERICANS has rapidly increased in the past five years.
around the world are attend- it, the rules help you do that. If training, said Catholicism has
ing a synod on evangelization, one is going to value a relation- always faced ups and downs in
called by Pope Benedict XVI to ship with Jesus Christ, then people feeling like the church
20%
address this very issue, among going to Mass, receiving the was relevant to them.
others.
For example, he said, in
Eucharist, are what you want
“Pope Benedict says we’ve to do.”
13th-century Europe, urban
not done a good job” of makThomas Ryan, professor populations were growing fast
ing the Gospel of Jesus the rst at Loyola University, New Or- and the church’s monastic struc15%
thing people hear, she said.
leans, and director of its Insti- ture was poorly equipped to deal
Pew found that more than tute for Ministry, said he thinks with that type of growth. But the
two-thirds of the unafliated say the study points to the need mendicant orders such as the
they believe in God and more for better Catholic ministry to Dominicans and Franciscans
than half say they think of them- young adults.
arose, with a focus on preaching
10%
selves as spiritual or religious.
“The church has put a to this new urban population,
o
ULAR: one wh
“There’s an opportunity lot of effort and money into Ryan said.
NOTHING IN PARTIC
ent to a faith group.
here, when you hear that people youth ministry, which I think
At the time, he said, “that
professes no attachm
are not afliated but they believe is very important,” Ryan said. was a very strange thing to do.
in God,” she said. “Deep inside “But I wonder about putting But for the people not being
the human person there is rec- the same effort into young ministered to it was what was
5%
ognition of a God, a creator.”
adult ministry. Without faith- needed.”
believes it is impossible
The study noted that more ful, young adults we won’t
He cited the Jesuits’ founder,
AGNOSTIC: one who
.
God
a
is
re
the
not
than two-thirds of the religiously have any youth for youth min- St. Ignatius of Loyola, saying
to know whether or
unafliated say faith institutions istry.”
“we need to go in their door so
.
ieves there is no God
ATHEIST: one who bel
are too concerned with money
He said young adults need that we can invite them out our
0%
and power, focus too much on to nd more in their parishes to door.”
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012
rules and are too involved with keep them involved.
“It’s really important to
politics. Burkey said that also
Like Burkey, Ryan said the listen to young adults, go in
Source: Aggregated date from surveys conducted by the
presents an opportunity.
church should try harder to through their door,” he said.
Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 2007-2012.
©2012 CNS
BY PATRICIA ZAPOR
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Religious Affiliation
November 2012
IN OUR WORLD
11
Vicar general of Tyler Diocese named its bishop
BY SUSAN DE MATTEO
Pope Benedict XVI has appointed Msgr. Joseph E. Strickland, the 53-year-old vicar general of the Diocese of Tyler, to
serve as its bishop.
The appointment was announced in Washington Sept. 29
by Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, apostolic nuncio to the U.S.
Bishop-designate Strickland
succeeds Bishop Alvaro Corrada
del Rio, who was named bishop
of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, in
2011 after heading the Tyler
Diocese for more than a decade.
He will be ordained a bishop
and installed Nov. 28 at a special Mass to be celebrated in
Caldwell Auditorium in Tyler.
At a Sept. 29 news conference in Tyler, Bishop-delegate
Strickland called his appointment a “joyful message” and
said he was “grateful to God”
for the opportunity given him.
“It’s a joyful message we
share today,” he said to fellow
priests, deacons, consecrated
religious, lay faithful and local
press. “My greatest joy has always been to gather around the
altar of Christ with you.
“I know this is a tremendous challenge,” the bishopdesignate said. “But I’m here
with family.”
Bishop-designate Strickland said he will dedicate his
ministry as bishop to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
Immaculate Heart of Mary,
and said his episcopal motto will be, “To dwell in the
house of the Lord.”
Joseph Edward Strickland
was born Oct. 31, 1958, in Fredericksburg to Raymond and
Monica Strickland, but the family moved to Texarkana in 1959
and then to Atlanta in 1963.
He graduated from Atlanta
High School in 1977 and entered Holy Trinity Seminary
and the University of Dallas in
Irving. He received a bachelor’s
in philosophy in 1981 and continued his seminary studies.
He was ordained a priest of
the Diocese of Dallas on June
1, 1985, by Bishop Thomas
Tschoepe and was assigned as
parochial vicar at then Immaculate Conception Parish in Tyler.
In 1987, when the Diocese
of Tyler was created from the
Dioceses of Dallas, Beaumont
and Galveston-Houston, Father
Strickland was incardinated as a
priest of the Tyler Diocese. He
was named director of vocations
by Bishop Charles E. Herzig.
In 1992, he entered The
Catholic University of America
in Washington to study canon
law. He received his licentiate in
canon law in May 1994, and was
named rector of the Cathedral of
the Immaculate Conception in
Tyler. He was appointed judicial
vicar for the Tyler Diocese by
Bishop Edmond Carmody in
1995.
In 1996, Pope John Paul II
named him a monsignor.
When Bishop Carmody was
transferred to the Diocese of
Corpus Christi in 2000, thenMsgr. Strickland was elected
administrator of the Tyler Dio-
cese by fellow priests serving as
consultors. He served in that
position until Bishop Corrada
was installed as third bishop of
the diocese in January 2001.
Bishop Corrada named him
vicar general of the diocese in
2010, and he served in that post
until Bishop Corrada’s transfer
to the Diocese of Mayaguez in
July 2011.
The Diocese of Tyler covers
more than 23,000 square miles
and encompasses 33 counties
in northeast Texas. The total
population of the area is about
1.4 million people; about 55,000,
or 4 percent, are Catholic.
POPE
BENEDICT
XVI has
appointed
Msgr.
Joseph E.
Strickland
to serve as
bishop of
Tyler. (CNS
photo by Felipe Natera,
courtesy
Bishop T.K.
Gorman
Regional
Catholic
School)
Women urged to take voices to public square
BY CHRISTINA LEE KNAUSS
When the National Council
of Catholic Women chose “Be
the Voice of Catholic Women”
as the theme of its 2012 convention, the organization’s members probably didn’t foresee
how relevant those six words
would be in today’s political and
cultural environment.
The annual gathering was
held Sept. 19-22 in Myrtle
Beach. Among the more than
540 participants who attended
were Judy Edwards (current
president of the Austin Diocesan Council of Catholic Women), Mary Thompson (presidentelect of the DCCW), Eunice
Washa, Father Melvin Dornak
(spiritual advisor of the DCCW)
and Father Don Loftin (spiritual
advisor of the Austin Council
of the DCCW). They heard
speakers discuss how vital it is to
spread the message in the public
square, especially when religious
liberty is threatened by, among
other things, the HHS mandate
on contraception.
Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of Charleston was the
principal celebrant of the opening Mass Sept. 20. He was joined
by more than 30 priests who are
spiritual advisers for women’s
councils around the U.S.
The bishop praised the work
that women do in the daily life
of the church, and said it is
more necessary today than ever
before. He urged attendees to
not be discouraged by troubles
at the national level or in their
personal lives, and to turn to
God for solutions and encouragement.
“If we are willing to confront and not run away from
problems, the presence of Christ
will sustain us,” Bishop Guglielmone said. “As we try to
conquer the evils of our times,
we need to remember we don’t
want to defeat people, we want
to convert them. We want them
to see the presence of Christ.”
Increased involvement also
was encouraged by John Carr,
a fellow at Harvard University’s
Institute of Politics and former
executive director of the USCCB’s Department of Justice,
Peace and Human Development, who gave the keynote
address.
“This is not a time for discouragement, but a time for
increased engagement,” he said.
Carr said women play a vital
role in spreading the church’s
message, educating the culture
about the sanctity of all human
life, and standing up for the
most vulnerable in society, including the unborn, the elderly
and disabled, poor people and
immigrants.
But taking sides will only
dilute the message, he said.
“We’re not factions or interest groups but one family of
faith,” Carr said. “We can divide
up the work, but we shouldn’t
divide up the church.”
William Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College
in Charlotte, N.C., noted that
the college was one of the rst
to le a lawsuit against the HHS
mandate requiring employers,
including most religious employers, to provide free contraceptive coverage to their workers.
He urged attendees to develop
their own sense of gratitude and
faith as a defense against secular
culture.
“If God took everything
away from me, I could still never
be thankful enough for what
he’s given me up this point,”
Thierfelder said. “If we overlook
praise and thanksgiving to God
each day, we have lost before we
have even begun to ght.”
Thierfelder said an overwhelming self-centeredness
in American culture has led
to everything from the breakdown of the family to today’s
debates about contraception,
abortion, health care and poverty. Sacrice and service, already familiar to many women, is the true key to a happy
life nurtured by God’s grace,
he said.
Elizabeth Scalia, the final
keynote speaker on Sept. 22, encouraged the faithful to embrace
the Internet and new technology
as a potent tool for evangelism.
Scalia is a writer and managing
editor of the Catholic portal at
www.Patheos.com, where she
writes The Anchoress blog.
She said too many people regard the Internet as the
devil’s tool and don’t engage
in the medium with the voice
and truths of the faith. Scalia
noted that Pope Benedict XVI
embraces the Internet’s evangelistic power, and described
the diverse Catholic population who use new media, from
young couples with podcasts
to the woman who started
http://Catholicmom.com.
“People who never thought
they were or could be evangelizers are slowly but surely
being formed by the Holy Spirit to share their voices,” she
said. “People who thought that
all they could ever do for the
church was iron altar cloths
are on the Internet. The new
evangelization is astonishing
... that’s how the Holy Spirit
moves. In the end, it’s not about
prot, but becoming modernday prophets.”
People need to pray to nd
the way God wants them to
communicate, Scalia said, because their voices are needed
more than ever in a world where
everything from pop culture to
politics seems ever more hostile
to Christianity.
She said the partisanship
and downright meanness that
inltrates nearly every discussion of faith and politics, from
mainstream media to comment
boxes on blogs, shouldn’t drive
people away.
“Cling to the word and
God will take you where he
wants you to go,” she said. “I
don’t see how Catholics have
a choice but to get engaged
in the public discussion. If we
don’t ght for our faith and
identify as Catholics, we’re
going to lose our identity and
our freedom. ... You can’t be
a hammer, but you can share
the truth when you know you
have the church behind you.”
Workshops throughout the
four-day event focused on how
women could reach out to the
poor, young adults and victims
of domestic violence, how to
nurture vocations and a pro-life
message in a secular culture, and
how to nurture true Catholic
womanhood.
Sally Jackson, of the Diocese
of Knoxville, Tenn., received
NCCW’s highest honor, the
2012 Our Lady of Good Counsel award, for nearly 50 years of
service to the organization from
the parish to the national level.
She has worked with a variety of
community outreaches, and is
dedicated to promoting Catholic
values.
Jackson said her involvement with the council helped
her grow from a shy young
mother from a rural background
to someone who was not afraid
to speak out in public.
“Bringing the voice of Catholic women to the world is truly
essential right now ... I really
believe that,” Jackson said.
12
IN OUR WORLD
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Defending life, liberty part of the new evangelization
BY MARK ZIMMERMANN
At what is a critical time
for American Catholics to
stand up in defense of life and
religious freedom, they must
engage in the church’s new
evangelization effort, deepening their faith and sharing it
in their everyday lives and in
the public square, Baltimore
Archbishop William E. Lori
said Oct. 14.
He made the comments in
the homily at a Mass and Pilgrimage for Life and Liberty
at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Washington.
“If we want to turn back the
powerful incursions of secularism against the dignity of human
life and the freedom to practice
our faith, then we must heed
the call of Pope Benedict XVI
to engage in the new evangelization, to stand with Christ, to
know our faith, to love our faith,
(and) to share our faith,” he said.
Archbishop Lori, chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Ad
Hoc Committee for Religious
Liberty, was the main celebrant at the Mass, which drew
a standing room crowd of an
estimated 5,500 to 6,000 people. Archbishop Carlo Maria
Viganó, apostolic nuncio to
the U.S., was in attendance.
The Mass and pilgrimage
are part of the U.S. bishops’
annual Respect Life prayer
campaign; each year October
is designated as Respect Life
Month by the U.S. Catholic
Church. The liturgy concluded
with eucharistic adoration and
the launch of an Oct. 14-22
Rosary Novena for Life and
Liberty.
“This afternoon, we speak
with one voice as we raise our
voices in supplication to God
for the protection of our rst
and most cherished freedom,
religious liberty and for the
protection of all life, from
conception to natural death,”
Msgr. Walter R. Rossi, shrine
rector, told the congregation.
The overflow crowd filling the national shrine included families with babies in
strollers, and senior citizens
and people with disabilities
in wheelchairs. People came
from not only the Washington
area but many other states as
well.
The opening procession
included a Knights of Columbus color guard of 120 men
wearing white, gold, green,
purple and blue plumed hats.
During the eucharistic adoration and rosary novena, the
diverse congregation crowding the pews and aisles knelt
and prayed together for life
and liberty.
As Mass opened, Archbishop Lori thanked people
for coming from near and far
“as a family of faith united in
our defense of life and liberty.”
In his homily, the archbishop warned that “for some
time now, both life and liberty have been under assault
... (by) a secularism that relentlessly seeks to marginalize the
place of faith in our society.”
He also noted, “When man
and woman are no longer perceived to be created in the
image of God, then, sooner
or later, their lives and their
liberties become dispensable.”
Archbishop Lori pointed
out how, in the nearly 40 years
since the U.S. Supreme Court
legalized abortion on demand
in its Roe v. Wade decision,
more than 50 million unborn
children have lost their lives
through abortion.
The secularist assault on
life, he said, can also be seen
in efforts in the U.S. to legalize assisted suicide and to
redene marriage.
Archbishop Lori emphasized the key threat to life and
liberty posed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring “most religious and private
employers to fund and facilitate abortion-inducing drugs,
sterilizations and contraception
against their convictions if they
engage in hiring or offer services
deemed by the government to
be ‘secular.’”
A narrow religious exemption applies only to those reli-
gious employers who seek to
inculcate their religion and who
primarily employ and serve people of their own faith.
The mandate is currently being challenged in courts
around the country by Catholic dioceses and agencies and
other religious individuals and
groups.
In his homily, Archbishop
Lori pointed out the irony in
those advocating “freedom of
choice” are trying to force people of faith to violate their religions’ teachings. “Our ‘right to
choose’ –– our right to choose
to practice the faith we profess,
a right guaranteed by the First
Amendment –– seems to mean
little or nothing to many who
wield power.”
The archbishop noted that
many secular threats to religious liberty “seem to hinge
on the church’s teaching with
regard to the sanctity of life
–– whether it’s the church’s
teaching on the immorality
of abortion, or the obligation
of couples to be open to the
God-given gift of human life,
or marriage as between one
man and one woman.”
Archbishop Lori said the
link between the God-given
gifts of life and liberty was
noted by Thomas Jefferson,
who once said: “The God
who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time; the hand
of force may destroy but cannot disjoin them.”
As the Year of Faith opens
and as the country approaches
a time of decision with its
elections, Archbishop Lori
called it a critical time for
Catholics to engage in Pope
Benedict’s call to the new
evangelization.
“With Mary’s prayers, we
seek to have the re of our faith
rekindled –– our faith in the
person of Christ, our faith in all
the church believes and teaches,
our condence in the church’s
teachings, and our courage in
sharing those teachings, not
just with family and friends, but
in the public square, with our
elected leaders, our appointed
leaders and with those who inuence public opinion.”
He said it is wrong for
Catholics to compartmentalize
their faith, and as an example,
he criticized Catholic elected
officials “who say they are
personally opposed to intrinsic evils like abortion, while
doing everything in their power to promote them.”
Archbishop Lori urged
Catholics to take their faith to
the public square and to the
voting booth.
“As believers and as citizens, we must robustly engage
in the political process by voting with a properly formed
conscience and by continually letting our elected ofcials
know that we expect them to
protect the God-given rights
of life and liberty,” he said.
Catholic scientist shares Nobel Prize for work in chemistry
BY NIKKI RAJALA
Who could have predicted
that a student from St. Mary’s
Grade School in Little Falls
would one day win a Nobel
Prize? But that’s what Dr. Brian
Kobilka accomplished.
He’s one of two scientists
awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry Oct. 10 for their work on
cell receptors.
“It’s a great honor for me,”
Kobilka told The Visitor, newspaper of the Diocese of St.
Cloud. He made the comments
in a telephone interview from
his lab in the department of
molecular and cellular physiology and medicine at Stanford
University in Stanford, Calif.
Kobilka, 57, physician and
professor at Stanford University
School of Medicine, shares the
prize with his onetime mentor
Robert Lefkowitz, professor at
Duke University Medical Center
in Durham, N.C. Since 1984,
the pair has worked to identify
and isolate a particular family of
cell receptors, called G-proteincoupled receptors, or GPCRs,
which carry signals from outside
stimuli to cells of the human
body.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences website includes
an essay on the winners’ work,
“Cells and sensibility,” as general
background for the science.
In their introduction: “In
our eyes, noses and mouths, we
have sensors for light, odors and
avors. Within the body, cells
have similar sensors for hormones and signaling substances,
such as adrenalin, serotonin,
histamine and dopamine. As life
evolved, cells have repeatedly
used the same basic mechanism
for reading their environment:
G-protein-coupled receptors.
But they remained hidden from
researchers for a long time.”
Their essay further described
the two scientists’ persistence
in trying to capture an image
of the receptor, a goal believed
unattainable by most of the
scientic community, and their
groundbreaking discoveries in
mapping how the GPCR family
of receptors works.
Though often Nobel Prizes
are given for work done much
earlier, Kobilka said in his case
the work that had the greatest
impact was published only last
year in Nature, an international
journal for science and medicine.
In 2011, Kobilka’s lab captured through X-ray crystallography the first image of a
living G-protein receptor on a
cell membrane precisely when
it transferred the signal from
the hormone adrenalin on the
outside of the cell to its interior.
The image revealed new details
about the GPCRs.
Because of the insights of
Lefkowitz and Kobilka, pharmaceutical companies are able
to develop more effective and
safer medicines for a wide range
of diseases.
“About half the drugs a physician would administer,” Kobilka said, “particularly to patients
in an intensive care setting, work
on cell receptors.”
Those drugs include beta
blockers for heart disease, antihistamines for inammatory disease, various psychiatric medications, drugs for ulcers and those
which help the immune system
combat cancers.
“We’re still doing similar
research,” he said, “focusing
on trying to develop methods
of making what we’ve learned
more applicable for more effective drugs.”
Kobilka talked about growing up in Minnesota, recalling: “The entire time I lived in
Little Falls I attended Mass at St.
Mary’s. Msgr. (T. Leo) Keaveny
was our priest.”
Currently, Kobilka and his
wife, Tong Sun Kobilka, are
members of the Catholic Community at Stanford, which is in
the Diocese of San Jose, Calif.
“My introduction to science
came through a friend several
years older who was interested
in all things science you can do
at a young age,” he told The
Visitor. “He did experiments in
electronics and had a chemistry
set, which he shared with me. I
caught my interest from him.”
Kobilka further credits excellent math and science teachers at Little Falls High School,
where he graduated in 1973,
and at University of MinnesotaDuluth, who helped him pursue
his zeal.
He likewise encouraged
young scientists, possible future
Nobel laureates, to follow their
passions.
“Work on what you’re interested in,” he said, “on what
you want to understand, like
how some aspect of how life
works. It could be humans or
how the universe was created,
physics, planetary science, light,
the complex relationships between matter and space, medicine, chemistry. If you try to do
something because someone
wants you to, you’re less likely
to succeed.
“What drives people to succeed is doing something that
follows their natural instincts
and curiosity.”
November 2012
IN OUR WORLD
13
Stamp features Holy Family eeing to Egypt
BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN
When the U.S. Postal Service unveiled its new Christmas
stamp Oct. 10 featuring an image of the Holy Family eeing
to Egypt, there was no uproar
about religion in the public
square, or in this case, rectangle.
“We didn’t get a single
phone call or email from anyone who took exception to the
stamp,” Roy Betts, a spokesman for the Postal Service, said
Oct. 11.
“And with the speed with
which people can respond today, they would have if they
wanted to,” he added. He said
he thought people were more
concerned with other things
such as the presidential election.
He also said the post ofce
doesn’t “really get comments”
about the holiday stamps in general, most likely because of the
diversity of stamps –– besides
stamps with Christian imagery,
there are those that commemorate Kwanzaa, Hanukkah and
Muslim festivals.
As an aside, he said one year
the Postal Service inadvertently
left out the image of its Eid
stamp –– commemorating the
Muslim festivals of Eid al-Fitr
and Eid al-Adha –– from a
poster about its holiday stamps.
The Postal Service heard about
it, and then some, and within
24 hours, he said, new posters
were displayed that included all
the holiday stamps.
As he put it: “People are passionate about this (issue).” But
right now, he added, “they’re
not complaining.”
The diversity in stamps,
which may have quelled the
naysayers, is fairly new. The
rst U.S. Christmas stamp debuted in 1962 with a wreath, two
candles and the words “Christmas 1962.” Four years later
the postal service issued what
became more of the traditional
Christmas stamp featuring a
Renaissance painting of the Madonna and Child.
By contrast, the other holiday stamps took longer to get
their corner of the market. The
Hanukkah stamp marking the
eight-day Jewish festival of lights
debuted in 1996. The Kwanzaa
stamp for the African-American
holiday rst appeared in 1997
and the Eid stamp was not issued until 2001.
Charles Haynes, a senior
scholar at the Freedom Forum’s
First Amendment Center, told
Catholic News Service in an
Oct. 11 email that stamps with
religious images aren’t a problem
“as long as the government is acknowledging a variety of religious
and nonreligious communities at
various times of the year.”
“The fact that religious ––
including explicitly Christian ––
symbols are in the mix raises no
First Amendment issue –– but
simply reects our diversity,”
he said.
Haynes noted that Christian
symbols on stamps should only
be allowed if a variety of other
faiths are represented. “Government may not privilege one faith
over others,” he added.
When the traditional Christmas stamp stood alone, it faced
at least one sticky situation.
In 1995, a Postal Service advisory committee voted to replace
the traditional Madonna and
Child stamp with a Victorianera angel. This vote stirred such
negative reaction that even thenPresident Bill Clinton got into
the fray, prompting an immediate reversal.
Marvin Runyon, postmaster
general at the time, said the Madonna and Child stamp would
stay, at least while he was in
ofce, because it “occupied an
important place” for so many
years and was “meaningful to so
many Americans.”
This year’s Christmas stamp
does not feature the traditional
Madonna and Child image but
instead a silhouette of the Holy
Family on their ight into Egypt.
At the stamp’s unveiling at
Washington National Cathedral, the Rev. Gary Hall, the
Episcopal cathedral’s dean, said
the stamp’s image has its own
universal message.
He said the “story of this
new family forced to leave their
home” can remind people to
care for those who are marginalized: “the poor, the elderly, the
immigrant, and the refugee.”
He also said the image of the
Holy Family “embarking for an
unknown land” is a reminder
that “we are in God’s hands
and we trust in God to guide
our journey.”
If that isn’t to one’s liking, the
Postal Service has plenty of other
options, from its popular angel
stamps to those without any
religious undertones: the forever
evergreens and pine cones.
ONE OF THE OFFICIAL HOLIDAY STAMPS issued by
the U.S. Postal Service features a silhouette of the Holy
Family eeing to Egypt. (CNS photo from U.S. Postal
Service)
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IN OUR WORLD
14
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Report issued on papal butler’s trial, sentence
BY CINDY WOODEN
CAROL GLATZ
AND
Claudio Sciarpelletti, the
Vatican Secretariat of State
computer technician accused of
aiding and abetting the pope's
butler in stealing confidential
Vatican correspondence, will go
on trial at the Vatican Nov. 5.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, told
reporters that Sciarpelletti's trial
on the “minor charges” of aiding and abetting was expected
to be brief.
The Vatican has released
a 15-page document from the
three-judge panel that found
the butler, Paolo Gabriele, guilty
Oct. 6 and sentenced him to 18
months in jail.
After criminal trials in Italy
and at the Vatican, the judges
publish a detailed explanation of
how they arrived at their verdict
and how they determined the
sentence. Father Lombardi said
a Vatican prosecutor will study
the document and has 40 days
to decide whether he will le an
appeal, something usually done
to request a harsher sentence.
Gabriele, who also had a
chance to appeal his conviction,
declined to do so; he remains
under house arrest until the
prosecution decides about its
appeal, Father Lombardi said.
Pope Benedict XVI also could
pardon his former butler.
Father Lombardi said that if
the pope does not pardon the
46-year-old Gabriele, Vatican judicial ofcials plan to have him
serve his sentence in a 12-footby-12-foot cell in the Vatican
police barracks and not in an
Italian prison.
In the judges' report, they
said that while Gabriele consistently maintained he acted out
of love for the pope and the
church, the judges felt an obligation "to observe how the action
undertaken by Gabriele in reality
was harmful" to "the pontiff, the
laws of the Holy See, the whole
Catholic Church and Vatican
City State."
Much of the material simply summarized information
collected during the initial investigation of Gabriele and the
testimony given during his trial
Sept. 29-Oct. 6.
But the judges' reactions to
several points raised by Cristiana
Arru, Gabriele's lawyer, were
explained in detail, particularly
regarding Arru's contention that
since the material found in Ga-
briele's apartment consisted of
photocopies, not originals, the
former butler didn't actually
steal anything.
First, the judges said testimony from Msgr. Georg Ganswein, the pope's personal secretary, and from Vatican police
ofcers who searched Gabriele's
Vatican apartment proved to
them that a few originals were
among the photocopies.
Second, they said, Gabriele
removed the originals without
permission in order to photocopy them, but even more, they
said, while he might not have
stolen many original documents,
by photocopying them he took
the information written on them
without consent.
"The paper document is
nothing other than the support
material for an immaterial content," the judges said.
During the trial, Arru repeatedly raised questions about
the Vatican prosecutor's assertion that police found in Gabriele's Vatican apartment three
items given to Pope Benedict as
gifts: a check for 100,000 euros
($123,000); a gold nugget from
the director of a mining company in Peru; and a 16th-century
edition of a translation of the
"Aeneid."
The judges' explanation of
their verdict basically said they
made their judgment based on
the theft of condential papal
and Vatican documents, not on
the three gifts.
A separate area of the report concerned whether or not
Gabriele was capable of understanding his actions, which the
judges answered afrmatively.
The judges cited several
statements made by Gabriele,
both during the investigation
and at the trial, to the effect that
he knew what he was doing was
wrong, he took extra precautions to avoid being caught and
he went to confession when it
became clear he was about to
be arrested.
The judges also discussed
the points that, in their view,
made Gabriele's actions a case
of "aggravated theft" and not
simple theft.
The main aggravating factor, they said, was the fact that
Gabriele abused his position
of trust: "In effect, Gabriele
was able to commit the crime
he's accused of because of his
work relationship with the Holy
Father, which necessarily was
based on a bond of trust."
Gabriele's job brought him
into the very private life of Pope
Benedict, and the butler violated
the "absolute reserve" such a
position required, the judges
said.
"He used this unique position to perpetrate his criminal
actions," they said.
While recognizing that Gabriele was not paid for leaking
the documents to an Italian
journalist (who, in turn, published them in an instantly bestselling book), the judges said he
still committed the crime with
the intent to prot from it "intellectually and morally."
The judges quoted him as
telling investigators, "Even if the
possession of those documents
was illicit, I felt I had to do it
for various reasons, including
my own personal interests."
Gabriele, they said, felt that
having the documents would
help him better understand the
inner workings of the Vatican,
and leaking them to a journalist would help him provide
the "shock" that could lead to
change in the Vatican, which
he felt was becoming lled with
corruption and careerism.
In the verdict, the judges
ordered Gabriele to pay the
Vatican's court costs, which Father Lombardi said amounted to
the equivalent of about $1,300.
Save the date
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IN OUR WORLD
November 2012
15
New York woman is proof miracles do happen
BY CAROL GLATZ
Though she had always believed in miracles, Sharon Smith
never dreamed she would be the
recipient of one.
Her unexplained recovery
from a near fatal infection in
2005 was the second miracle
that cleared the way for the
Oct. 21 canonization of Blessed
Marianne Cope.
Smith presented Pope Benedict XVI a relic of Blessed Marianne –– a bone fragment housed
in a wooden tau cross, or Tshaped cross that is the symbol
of St. Francis, the inspiration of
Mother Marianne’s congregation.
A native of Syracuse, N.Y.,
Smith fainted in her home one
day in 2005 and woke up two
months later in St. Joseph’s
Hospital, her body perforated
by tubes as doctors fought to
keep her hydrated and alive.
She had been diagnosed with
pancreatitis, but the inammation soon caused an infection
so severe, it ate away part of her
gastrointestinal tract.
Her doctor told her that
July, “Sharon, you’re not going
to make it,” she told Catholic
News Service in Rome Oct.19.
She and about 90 others from
the Diocese of Syracuse, including Bishop Robert J. Cunningham, came to Rome for the
canonization.
Smith recalled that a friend
visiting her at the hospital was
given a prayer card of Mother
Marianne and told to pray for
her intercession. Mother Marianne had been beatied by Pope
Benedict in May 2005.
“My friends told me they
prayed for me the night before
they were going to just disconnect me” from the respirator,
“and they prayed to Mother
Marianne for me,” she said.
The next day, “I woke up
in the morning and started talking,” she said.
Though she could breathe
on her own, the infection was
still severe.
St. Francis Sister Michaeleen
Cabral and other members of
the community soon started
praying for Blessed Marianne’s
intercession.
During one visit, Sister Michaeleen gave Smith, to pin to
her hospital gown, a bag of soil
that came from Blessed Marianne’s grave in Hawaii. Smith
said she still has the packet of
dirt, which she now keeps in
her Bible.
After nearly a year in the
hospital and rehabilitation,
Smith was given a clean bill of
health and released. She said
her doctor couldn’t believe
she had recovered. Doctors
said that places where tissue
had died had actually healed
and regenerated.
Smith said she was so grateful for the prayers the sisters had
offered her that she decided to
“pay them back” by volunteering at a home for the terminally
ill, which is run by the Sisters of
St. Francis.
“I gured I was alive for a
reason,” she said.
But Smith didn’t link her
recovery to the prayers right
away. It was only during her
volunteer work at the hospice
home that she unexpectedly
ran into Sister Michaeleen and
another woman who had visited
her in the hospital.
“They said, ‘Oh my God are
you that woman that we saw
dying?’ And I said, ‘Yes,’ I took
it kind of lightly,” she recalled.
But they urged her to go
visit Sister Mary Laurence Hanley, who championed Mother
Marianne’s cause for sainthood
for nearly 40 years. The nun
died in December 2011.
“You’ve got to tell Sister
Mary Laurence your story.
You’re our second miracle,”
the women told Smith. “And I
said, ‘I’m your what!?’”
“Like, I said, I believe in
miracles, I just never thought I’d
be one,” she said with a laugh.
“I feel that’s a welcoming
thought for people to believe
that a miracle can truly happen.”
SHARON SMITH, left, presented a relic of St. Marianne
Cope during the canonization of seven new saints by
Pope Benedict XVI in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican
Oct. 21. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
Upcoming Events
Dec. 6: Advent Dinner, Bishop Mulvey
Jan. 19: RCIA Day of Reflection
NOV. 30-DEC. 2, SILENT WEEKEND RETREAT
Set the tone for the coming of our Lord by taking some quiet time away from distractions, errands, and ‘to do’ lists. Prepare your hearts for the divine love that is about to enter into our
world. Spiritual direction will be available if desired. Cost: $150 (all rooms are private)
DEC. 6, ADVENT DINNER
We are pleased to have Bishop Michael Mulvey, Bishop of Corpus Christi, as our guest speaker
for the Advent dinner. The social hour will begin at 6:30pm, followed by dinner and a spiritual
presentation by Bishop Mulvey. Cost: $25
JAN. 19, RCIA DAY OF REFLECTION
All RCIA Directors, team member, candidates and catechumens are invited to Cedarbrake for a
day of reflection. The Cedarbrake Staff will present the day. (Please register through your parish)
JAN. 28, SILENT DAY OF REFLECTION
A great time for a quiet day; Cedarbrake will host the day and it will include Mass, lunch and
time for silence. Spiritual direction will be available. Cost: $25
“Seek first his
g p over yyou.”
kingship
TO REGISTER FOR AN EVENT: (254) 780-2436, [email protected] or
www.austindiocese.org/cedarbrake, click on “upcoming retreats”
Matthew
M
atthew 6:33
6:33
5602 N. HWY. 317, BELTON, TX 76513
P.O. BOX 58, BELTON, TX 76513 (mailing address)
Visit us online!
WEBSITE: austindiocese.org/cedarbrake
FACEBOOK: facebook.com/cedarbrake
IN OUR WORLD
16
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Evangelization must be in the context of ‘real life’
BY CINDY WOODEN
New evangelization efforts cannot succeed unless
they begin with the concrete
lives, cultures and languages of
the people whom the Catholic
Church is trying to reach with
the Gospel, said participants at
the Synod of Bishops.
Indonesian Bishop Ignatius Suharyo Hardjoatmodjo of
Jakarta said many of the new
Catholics in Indonesia were rst
attracted “by the way Catholics
pray during public events such
as wedding feasts or funeral
services.”
They react to the prayers because they “are delivered in their
vernacular mother tongue, so that
they readily understand the content, whereas before they usually
heard prayers recited in a foreign
language as the Muslims pray
in Arabic,” the archbishop told
members of the synod Oct. 16.
The problem, he said,
comes with translations of the
Mass from the original Latin.
While the Vatican has insisted
on translations being as literal
as possible in order to remain
faithful to the full content and
rich implications of the Latin
terms, the Indonesian bishop
said a “literal translation is not
always possible, because of the
diversity and complexity of languages.”
In Indonesia, he said, a
problem can arise when translating “et cum spirito tuo” (“and
with your spirit”) into a local
language. “The word ‘spiritus’
as translated into ‘roh’ in our
language could readily evoke the
idea of ‘evil spirit,’ thus ‘et cum
spirito tuo’ means, for some
communities, ‘with your evil
spirit,’” the bishop told synod
members, who laughed.
With liturgical translations,
he said, the “principle of subsidiarity” should apply: The local
bishops should make the nal
decision because they know the
local language.
Another consideration of
the real-life circumstances that
keep many baptized members
from practicing their faith was
raised by Maltese Bishop Mario
Grech of Gozo. He said the
church must continue to uphold
Jesus’ teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, but it also
must reach out to those whose
marriages have ended badly.
Couples who are divorced
and civilly remarried, he said,
feel the church’s teaching “as a
weight on their heads and their
hearts, and nd difculties in
reconciling themselves with the
church and perhaps with God.”
Bishops, pastors and other
Catholics must take seriously papal teaching that while couples
in irregular situations “are not
in perfect communion with the
church” and may not receive
the Eucharist, they do love the
Lord and are still members of
the church, Bishop Grech said.
He quoted Pope Benedict,
who at the World Meeting of
Families in June, said the church
loves such people, and “it is
important that they should see
and feel this love.”
Another way the church
must tailor its message to individuals is through the media,
and particularly through social
networks such as Facebook,
said Archbishop Claudio Maria
Celli, president of the Pontical
Council for Social Communications.
The pervasive presence of
the digital media in the lives of
modern people, particularly the
lives of the young, means the
church cannot treat social networks simply as “virtual spaces
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less important than the ‘real’
world,” he said. “If the Gospel
is not also proclaimed digitally,
we run the risk of abandoning
many people for whom this is
the world in which they ‘live.’”
The Catholic Church, which
is used to preaching to people
or reaching them through texts
and books, he said, must learn
the language of the new media, which value “spontaneous,
interactive and participatory”
discourse, the archbishop said.
Bishop Sarah F. Davis, vice
president of the World Methodist Council and an ecumenical
delegate invited to the synod
by Pope Benedict XVI, told
members, “Evangelistic outreach must be informed and
shaped by the specic needs and
cultural environment of those
with whom the Gospel is being
shared.”
Bishop Davis, who serves
as the Jamaica-based bishop of
the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, told synod members
Oct. 16 that “creativity is needed
so that in meeting the needs of
persons, the Gospel is not compromised.”
However, she said, in the end,
“it will be the evangelizers who
are placed under the microscope,
not the processes, not the programs, nor the plans developed
out of this synod. People want
to know that what the evangelizers are advertising has already
worked in their lives.”
Irish Archbishop Diarmuid
Martin of Dublin also urged
particular care with the use of
language and called for new educational efforts to help young
Catholics learn what the church
means by the terms and phrases
it uses.
The church faces a challenge, involving not just the media, but a whole “culture of the
manipulation of language and
the management of information
where the meaning of words is
changed and manipulated for
commercial, ideological or political motives,” he said.
The way language is used
publicly, Archbishop Martin
said, has created a situation in
which “young people live in a
culture of relativism and indeed
banalization of the truth often
without even being aware of it.”
The new evangelization
must include a “robust confrontation of ideas” that can
help young people discern the
arguments and ideas presented
to them, he said.
November 2012
IN OUR WORLD
17
Pope prays new saints will strengthen church
BY CINDY WOODEN
Proclaiming seven new
saints –– including St. Kateri
Tekakwitha and St. Marianne
Cope from North America ––
Pope Benedict XVI said they
are examples to the world of
total dedication to Christ and
tireless service to others.
In a revised canonization
rite Oct. 21, the pope prayed
for guidance that the church
would not “err in a matter of
such importance” as he used
his authority to state that the
seven are with God in heaven
and can intercede for people
on earth.
An estimated 80,000 pilgrims from the U.S., Canada,
the Philippines, Italy, Spain,
Germany and Madagascar
filled St. Peter’s Square for
the canonization of the holy
women and men who ministered among their people.
The pilgrims applauded
the proclamation of the new
saints, who included: Kateri,
an American Indian who was
born in the U.S. and died in
Canada in 1680; Mother Marianne, a Sister of St. Joseph
who traveled from Syracuse,
N.Y., to Hawaii to care for
people with Hansen’s disease
and died in Molokai in 1918;
and Pedro Calungsod, a teen-
A HUGE
CROWD
packed
St. Peter’s
Square
as Pope
Benedict XVI
celebrated
the canonization Mass
for seven
new saints
on Oct. 21.
(CNS photo
by Paul Haring)
aged Philippine catechist who
was martyred in Guam in
1672.
The other new saints are:
French Jesuit Father Jacques
Berthieu, martyred in Madagascar in 1896; Italian Father
Giovanni Battista Piamarta,
founder of religious orders,
who died in 1913; Sister
Carmen Salles Barangueras,
founder of a Spanish religious
order, who died in 1911; and
Anna Schaffer, a lay German
woman, who died in 1925.
In his homily at Mass fol-
PILGRIMS hold a statue of St. Pedro Calungsod before
the canonization Mass for seven new saints in St. Peter’s
Square at the Vatican Oct. 21. The new saint was a lay
catechist from the Philippines who was martyred in Guam
in 1672. (CNS photo by Paul Haring)
lowing the canonization, Pope
Benedict prayed that the example of the new saints would
“speak today to the whole
church” and that their intercession would strengthen the
church in its mission to proclaim the Gospel to the world.
The pope also spoke about
each new saint individually,
giving a short biographical
outline and highlighting a special characteristic of each for
Catholics today.
Pope Benedict called St.
Kateri the “protectress of
Canada and the first Native
American saint,” and he entrusted to her “the renewal of
the faith in the First Nations
and in all of North America.”
The daughter of a Mohawk father and Algonquin
Christian mother, St. Kateri
was “faithful to the traditions
of her people,” but also faithful to the Christianity she embraced at age 20. “May her
example help us to live where
we are, loving Jesus without
denying who we are,” the
pope said.
Archbishop Charles J.
Chaput of Philadelphia, who
is of American Indian descent,
told Catholic News Service,
“I think many young people
today are embarrassed about
embracing the Catholic faith
because they live in a secular
culture that’s hostile toward
religious experience.”
St. Kateri also “grew up in
a place where there was great
hostility toward Christianity,”
Archbishop Chaput said, but
she resisted all efforts to turn
her away from her faith, “so
in some ways she would be a
model of delity in the face of
persecution on religious freedom grounds.”
Archbishop Gerald
Cyprien Lacroix of Quebec
told CNS that the canonization of the rst native of
North America is “huge for
us.” St. Kateri, he said, is an
excellent model for young
people of “living a simple life,
faithful to the Lord in the
midst of hostility.”
St. Kateri’s life and canonization show that “saints
don’t have to do extraordinary
things, they just have to love,”
Archbishop Lacroix said.
Francine Merasty, 32, a
Cree who lives in Pelican Narrows, Sask., said, “Kateri inspires me because she’s an aboriginal woman. According to
sociologists, aboriginal women are at the lowest (social)
strata, and for the church to
raise up to the communion of
saints an aboriginal woman is
so awesome and wonderful.”
Jake Finkbonner, the
12-year-old boy from Washington state whose healing
was accepted as the miracle
needed for St. Kateri’s canonization, received Communion from the pope during the
Mass. Jake’s parents and two
little sisters did as well.
Speaking about St. Marianne of Molokai in his homily,
Pope Benedict said that a time
when very little could be done
to treat people with Hansen’s
disease, commonly called leprosy, “Marianne Cope showed
the highest love, courage and
enthusiasm.”
“She is a shining example
of the tradition of Catholic
nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved St. Francis,”
the pope said.
Leading a group of Hawaiian pilgrims, including nine
patient-residents from Kalaupapa, where St. Marianne
ministered, Honolulu Bishop
Larry Silva said St. Marianne
is “an inspiration for those
who care for those most in
need, which is what all Christians are called to do. Now,
with universal veneration, she
can inspire people around the
world.”
With thousands of Philippine pilgrims in St. Peter’s
Square, Pope Benedict praised
St. Pedro, a catechist who accompanied Jesuit priests to
the Mariana Islands in 1668.
Despite hostility from some
of the natives, he “displayed
deep faith and charity and
continued to catechize his
many converts, giving witness
to Christ by a life of purity
and dedication to the Gospel.”
The pope prayed that “the
example and courageous witness” of St. Pedro would “inspire the dear people of the
Philippines to announce the
kingdom bravely and to win
souls for God.”
Pope Benedict also cited
St. Anna Schaffer as a model
for a very modern concern.
St. Anna was working as
a maid to earn the money for
the dowry needed to enter
a convent when an accident
occurred and she “received
incurable burns” which kept
her bedridden the rest of her
life, the pope said. In time,
she came to see her pain and
suffering as a way to unite
herself with Christ through
prayer, he said.
“May her apostolate of
prayer and suffering, of sacrice and expiation, be a shining example for believers in
her homeland, and may her
intercession strengthen the
Christian hospice movement
in its benecial activity,” the
pope said.
IN OUR WORLD
18
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Pope recalls Vatican II messages for laypeople
BY SARAH DELANEY
CAROL GLATZ
AND
In a gesture recalling how
the Second Vatican Council
sought to enhance the connection between the church
and the world, Pope Benedict
XVI handed out copies of the
council’s messages for laypeople in various walks of life.
At the end of the Mass in
St. Peter’s Square marking the
50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II and the start
of the Year of Faith, the pope
gave out texts of the special
messages that Pope Paul VI
had composed for seven categories of the faithful.
The symbolic gesture was
meant not just to recall and
commemorate an event from
the past, but to “enter more
deeply into the spiritual movement, which characterized
Vatican II, to make it ours
and to develop it according
to its true meaning,” the pope
said in his homily.
The seven messages, initially presented by Pope Paul
on Dec. 8, 1965, address the
concerns and responsibilities
of: political leaders; scientists
and cultural figures; artists;
women; workers; the poor,
sick and suffering; and young
people.
Pope Benedict gave the
“Message to Politicians” to
some members of the diplomatic corps accredited to the
Holy See, including ambassadors to the Vatican from each
continent.
The message said that the
only thing the church asks
of politicians is freedom ––
“the liberty to believe and to
preach her faith, the freedom
to love her God and serve
him, the freedom to live and
to bring to men her message
of life. Do not fear her.”
It added: “Allow Christ to
exercise his purifying action
on society. Do not crucify
him anew.”
Pope Benedict gave an
Italian physicist, a German
philosopher and a German
Biblicist copies of the “Message to the World of Culture
and Science.”
The message speaks of the
clear possibility for “a deep
understanding between real
science and real faith, mutual servants of one another
in the one truth. Do not stand
in the way of this important
meeting. Have condence in
faith, this great friend of intelligence.”
James MacMillan, a Scottish composer; Italian sculptor
Arnaldo Pomodoro; and two
members of Italy’s lm industry accepted the “Message to
Artists.”
The message said the
world “needs beauty in order not to sink into despair.”
Artists are “the guardians of
beauty” and should be free
from fads and “strange or unbecoming expressions.”
Kathryn Lopez, a U.S.
journalist and editor-at-large
of the National Review Online; Annalisa Minetti, an Italian 2012 Paralympic medalist
in track; a Chinese nun who
teaches theology; and others received the “Message to
Women.”
It said the current age is
when “the vocation of woman
is being achieved in its fullness, the hour in which woman acquires in the world an inuence, an effect and a power
never hitherto achieved.”
“Our technology runs the
risk of becoming inhuman.
Reconcile men with life and
above all, we beseech you,
watch carefully over the future of our race. Hold back
the hand of man who, in a
moment of folly, might attempt to destroy human civilization,” it says.
Those receiving the “Message to Workers” included
Luis Urzua Iribarren, one of
the 33 Chilean miners trapped
underground for two months
in 2010. The church appreciates workers’ service and virtues such as “courage, dedication, professional conscience,
love of justice,” the message
says.
A doctor, nurse, and woman who lost her daughter to
a car accident received the
“Message to all the Poor, Sick
and Suffering.” The pope descended the sacristy’s stairs to
greet and deliver the message
to a woman seated in a wheelchair.
The message says Christ
“took suffering upon himself
and this is enough to make you
understand all its value.”
“Know that you are not
alone, separated, abandoned or
useless. You have been called
by Christ and are his living and
transparent image,” the message says.
Pope Paul’s “Message to
Young People” was received
by young Catholics from Brazil,
Congo, the Philippines, France
and by Anna Fsadni from Syd-
ney and Robert Prybyla from
Round Rock.
The message called on
young people to dedicate their
energy to those in need. “Fight
against all egoism. Refuse to
give free course to the instincts
of violence and hatred which
beget wars and all their train of
miseries. Be generous, pure, respectful and sincere, and build in
enthusiasm a better world than
your elders had.”
Caroline Farey of the
Maryvale Institute in Birmingham, England, who was attending the Synod of Bishops on
the new evangelization, was one
of two catechists who received
from Pope Benedict a special
Year of Faith edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontical
Council for Promoting New
Evangelization, told journalists
Oct. 9 that men and women,
some well-known and some
not, were chosen from all over
the world because “this is the
church we are addressing, like at
the time of the council.”
The complete texts of Pope
Paul VI’s messages can be found
toward the end of this webpage:
www.vatican.va/holy_father/
paul_vi/speeches/1965/index.
htm.
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November 2012
IN OUR WORLD
19
Pope encourages in-depth knowledge of creed
BY CAROL GLATZ
Ignorance of the faith puts
Christians at risk of following a
“do-it-yourself” religion, Pope
Benedict XVI said.
People need to become
more familiar with the creed because it is there that the “Christian moral life is planted and ...
one nds its foundation and justication,” the pope said Oct. 17
at his weekly general audience.
Before an estimated 20,000
people gathered in St. Peter’s
Square, the pope began a new
series of audience talks to accompany the Year of Faith,
which marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the
Second Vatican Council.
He said he hopes the series
of instructional talks, which is
expected to run until Nov. 24,
2013, will help people “strengthen or rediscover the joy of faith
and realize that it isn’t something foreign to or separate
from everyday life, but is its
soul.”
Pope Benedict said the
widespread and dominant
nature of today’s secularism,
individualism and relativism
means that even Christians are
not completely “immune from
these dangers.”
Some of the negative effects include faith being lived
“passively or in private, a refusal to learn about the faith,
and the rift between faith and
life,” he said.
“Often Christians don’t even
know the central core of their
own Catholic faith –– the creed
–– thereby leaving room for a
certain syncretism and religious
relativism,” he said. Without a
clear idea of the faith’s fundamental truths and the uniquely
salvic nature of Christianity,
“the risk of constructing a socalled ‘do-it-yourself’ religion is
not remote today.”
“Where do we nd the essential formula of the faith?
Where do we find the truths
that have been faithfully handed
down and make up the light of
our daily life,” he asked.
He said the answer is the
creed, or profession of faith,
which needs to be better understood, reected upon and
integrated into one’s life.
Christians need to “discover
the profound link between the
truths we profess in the creed
and our daily life” so that these
truths are allowed to transform
the “deserts of modern-day
life.”
The Christian faith is not
a belief in an idea or just an
outlook on life, he said, but
a relationship with the living
person of Christ who transforms lives.
That is why having faith
in God isn’t merely an intellectual activity, but something
that “truly changes everything
in us and for us; it clearly reveals
our future destiny, the truth of
our vocation within history, the
meaning of life and the pleasure
of being pilgrims heading toward the heavenly home.”
Pope Benedict said faith
doesn’t take anything away from
one’s life, rather it is what renders life more just and humane.
Current cultural changes
“often show many forms of
barbarity, which hide under
the guise of victories won by
civilization,” he said. How-
The
Nicene
Creed
I believe in one God,
the father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.
PEOPLE
NEED to
become
more familiar with
the creed
because
it is there
that the
“Christian
moral life
is planted
and ... one
nds its
foundation and
justication,” Pope
Benedict
XVI said.
(CNS
graphic
by Emily
Lockley)
8
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
born of the Father before all ages.
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us men and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
and by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and became man.
and rose again on the third day
in accordance with the Scriptures.
He ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead
and his kingdom will have no end.
8
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who has spoken through the prophets.
I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church.
I confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins
and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
©2012 CNS
ever, “wherever there is domination, possessiveness, exploitation, treating others as a
commodity,” and arrogance,
humankind is “impoverished,
degraded and disgured.”
Faith shows that humanity
won’t find its full realization
unless the human person “is
animated by the love that comes
from God,” he said. The gift of
faith then nds expression in
“relationships full of love, compassion, care and seless service
toward others.”
The pope also marked International Day for the Eradication
of Poverty, observed Oct. 17, to
promote greater awareness of
poverty and destitution worldwide.
The pope encouraged those
working to end poverty to “preserve the dignity and rights of
everyone who is condemned to
be subjected to the scourge of
poverty.”
Year of Faith goes digital with new app
BY DIANE FREEBY
The Year of Faith ofcially
kicked off Oct. 11, and now
there’s an app for that!
The Diocese of Fort WayneSouth Bend is answering Pope
Benedict XVI’s call to use new
media and technology, providing
a blog and mobile app (available
for iPhone and Android) as part
of a faith-building initiative.
The app is titled “My Year of
Faith” and costs 99 cents. It can
be a daily, customizable resource
for users. It includes features that
lead to a deeper understanding
of faith, an increased prayer life,
and reflections and thoughts
from nationally known bloggers
and writers –– with daily content
updates.
The list of contributors is a
“who’s who in Catholic social
media” including blogger Lisa
Hendey of CatholicMom.com,
popular Catholic authors and
speakers, and local voices, too,
like Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of
Fort Wayne-South Bend. There
is also a blog at www.myyearoffaith.com.
According to Megan Oberhausen of the diocesan Secretariat
for Evangelization and Special
Ministries, the new media outreach serves two purposes.
“The rst is catechesis,” said
Oberhausen, “by offering a short
reading every day to help people
know and love their faith more
deeply.”
“The second is evangelization, by helping Catholics share
their faith with joy and enthusiasm and providing a place where
others can encounter the love
of Jesus Christ and the light and
hope of the Gospel,” she added
in an interview with Today’s
Catholic, the diocesan newspaper. “It’s all about leading people
to Jesus!”
Oberhausen is the point
person for the project. She approached Patrick Leinen and
Little i Apps (the group that created the confession app) about
creating an app for the Year of
Faith. Within a few months,
they developed technology to
provide reections from people
in the Catholic community and
allow users to interact socially
while providing suggestions to
foster spiritual growth.
“We loved the idea of reaching out to the larger Catholic
community from our local diocese,” said Leinen.
Others are excited about
contributing to the new app.
“As we anticipate the potential for personal renewal of faith
and the impact this year will
have upon our church, I believe
that a tool like this app will be
the perfect spiritual companion
for families like mine,” said
Hendey.
“The content will be instructive for Catholics, but will
also provide us with the tools
and motivation to share our
faith with our loved ones and
friends,” she added. “In short,
the Year of Faith will help us
better know and more effectively share the riches of the
Catholic Church.”
While the app is geared toward evangelization for all ages,
Cindy Black, diocesan director
of youth, young adult and cam-
pus ministry, said the project is
especially important for reaching
youths and young adults and
the ripple effect could be farreaching.
“Young people have access
to people that we do not, and
thus are key in evangelizing their
friends,” said Black. “When
teens and college students witness to the joy of living their
Catholic faith, it naturally attracts others who long for joy
and peace.
“That is the most exciting
thing –– to think about the
potential when putting out into
the digital deep. It’s possible
that a college student could post
something on Facebook with a
link and his or her friends across
the country would read it and
share and, it could spider around
the world,” she said.
GOOD NEWS
20
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Spiritual drought: When our souls thirst for God
BISHOP JOE S.
VÁSQUEZ is the fth
bishop of the Austin
Diocese. He shepherds more than
500,000 Catholics in 25 Central
Texas counties.
Editor: Spiritual drought seems
to be discussed a great deal lately.
Bishop, how do you dene spiritual
drought?
Bishop Vásquez: Spiritual
drought is a human condition experienced by persons who yearn for God.
It involves a deep desire of the person
to experience God. In Texas, we have
experienced environmental drought
for some time. We know that without the precious gift of rain our land,
crops, livestock and ourselves begin to
languish. Even with a small amount of
rain, our whole environment is transformed. The soul experiences something similar with spiritual drought.
This is expressed vividly in Scriptures by the psalmists, “As the deer
longs for streams of water, so my soul
longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts
for God, the living God. When can I
enter and see the face of God?” (Ps
42:2-3).
Editor: In fact, many saints have
talked about experiencing spiritual
drought.
Bishop Vásquez: The saints and
all of us to some degree experience
spiritual drought so that we may better appreciate God’s presence in our
lives. Indeed, St. Teresa of Avila and
St. John of the Cross wrote extensively
about spiritual drought or the “dark
night of the soul.”
St. John of the Cross wrote in
the 16th century, “This dark night
is an inowing of God into the soul
–– called infused contemplation or
mystical theology. God secretly teaches
the soul and instructs it in perfection
of love, without its doing anything. It
is the loving wisdom of God, and He
prepares it for the union of love with
God.”
Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, whom
we know well as Mother Teresa, felt
abandoned and detached from the
Lord throughout much of the time she
spent doing profound works of charity
in India and throughout the world. “In
my soul I feel just that terrible pain of
loss … of God not wanting me — of
God not being God — of God not
existing,” she wrote early on in her
spiritual journey. Yet, she continued to
do God’s work helping the poorest of
the poor. She was doing great work,
doing wonderful things and seemed to
be at least communicating the face and
the love of God to other people, but
she herself couldn’t nd it.
Because these great men and
women of our Catholic tradition experienced spiritual drought, we should
also understand there will be periods
of spiritual drought in our own lives.
Anyone who desires to live a good and
holy life may nd themselves feeling
disconnected from God. We can nd
hope and encouragement as we study
the lives and writings of these holy
men and women because they persevered in their delity to God and to
their ministries.
Editor: Have you ever experienced spiritual drought?
Bishop Vásquez: Yes, I have
experienced it myself just as many others have. Changing and transitioning
from one period of life to another, the
loss of a loved one, the loss of one’s
parents, illness, separation, divorce,
children leaving home and beginning
their own lives –– all of these events
can bring about this dimension of
spiritual drought. It is tangible in that
it can affect us physically and emotionally as well. It can also affect the way
we deal with other people and how we
treat others.
Other things that can cause spiritual drought are sin, not being or doing
what God is asking of us, relationships
that are not healthy and balanced and
our own withdrawal from God. If we
lack that connection between ourselves
and God or if we distance ourselves
from God, we may enter a spiritual
drought.
Editor: How can one get
through such a drought?
Bishop Vásquez: The rst thing
that must happen is that we must
become aware of what we are experiencing and discern through the gifts
of the Holy Spirit what is taking place.
We must recognize it and accept it. We
must not be afraid.
One of the best things to do is to
seek guidance from a spiritual director.
We should all have someone who has
experience on the journey of faith ––
someone we can conde in; someone
we can talk with about our spiritual
struggles. A good spiritual director
listens to all that we are undergoing
without judgment. The ministry of the
spiritual director is to assess where we
are on our spiritual journey.
When we are struggling with this
spiritual dryness, we should always
know that God is with us no matter
what. Even when we can’t sense his
presence, even if we don’t feel like
he is here, God is with us. Therefore,
we should never hesitate to cry out to
God and verbalize to him what we are
feeling.
We can turn to the Psalms for
beautiful ways of crying out to God in
this spiritual thirst. “I stretch out my
hands toward you, my soul to you like
a parched land. Hasten to answer me,
LORD; for my spirit fails me. Do not
hide your face from me, lest I become
like those descending to the pit,” (Ps
143, 6-7).
The psalmist is asking “Where are
you, God? My soul is parched like a
dry weary land without water.” When
we feel this way, we, too, can join
ourselves to that prayer and cry out to
God and tell him how we feel. When
we feel dry, lifeless and parched, and
when we are longing for that spiritual
rain and yearning for this life that only
God can give us, we must turn to the
Lord in prayer. This is a time when we
can lean on the prayers we memorized
as children –– the Our Father, the
Hail Mary, the Glory Be or praying the
rosary, can help us open ourselves to
listen to God’s voice.
Holy men and women have taught
us that we should not change our
routines because we are undergoing
spiritual drought. We need to stay focused on the Mass, the sacraments and
prayer. The stability we nd in these
practices is benecial. The sacraments
are God’s grace poured out, and they
help us know him. The sacrament of
reconciliation is an excellent way to
reconnect with God, especially if sin is
what has driven us away from him.
Another reason we experience
spiritual drought is because of the hyperactivity of our world today. We are
so busy that we lack the time to stop
and reect on life; therefore, we are
unable to feel God’s presence because
we have not taken the time to become
aware of his presence. How can God
possibly penetrate my heart and my
ears to listen to him if I am so busy
and so involved in other things that I
don’t take the time to do so?
Pope Benedict XVI speaks about
our over activity, especially in the
Western world. “In so many of our
societies, side by side with material
prosperity, a spiritual desert is spreading: an interior emptiness, an unnamed
fear, a quiet sense of despair. How
many of our contemporaries have built
broken and empty cisterns in a desperate search for meaning –– the ultimate
meaning that only love can give?” the
pope has said.
Therefore, we all need to take time
to be quiet. Retreat time can be very
helpful; however, many people nd
it very difcult because of children,
work and other obligations. Undoubtedly, there are moments in each of
our days when we can create a few
moments of quiet time –– perhaps
early in the morning or during our
lunch hour or perhaps by getting to
Mass early or staying for a few minutes after Mass.
When we become spiritually aware
of God, we begin to understand his
calling to us. He is always with us, he is
always speaking to us; we must make
sure we are aware of him and we are
listening to what he is saying.
Editor: What is your prayer for
those who suffer from spiritual
drought?
Bishop Vásquez: I pray that those
who undergo this experience do not
lose hope. Jesus cried out in his last
moments of suffering, “My God, my
God, why have you forsaken me?”
Those are the words of a man facing
horrible suffering and pain, and he calls
out to God. So, too, we can join with
that prayer to God and not be afraid
that God will somehow be offended
if we cry out in that way. We must not
lose hope because we know that after
his suffering, Jesus was resurrected!
Even in times of darkness, in suffering
and in spiritual drought, Jesus is our
hope and our salvation.
AS THE
PARCHED
EARTH longs
for rain, our
hearts thirst
for God when
we experience spiritual drought.
“When we
feel dry,
lifeless and
parched, and
when we are
longing for
that spiritual rain and
yearning for
this life that
only God can
give us, we
must turn to
the Lord in
prayer,” Bishop Vásquez
says in this
month’s interview. (CNS
photo)
November 2012
GOOD NEWS
21
Fathers set faithful examples for our children, society
BY MATTHEW E. WEILERT
GUEST COLUMNIST
What does it mean to be a
Central Texas Catholic man? Is it
picking up chairs after a successful
fall festival? Is it singing Gregorian
Chant with the schola? Yes to both
and so much more! To be a vibrant
Central Texas Catholic means to live
out our Gospel, the Good News, in
our day-to-day lives.
Today more than ever, living our
vocation as authentically Catholic
men means to be actively countercultural. To proclaim the dignity of
life, the sanctity
of marriage
and the
abundant
richness of the faith of our fathers is
difcult even if the Catholic heritage
in Central Texas spans hundreds of
years. It’s time for a new generation of men to rise up and take their
place as leaders witnessing to the
“faith of our fathers,” or perhaps
become the rst in the family to be
Catholic.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (2258) teaches that we
honor and respect life from natural
conception to natural death. This
means having the courage to confront, speaking the truth in love.
If someone asks me why we oppose abortion as a woman’s right,
I ask them if they believe in gravity. When they say yes to gravity, I
explain that just like gravity is an
objective truth that doesn’t depend
on anyone’s opinion, the
sanctity of life is an
objective truth that
means all life is a gift
of God never an
accident, problem,
inconvenience or
disruption.
Freedom is
not “license to do
anything I want,”
rather freedom is
always the opportunity to choose
the good. To do otherwise is merely
selsh.
As fathers, we do more than
the stereotypical “bring home the
bacon and take out the garbage.”
We are sowing good examples into
our sons and daughters even when
we think no one is looking. By word
and deed, in what we say and what
we do, we are examples to everyone
around us. Would God be praised
by the examples I am giving? It’s a
question I have learned to ask myself
many times each day, not just once a
week on Sunday.
As young, single men, how do
we witness the sanctity of marriage
both inside and outside of our own
home? Take a few minutes to replay
the last ve or 10 conversations you
have had with service providers in
stores, airlines, busses, taxis, restaurants, etc. Are we respectful of their
abilities? Are we chaste with our
eyes? Do we see those around us as
a gift from God?
As married men, are we the
“Gospel in real life” to our wife, our
children, our parents, (especially our
elderly parents). Are we honoring
the dignity of each of these people?
Do we model the behavior we want
our sons to learn and do we witness
the grace toward women that we
want our daughters to learn is their
right as daughters of God? Are we
patient and kind as Jesus was with
those around him?
As we are “made in the image and likeness of God,” we are
designed to transmit life: not only
through the sacrament of marriage and the gift of children, but
the command to take dominion
over the earth (Gen 1:28) and be
in relationship with those God has
placed here.
The objective reality, as much a
truth as gravity, is that we are born
to lead our families, our businesses
and our world, to the richness of
our faith. The best leaders follow
Christ’s example as servants of
all (Mt 20:26, 23:11). As Catholic
men, may we go forth as servant
leaders proclaiming the Good
News!
MATTHEW WEILERT writes on behalf
of the Central Texas Fellowship of
Catholic Men (www.ctfcatholicmen.
org). He considers Ascension Parish
in Bastrop his home parish and currently is a member of St. Louis Parish
in Austin. He has one son.
Spain Pilgrimage
Travel with
Chaplain
Fr. Wittouck!
Plus...Fatima, Portugal & Lourdes, France
14 Days
Departing April 9, 2013
from
$2398*
Fly into Madrid (2 nights) to start your Catholic Pilgrimage. You’ll tour Madrid,
the Royal Palace, and the Toledo Cathedral. Visit Segovia and Avila (1 night) with
private Mass at St. Theresa Convent. Visit the Old and New Cathedrals in Salamanca
with Mass; and Fatima, Portugal (2 nights) with sightseeing, time for personal
devotions and Mass at Our Lady of Fatima Basilica. Experience Sunday Mass and
tour at Bom Jesus Church and Shrine in Braga and tour Santiago de Compostela
(2 nights) and visit sanctuaries, Bernadette’s House and Celebrate Mass at Chapel
Lourdes - at the Grotto. Sightsee in Barcelona (2 nights) including the Cathedral,
choir and Mass. Fly home Sunday, April 22, 2013. Includes daily breakfast and 11
dinners, English/Spanish speaking tour director throughout! Your YMT chaplain,
Fr. Frank Wittouck, SCJ is a former Army chaplain; was pastor of St. Elizabeth
Ann Seton in Houston, TX and currently ministers in prisons and in the Cypress
Assistance Ministries. This will be his sixth trip as chaplain with YTM. *Price per
person based on double occupancy. Airfare is extra.
Group Leaders Travel Free!
Organize a group from your church on this or other YMT faith based packages.
For reservations & details & letter ffrom YMT’s chaplain
with his phone number call 7 days a week:
Austin
512-833-3300
Toll-free
1-800-580-3300
1-800-736-7300
Join today – rbfcu.org
Austin Catholic Diocese parishioners, employees and volunteers
are eligible for membership.
Rates and terms are subject to change. Credit cards are subject to credit approval. The 3.9% Annual Percentage Rate (APR) is a
promotional rate available on cash advances and balance transfers made between July 1, 2012 and December 31, 2012 to a new or
existing RBFCU MasterCard® credit card. Beginning January 2015 any remaining balance at the 3.9% APR will be repriced to a rate of
9.7% – 15.7% APR for Gold CashBack, 9.7% – 15.7% APR for Platinum Rewards and 5.7% – 14.7% APR for Platinum Preferred Rate. The
APR on all purchases during the promotional period and thereafter will be at 9.7% – 15.7% APR for Gold CashBack, 9.7% – 15.7% APR for
Platinum Rewards and 5.7% – 14.7% APR for Platinum Preferred Rate. Beginning April 1, 2012, purchases made with a Platinum Preferred
Credit Card acquired on or after April 1, 2012, will be at 7.7% - 14.7% APR. Contact the Consumer Lending Center for complete details.
Federally insured by NCUA.
Are you looking for a JOB?
Are you interested in working for the Diocese of Austin,
Catholic Charities of Central Texas or a local parish or Catholic school?
If so, visit www.austindiocese.org and click on “Employment.”
Job postings have a link to the application for employment,
which can be mailed or submitted electronically.
GOOD NEWS
22
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Leo the Great established the primacy of the papacy
BY MARY LOU GIBSON
COLUMNIST
Imagine being the driving force
in two signicant historical events –
one secular and one spiritual – that
changed the course of history in both
areas. Such is the legacy of Pope Leo
I, or Leo the Great as he is commonly
known. During his papacy from 440
to 461, Leo was an astute diplomat, a
strong leader in church affairs, a erce
opponent of some bizarre heresies and
a pastor to his ock.
Little is known of his early life.
Historians believe he was born in
about 400 in Tuscany or in Rome. He
was a deacon under Popes Celestine I
and Sixtus III. He was as an emissary
to Gaul to settle a dispute between the
chief military commander and chief
magistrate when Pope Sixtus died. Leo
was elected to succeed him. He was
consecrated on Sept. 29, 440.
When Pope Leo I began his papacy, the Western Empire was breaking up and the church was in upheaval
with many different views about the
Christian faith being proclaimed. Pope
Leo began a series of sermons and
writings aimed at settling age-old theological disputes and arguing against the
heresies being promulgated.
Some of the more bizarre heresies
included Priscillianism whose believers
regarded the human body as evil; Pelagianism, a belief that original sin did
not taint human nature; and Nestorianism, which emphasized the disunion
between the human and divine nature
of Jesus.
Rodney Castleden writes in “The
Book of Saints” that Pope Leo held
the view that Jesus had been in the
fullest sense a human being. The
Manichaeans attacked this belief. They
stated that matter itself was evil and
therefore God could never have come
to earth “in the esh.”
Leo also argued against the teachings of Monophysitism, a sect declaring “one nature” of Christ. This
doctrine held that Jesus was completely
absorbed by his divinity, thus had no
humanity. Tessa Paul reports in “The
Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of
Saints” that Leo maintained that God
had made his son a man to preach
the truth and to suffer in a sacricial
offering.
Pope Leo’s “Tomos,” or treatise
on the Incarnation, to the Council of
Chalcedon in 451 remains the greatest
triumph of his life. He spoke of one
Person with two natures and wrote:
“Invisible in his own nature he became
visible in ours. Beyond our grasp, he
chose to come within our grasp. Existing before time began, he began to
exist as a moment in time. Incapable of
suffering as God, he did not refuse to
be a man, capable of suffering. Immortal, he chose to be subject to the laws
of death.” This concept became orthodox doctrine and the ofcial teaching
of the Christian church making it a
turning point in Christian history.
In addition to his defense of the
spiritual, Pope Leo is remembered
for his confrontation with Attila the
Hun. Attila and his army had plundered Milan and destroyed Pavia in
452. They were now poised to invade
Rome. The emperor sent Leo, in the
company of two Roman senators who
were without any arms or protection,
to meet with the warrior. Rosemary
Guiley writes in “The Encyclopedia of
Saints” that Pope Leo offered Attila
an annual tribute if he would withdraw
from Italy. The army of Huns turned
around and marched back over the
Alps to Hungary. Raphael preserved
this historic event in his painting of the
“Meeting of Leo the Great and Attila”
in 1512. It is displayed in the Vatican.
Pope Leo was less successful in 455
when the North African Vandals under
Genseric sacked Rome, an almost
defenseless city at the time. Leo managed to get them to stop before they
had burned the city and killed all the
people. The vandals took some captives and Leo sent missionary priests
after them to minister to the captives
and purchase their freedom.
A recurring theme in Pope Leo’s
writings focused on the inuence of
the papacy. John Delaney writes in
the “Dictionary of Saints” that Leo
believed the Holy See was the supreme
authority in human affairs because of
divine and scriptural mandates. This
thinking was to affect the concept of
the papacy for centuries to come. He
implemented papal authority in Spain,
France and North Africa and was the
rst pope to claim to be Peter’s heir.
Leo rmly believed that the church
brought a benecial authority to affairs
of state.
Paul Burns writes in “Butler’s
Lives of the Saints” that Pope Leo
taught that the Bishop of Rome, as
Peter’s heir, has universal authority
derived directly from Christ. His writing states the conviction that the pope
is the “private of all bishops.” This
has had lasting consequences of great
importance for the role of the papacy
throughout history.
Pope Leo died in Rome in 461.
His relics are preserved in the Vatican
basilica. After his death, the church became the most inuential and steadying international institution of medieval
times, according to author Bernard
Bangley. He is one of three Popes
called “great.” The others are Gregory
I (604) and Nicholas I (867). His numerous writings and sermons inspired
Pope Benedict XIV to pronounce him
as a doctor of the church in 1754. His
feast day is Nov. 10.
MARY LOU GIBSON is
a member of St. Austin Parish in Austin.
She is a retired state
employee.
Collection for Peter’s Pence
The special collection for Peter’s Pence was taken up June 23-24. If your parish nds an error, call the diocesan Finance Ofce at (512) 949-2400. For more information about this collection, visit www.usccb.org/catholic-giving/opportunities-for-giving/peters-pence/.
Parish
Totals
Austin Central Deanery
Austin, Cristo Rey
$2,281.47
Austin, Our Lady of Guadalupe
$1,426.85
Austin, St. Austin
$3,107.77
Austin, St. Ignatius
$1,202.15
Austin, St. Julia
$563.17
Austin, St. Mary Cathedral
$2,499.55
Austin, San Jose
$2,928.00
Austin Central Deanery Totals
$14,008.96
Austin North Deanery
Austin, Holy Vietnamese Martyrs
$3,116.00
Austin, Sacred Heart
$2,312.00
Austin, St. Albert the Great
$3,193.00
Austin, St. Louis
$3,317.00
Austin, St. Theresa
$2,910.00
Austin, St. Thomas More
$5,076.05
Austin, St. Vincent de Paul
$2,050.02
Cedar Park, St. Margaret Mary
$4,439.50
Lago Vista, Our Lady of the Lake
$932.93
Austin North Deanery Totals
$27,346.50
Austin South Deanery
Austin, Our Lady of Sorrows (Dolores) $605.28
Austin, St. Andrew Kim
$200.00
Austin, St. Catherine of Siena
$5,462.25
Austin, St. John Neumann
$3,937.76
Austin, St. Paul
$2,671.38
Austin, St. Peter the Apostle
$1,373.15
Austin, San Francisco Javier
$292.00
Austin, Santa Barbara
$557.00
Spicewood, Queen of Angels Chapel
$123.00
Lakeway, Emmaus
$1,412.00
Austin South Deanery Totals
$16,633.82
Brenham/La Grange Deanery
Brenham, St. Mary
$1,188.46
Chappell Hill, St. Stanislaus
$590.00
Dime Box, St. Joseph
$341.00
Parish
Totals
Ellinger/Hostyn Hill, St. Mary
$1,014.00
Fayetteville, St. John
$860.39
Giddings, St. Margaret
$656.00
La Grange, Sacred Heart
$1,318.00
Lexington, Holy Family
$172.00
Old Washington on the Brazos, St. Mary $181.25
Pin Oak, St. Mary
$115.00
Rockdale, St. Joseph
$540.21
Somerville, St. Ann
$308.35
Brenham/La Grange Deanery Totals $7,284.66
Bastrop/Lockhart Deanery
Bastrop, Ascension
$1,185.00
Elgin, Sacred Heart
$787.47
Lockhart, St. Mary of the Visitation
$2,078.83
Luling, St. John
$700.60
Martindale, Immaculate Heart
$636.00
Rockne, Sacred Heart
$1,261.58
Smithville, St. Paul
$710.00
String Prairie, Assumption
$272.00
Uhland, St.Michael
$203.57
Bastrop/Lockhart Deanery Totals
$7,835.05
Bryan/College Station Deanery
Bremond, St. Mary
$455.00
Bryan, St. Anthony
$1,047.87
Bryan, St. Joseph
$1,081.00
Bryan, Santa Teresa
$170.00
Caldwell, St. Mary
$733.50
College Station, St. Mary
$3,312.71
College Station, St. Thomas Aquinas $3,050.00
Franklin, St. Francis of Assisi
$814.50
Frenstat, Holy Rosary
$591.00
Hearne, St. Mary
$534.00
Bryan/College Station Deanery Totals $11,789.58
Georgetown/Round Rock Deanery
Andice, Santa Rosa
$1,193.00
Corn Hill, Holy Trinity
$1,120.00
Parish
Totals
Georgetown, St. Helen
$6,603.00
Granger, Sts. Cyril and Methodius
$805.20
Manor, St. Joseph
$454.10
Pugerville, St. Elizabeth
$3,067.57
Round Rock, St. John Vianney
$2,737.71
Round Rock, St. William
$10,336.00
Taylor, Our Lady of Guadalupe
$550.39
Taylor, St. Mary of the Assumption
$1,453.05
Georgetown/Round Rock Totals
$28,320.02
Killeen/Temple Deanery
Belton, Christ the King
$2,165.00
Burlington, St. Michael
$92.00
Cameron, St. Monica
$337.35
Copperas Cove, Holy Family
$3,283.50
Cyclone, St. Joseph
$196.00
Harker Heights, St. Paul Chong Has. $5,327.00
Killeen, St. Joseph
$2,663.43
Marak, Sts. Cyril and Methodius
$176.00
Rogers, St. Matthew
$147.21
Rosebud, St. Ann
$181.00
Salado, St. Stephen
$385.00
Temple, Our Lady of Guadalupe
$1,042.00
Temple, St. Luke
$2,090.00
Temple, St. Mary
$3,119.20
Westphalia, Visitation
$533.00
Killeen/Temple Deanery Totals
$21,737.69
Lampasas/Marble Falls Deanery
Bertram, Holy Cross
$152.45
Burnet, Our Mother of Sorrows
$575.00
Goldthwaite, St. Peter
$123.00
Horseshoe Bay, St. Paul the Apostle $2,005.20
Kingsland, St. Charles Borromeo
$616.22
Lampasas, St. Mary
$646.22
Llano, Holy Trinity
$371.69
Lometa, Good Shepherd
$212.00
Marble Falls, St. John
$625.33
Parish
Totals
Mason, St. Joseph
$333.80
San Saba, St. Mary
$646.72
Sunrise Beach, Our Lady of the Lake
$182.00
Lampasas/Marble Falls Deanery Totals $6,489.63
San Marcos Deanery
Blanco, St. Ferdinand
$401.74
Buda, Santa Cruz
$2,199.11
Dripping Springs, St. Martin de Porres $2,121.50
Johnson City, Good Shepherd
$248.01
Kyle, St. Anthony Marie de Claret
$1,479.56
San Marcos, H. L. Grant Center
$295.00
San Marcos, St. John
$3,361.21
Wimberley, St. Mary
$1,326.12
San Marcos Deanery Totals
$11,432.25
Waco Deanery
Elk, St. Joseph
$224.00
Gatesville, Our Lady of Lourdes
$774.50
Hamilton, St. Thomas
$258.00
Lott, Sacred Heart
$60.00
McGregor, St. Eugene
$366.25
Marlin, St. Joseph
$454.98
Mexia, St. Mary
$557.05
Tours, St. Martin
$519.00
Waco, Sacred Heart
$400.00
Waco, St. Francis on the Brazos
$614.87
Waco (Hewitt), St. Jerome
$2,714.39
Waco, St. John the Baptist
$141.09
Waco (Bellmead), St. Joseph
$747.00
Waco, St. Louis
$4,470.37
Waco, St. Mary of the Assumption
$940.22
Waco, St. Peter Catholic Center
$211.40
West, Church of the Assumption
$611.00
Waco Deanery Totals
$14,064.12
Grand Total
$166,942.28
November 2012
GOOD NEWS
23
Faithful citizenship after the votes are counted
BY BARBARA BUDDE
COLUMNIST
If you are reading this before Nov.
6 and you have not yet voted, please
vote. It is a privilege to live in this
country and our votes are important so
please make your voice heard and cast
your vote.
As important as it is to vote, it is
not sufcient to fulll our responsibilities as faithful citizens. The vision and
values articulated by our Texas and
national conference of bishops cross
every partisan line. We support life and
we support the necessary revenues to
provide for added public services for
families that will help them choose life
and feed their children and provide basic necessities for the poor, the elderly
and disabled. We support immigration
reform and foreign aid for the poorest of the poor across the globe. We
support an end to the use of the death
penalty and we support efforts for
peace. We do not support unjust war.
No party embraces our comprehensive
vision for a community of life, justice
and peace. We need to work for that
after our votes are counted.
There are very concrete steps that
all of us can take to be faithful citizens
and to make a concrete difference in
our local communities, state and nation.
First of all, we can be relational.
Whether our preferred candidate won
or not, we can write to congratulate
him or her and thank the candidate for
their commitment to public service.
Communicate with them regularly on
issues of interest and concern to the
Catholic community.
We must also stay informed on the
issues. The Texas Catholic Voice is a
weekly newsletter of the Texas Catholic Conference at www.txcatholic.org.
This newsletter keeps us informed on
state issues. The website is lled with
information on every priority of the
Texas bishops and the newsletter will
alert us as to key times to communicate
with legislators or state ofcials. On
the national level, we can sign up for
action alerts from the USCCB at www.
usccb.org/issues-and-action/take-action-now/capwiz/capwiz-signup.cfm.
We must then follow up by
communicating regularly with politicians. When we write, we will get
form letters back, and that is to be
expected, but we can try to establish
a relationship with a staff person in
the ofce of the elected ofcial so we
can e-mail or call them directly. The
information we get from the action
alerts of the Texas Catholic Conference and the USCCB is in complete
conformity with the teachings of the
Catholic Church, so we should use
that information as we communicate
with our legislators. Some groups that
support Catholic issues in some areas
might oppose the bishops on other
issues, so be careful. Not every group
that has “Catholic” in their name is
run by the bishops.
We can also participate in Advocacy Days. On Feb. 12, 2013, advocates from around the country will visit
legislative ofces in Washington D.C.
Even if we can’t go to Washington to
be a part of this effort, we can support
it by calling our legislators and telling
them that we support the delegates
who will visit their ofces. On April 9,
2013, we can join our Texas bishops as
they visit the State Capitol for Catholic
Advocacy day. Again, if we can’t make
the trip to Austin for this event, we
can call the ofces of our legislators in
support of the agenda that the bishops
and other Catholics will bring that day.
These calls to national and state ofces
will have a huge effect –– especially if
the relationship has been nurtured in
the weeks and months before.
As Catholics we have a comprehensive and consistent moral vision for
the good of each and every person. If
we work together to make our voices
heard, not just by voting, but by advocating for that vision of the common
good we can have huge inuence. Isn’t
that worth our time and effort?
BARBARA BUDDE
is the diocesan
director of social
concerns. She
can be reached at
(512) 949-2471 or
barbara-budde@
austindiocese.org.
Assisted suicide is not the answer, no matter the question
REV. TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK, PH.D.
COLUMNIST
Several states are considering
legislative measures to let physicians
prescribe (but not administer) a lethal
dose of a toxic drug to their patients,
thereby assisting their patients to
commit suicide. This is known as
physician-assisted suicide. Advocates
of this practice assure us that this can
be a good choice for someone who is
dying, or who wants to die.
If physician-assisted suicide really
represents a “good choice,” we need
to ask: why should only physicians be
able to participate? Why should only
physicians be allowed to undermine
public trust of their profession through
these kinds of death-dealing activities?
Why not include police, for example? If a sick person expresses a wish
to die, the police could be notied,
and an ofcer would arrive bearing a
suitable rearm. He would load it with
bullets, cock the gun, and place it on
the bedside stand of the sick patient.
After giving instruction on the best
way to angle the barrel, the ofcer
would depart, and the patient could
then pick the device up and shoot himself — “police-assisted suicide.”
Besides physician-assisted suicide
and police-assisted suicide, “militaryassisted suicide” could be offered as
well. Members of the armed forces
would bring in a standard-issue hand
grenade upon request, explaining to
the sick patient how to remove the pin
properly and how to place the device
so as to achieve the most rapid, painless and destructive death.
The assisted-suicide paradigm
would readily admit of other creative
approaches as well — society could
sanction “assisted drownings” where
lifeguards could be asked to assist
those wishing to die by providing them
millstones to take them to the bottom
of lakes and oceans.
But if a life-guard helped people
drown, would you want him watching
your family at the beach?
It is troubling how many individuals fail to grasp the radical absurdity
of allowing physician-assisted suicide.
Suicide is no joking matter. Regardless
of how it transpires, it is a catastrophe
for those who end their own lives, for
their loved ones left behind, and for
society more broadly.
Some people may decide that their
lives are no longer worth living, but
our society has always recognized that
decision to be a tragedy and a mistake;
that’s why high bridges have signs
encouraging suicidal individuals to seek
help rather than jump. Suicide hotlines
are open 24 hours a day because we
seek to prevent as many deaths as we
can. We treat as heroes those who walk
along bridges or climb tall buildings
and try to talk people down.
Commentator Greg Pfundstein
stresses how this sound and consis-
tent cultural message is atly contradicted when we allow physicians to
prescribe lethal drugs so people can
kill themselves — it is like replacing the suicide intervention signs on
bridges with signs that state, “Ask
your physician if jumping is right for
you.” Simply put, such jumping is
never a “good thing,” and it is only
our own foolhardiness that lets us
feign it could be, whether physicianassisted or otherwise.
I remember reading a “Letter
to the Editor” in the local paper of
a small town many years ago. The
woman wrote about the death of her
grandparents — well-educated, intelligent and seemingly in control of their
faculties — who had tragically committed suicide together by drinking a
deadly substance. They were elderly
and struggling with various ailments.
Her rst-hand perspective was uninching: “It took me years to forgive
my grandparents after they committed suicide. I was so angry at what
they had done to me and my family.
I felt betrayed. I felt nauseated. At
some fundamental level I just couldn’t
believe it had really happened, and I
couldn’t believe that they didn’t reach
out to us for help. I thought the pain
would never go away. The idea that
suicide could ever be a good thing is a
total crock and a lie. It leaves behind
deep scars and immeasurable pain
on the part of family and friends. We
don’t have the right to take our own
lives because we didn’t give ourselves
life.”
I’m reminded of the words of the
mayor of one of our great cities, who
declared: “The crime rate isn’t so bad
if you just don’t count the murders.”
Assisted suicide, similarly, isn’t so bad
if you just don’t count the victims:
the many broken individuals, broken
families and broken hearts.
A friend of mine in Canada has
struggled with multiple sclerosis for
many years. He often speaks out
against assisted suicide. Recently, he
sent me a picture of himself taken with
his smiling grandchildren, one sitting
on each arm of his wheelchair. Below
the picture he wrote, “If I had opted
for assisted suicide back in the mid1980s when I rst developed MS, and
it seemed life as I knew it was over,
look what I would have missed. I had
no idea that one day I would be head
over heels in love with grandchildren!
Never give up on life.”
FATHER TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK,
PH.D. earned his doctorate in
neuroscience from
Yale. He is a priest
of the Diocese of
Fall River, Mass.,
and serves as the
Director of Education at The National
Catholic Bioethics
Center in Philadelphia. For more information, visit
www.ncbcenter.org.
24
BULLETIN BOARD
NFP classes....................
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
For Your
Information
The 13th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty will be held
Nov. 3 at 2 p.m. on the South Steps
of the Texas State Capitol. For more
information, visit www.marchforabolition.org. This is not a ministry of the
Austin Diocese.
PREPARE-ENRICH Facilitators Certification Training will be
offered Nov. 3 from 8:30 a.m. to 5
p.m. at St Paul Chong Hasang Parish
in Harker Heights. The cost is $125 for
lunch and materials. A ier is available
at www.austindiocese.org/resources.
php?dept_id=26. For more information,
e-mail [email protected].
“Together in God’s Love,” a
marriage preparation class, will begin Nov. 6 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the
diocesan Pastoral Center in Austin.
Subsequent classes will be held Nov. 13,
27 and Dec. 4. The classes include talks
on faith, communication, sexuality and
stewardship in the context of Catholic
marriage. For registration information,
contact your parish or the diocesan
Catholic Family Life and Family Counseling Ofce at (512) 949-2495.
Catholic Scripture Study of Austin
meets on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. at St.
Louis Parish in Austin. The weekly twohour Bible study consists of prayer and
discussion, and is open to everyone. This
year’s focus is on the book of Genesis.
Register online at www.cssaustin.org
or contact Rosemary Howard at (512)
345-3687.
Sarah’s Hope is a free spiritual support program for couples struggling to
conceive or with pregnancy loss. Monthly women’s support groups are held
on the rst Wednesday of the month
(rosary at 6:45 p.m., discussion at 7 p.m.)
at the Vitae Clinic in Austin. Upcoming
meetings are Nov. 7 and Dec. 5. E-mail
[email protected] or call
(512) 736-7334 for more information.
Sarah’s Hope is not a ministry of the
Austin Diocese.
Theology on Tap, a speaker series for young adults, will meet Nov.
7 at Fado Irish Pub in Austin. James
Puglisi, Associate Director of Campus
Ministry at St. Edwards University, will
discuss the Catholic Church and interfaith dialogue. Live music will begin at 6
p.m. and the presentation starts at 7 p.m.
For more information, contact Jennifer
Kodysz at (512) 949-2467 or [email protected].
Catholic Scripture Study meets
Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. and Thursdays
at 9:30 a.m. at St. Margaret Mary Parish
in Cedar Park. The weekly Bible study
consists of prayer and discussion, and
is open to everyone. This year’s focus is
on the book of Genesis. For more information, contact Bob Gorski at (512)
636-2927 or [email protected].
The Catholic Physician’s Guild
will host an evening with Dr. John
Haas, PhD from the National Catholic
Bioethics Center Nov. 7 in Morris Hall
at St. John Neumann Parish in Austin. The reception begins at 6:30 p.m.
and the program will follow at 7 p.m.
Haas will discuss “Provider Conscience
and Patient Autonomy.” One hour of
Continuing Medical Education (CME)
ethics credit will be available for the
event. Health care professionals and
patients alike are invited to attend. For
more information or to register, e-mail
[email protected].
The Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Austin (CCRA) will host its
monthly Mass Nov. 16 at 7 p.m. at the
University Catholic Center in Austin.
A healing service will follow the Mass.
These charismatic Masses offer the opportunity to experience and rediscover
the power Jesus promised us through
the Holy Spirit. For more information,
contact Sabrina Perez at (512) 466-7669
or visit www.ccraustin.org.
The Austin Prayer Vigil for Life
is Nov. 17 at St. Paul Parish in Austin.
Mass will begin at 7 a.m. Following the
Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament will be in the church and a caravan
will travel to Whole Women’s Health
on N. IH 35 where the rosary will be
prayed at the site from 8:20 to 9:50 a.m.
Benediction will follow at St. Paul at
10:30 a.m. Refreshments will be served
at 10:40 a.m. All are invited to attend.
For more information contact Bob
Christiansen at (512) 255-8551.
Pax Christi Austin will meet
Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Father John
Payne House at St. Ignatius, Martyr
Parish in Austin. Pax Christi Austin,
which meets the third Sunday of every month, is a member of Pax Christi
International and Pax Christi USA,
the Catholic peace and justice movement that works and prays to create a
world that reects the peace of Christ.
For more information, contact Bob
Rankin at [email protected].
Diocesan offices will be closed
Nov. 22-23 in observance of Thanksgiving.
The Killeen Prayer Vigil for Life
will be held Nov. 24 and will begin with
Mass at 8:30 a.m. at St. Joseph Parish
in Killeen. After Mass, a caravan and
procession to pray the rosary at Killeen
Women’s Health Center will be held at
9:45 a.m. All will return to St. Joseph for
closing and fellowship at 11:15 a.m. For
more information, contact Karen Hinze
at (254) 986-1134.
Hispanic young adults are invited to Mass (in Spanish) Nov. 30
at 9 p.m. at Our Lady of Guadalupe
Parish in Austin. Participants will
pray the rosary beginning at 8:30 p.m.
For more information, contact Juan
Torres at (512) 415-5908 or Lily Morales at (512) 363-3609 or pjhaustin@
gmail.com.
An introductory session on the
Creighton Model of natural family
planning will be held Nov. 3 from 10 to
11:30 a.m. at Seton Williamson, Room
3 in Round Rock. The cost to attend is
$30. Individuals may register by e-mail
at [email protected] or calling (512)
474-2757 and leaving a message (provide
name, address, phone and the date to
attend).
A series of classes on the Billings Ovulation Method of natural
family planning will begin Nov. 4 at 3
p.m. at St. Luke Parish in Temple. The
course consists of three classes over a
six-week period. For more information,
contact Amanda and Ryan Ransom at
[email protected].
A series of classes on the SymptoThermal Method of natural family
planning will be held beginning Nov. 10
at 2 p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Parish
in Austin. The classes are spaced about
one month apart and will help couples
learn how to identify the three common
signs of fertility and infertility. To register, visit http://register.ccli.org.
The Austin Couple to Couple
League will offer a natural family planning Introduction Seminar Nov. 11 at 3
p.m. at St. Catherine of Siena Parish in
Austin. The class will satisfy the Austin
Diocese requirement for marriage. To
register call Sam and Katrina Hartsock
at (512) 899-8294.
planning will be held Nov. 15 from 7 to
8:30 p.m. at St. John Neumann Parish,
St. Timothy Room. The cost to attend
is $30. Individuals may register by e-mail
attend).
planning will be held Dec. 1 from 10 to
11:30 a.m. at Seton Williamson, Room
3 in Round Rock. The cost to attend is
$30. Individuals may register by e-mail
attend).
planning will be held Dec. 6 from 7 to
8:30 p.m. at Seton Medical Center, South
Conference Room, in Austin. The cost
to attend is $30. Individuals may register by e-mail at [email protected]
or calling (512) 474-2757 and leaving a
message (provide name, address, phone
and the date to attend).
A series of classes on the SymptoThermal Method of natural family
planning will begin Dec. 11 at 7 p.m.
at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin. The
classes are spaced about one month
apart and will help couples learn how
to identify the three common signs of
fertility and infertility. To register, visit
http://register.ccli.org.
Discernment..................
A Discernment Dinner for high
school age Catholic men will be
held Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at St. William
Parish Rectory in Round Rock. Young
men with an openness to encountering Christ, discovering their identity,
and their mission are invited to join
others for dinner, evening prayer, a
presentation, and discussion. For more
information, contact Father Jonathan
Raia at (512) 600-8154 or frjonathan@
saintwilliams.org.
The Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity will host a Year of Faith
Vocation Discernment Retreat for
young, single, Catholic women Nov.
9-11. Register online at www.fscc-calledtobe.org or contact Sister Mary Ann
Spanjers at (920) 973-9903.
Single, Catholic women ages 18
to 50 who are discerning God’s call
are invited to attend a “Come and See”
weekend Nov. 10-11 at Incarnate Word
Convent in Victoria. Visit www.iwbsvictoria.org, call (361) 575-7111 or e-mail
[email protected] for more details
or to make a reservation.
A Discernment Dinner for
single, Catholic men (ages 18 and
older) with an openness to a priestly
vocation and discernment will be
held Nov. 14 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at
the Borromeo House in Austin. The
evening includes dinner, prayer, and
a presentation. For more information, contact Father Brian McMaster
at (512) 949-2430 or [email protected].
“Heart of Jesus,” a discernment
retreat for men, will be held Dec. 14-16
at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in
Belton. For more information, contact
the Vocation Ofce at (512) 949-2430
or [email protected].
Send in your items!
CATHOLIC SPIRIT offers this page, “For Your
Information,” as a “community bulletin board.”
Items of general interest of upcoming parish and
diocesan events, including parish social events,
will be printed at no charge at the discretion of
the editor. The deadline for material is the 10th
of the month, with publication occurring the
rst week of the following month. Material may
be e-mailed to catholic-spirit@austindiocese.
org or faxed to (512) 949-2523.
BULLETIN BOARD
Community events and retreats................................
November 2012
Alumni and friends of St. Peter
Catholic Student Center campus
ministry at Baylor in Waco are invited
to a Statue Dedication and Homecoming Reception Nov. 3. The class of
2012 raised funds to purchase a statue
of St. Peter in memory of former student, Loren “Lo” Oglesby, who died in
January 2010. Mass will be celebrated,
followed by the dedication and a short
reception. Later in the day, the Catholic
Student Association at Baylor will host
a “Welcome Home” alumni tailgate before Baylor’s game against Kansas. Visit
www.baylorcatholic.org for details.
Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish in
Austin will host its eighth annual Golf
Tournament Nov. 3 with registration
beginning at 7 a.m. The registration fee
is $85 per player, which includes greens
fee, range balls, cart, lunch and more.
Download the registration form at www.
golf.olgaustin.org or call Mo Renteria at
(512) 474-7230.
The PTC of Sts. Cyril and Methodius Catholic School in Granger will
host its Fall Social Nov. 4 at the Sts. Cyril
and Methodius Parish Hall. Turkey and
dressing will be served beginning at 11
a.m.; plates are $8.50 (adults) or $4.50
Burse
The Diocesan Council of Catholic
Women has completed a burse for
the Clerical Endowment Fund (CEF)
in honor of Father Joe Frazer.
The totals for the burse as of Sept.
30, 2012, are listed below by council.
Austin Council
$556.00
Brazos Valley Council
$120.00
Central Council
$1,887.00
Eastern Council
$911.00
Northern Council
$1,511.00
Temple Council
$454.00
Previous Balance
$4,434.48
Total
$9,873.48
The Clerical Endowment Fund provides low-cost loans to parishes. Interest
from the loans is used to educate diocesan
seminarians. For information, contact either Father Ed Karasek at (254) 826-3705
or Mary Ann Till at (512) 353-4943.
25
(children). Activities include bingo, a live
auction at 1 p.m. and games for all ages.
St. William Parish in Round Rock
continues its Catholic Speaker Series with
a two-day presentation by Ralph Martin
Nov. 4-5 at 7 p.m. at St. William Parish in
Round Rock. The topics for the evenings
are “The New Evangelization: What it
is and how we can take part in it” and
“We’re in a war: How to protect ourselves
and our families and how to take the
offensive.” The two-day pass is $15 for
adults and $7.50 for students. Single day
passes are also available. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.
saintwilliams.org or contact Ana-Cristina
Gonzalez at (512) 600-8179.
The Ladies of Charity of Lake
Travis will host an interactive round
table discussion entitled “The Good Samaritan: Doing The Right Thing” Nov.
8 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Great
Hall of Emmaus Parish in Lakeway.
Barbara Budde, the diocesan director of
Social Concerns, will lead the discussion.
Light refreshments will be served. For
more information, contact LOC Secretary, Sheryl Kelly at (512) 261-6067 or
e-mail presidentladiesofcharity@gmail.
com.
The St. William’s 30th Annual
Arts & Crafts Show sponsored by
Catholic Daughters of the Americas
Court 2415 will be held Nov. 10 from 9
a.m. to 4 p.m. in the St. William Parish
Pavillion in Round Rock. Admission is
free, but non-perishable food items will
be collected at the door, which will be
donated to St. Vincent de Paul Food
Pantry at St. William. More than 40
vendors will offer handmade Christmas
decorations, religious items, jewelry,
woodwork, etc.
The women of St Albert the Great
will present the 13th annual Holiday
Craft Fair Nov. 10 from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. at St. Albert the Great Parish
Hall in Austin. It will include pictures
with Santa, a silent auction, and many
handmade crafts (including ceramics,
jewelry, painting, embroidery and religious items).
Christ the King Parish in Belton
will host its annual Fall Bazaar Nov.
11 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Festivities
include a full Thanksgiving meal, live
auction, an obstacle course for children
and a bounce house. Proceeds benet
the youth ministry program at Christ the
King. Veterans eat free!
The Knights of Peter Claver Ladies Auxiliary and Junior Daughters
of Holy Cross Court 284 will host their
Annual Mother-Daughter Tea Nov. 11
from 2 to 5 p.m. at The Boys Scouts of
America, Frank Fickett Training Center
in Austin. Tickets are $15, and will benet Junior conferences and charitable
works. Seating is limited, so get tickets
now by calling (512) 472-0714.
An Evening in Pakistan will be
held Nov. 11 from 6 to 9:30 p.m. at
St. Rita’s Center at St. Helen Parish in
Georgetown. The evening is sponsored
by the Missionaries of Hope to raise
money to build Catholic Schools for
the impoverished children of Pakistan.
Tickets are $35 each and include a Pakistani buffet, traditional entertainment
and a silent auction featuring unusual
Pakistani items. For more information,
visit www.godsforgottenchildren.org or
contact Virginia Lee at (512) 426-9795.
St. Elizabeth Parish in Pugerville will host an ACTS retreat for men
in English Nov. 15-18. To register, visit
www.stelizabethpf.org or call Ray Riley
at (281) 359-4699.
A Silent Weekend Retreat will
be held Nov. 30–Dec. 2 at Cedarbrake
Catholic Retreat Center in Belton. Set
the tone for the Advent season and the
birth of Christ by taking some quiet
time away from distractions and errands.
The cost is $150 (all rooms are private).
For more information and to register,
contact Cedarbrake at (254) 780-2436 or
[email protected].
St. John Neumann Parish in Austin will host several presentations by Dr.
Peter Kreeft, a theologian and writer
of more than 40 books, on Dec. 1-2. A
retreat entitled “Whom Do We Meet in
the Eucharist?” will be held Dec. 1 from
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Kreeft will also give a
dinner presentation the evening of Dec.
1; he will explore Catholic and Muslim
relations. On Dec. 2 at 10:15 a.m., he will
discuss “Everything You Ever Wanted to
Know About Heaven.” To register, visit
http://peterkreeft.eventbrite.com.
“Mary, Teach Us to Pray,” an
Advent retreat for women, will be held
Dec. 1 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at St. Paul
Chong Hasang Parish Center in Harker
Heights. Dominican Sister Helen Marie
Raycraft will lead the retreat. Participants
are asked to bring their Bibles. The cost
is $30, which covers lunch and materials.
To register, call (254) 698-4338.
St. Elizabeth Parish in Pugerville will host Supper with Santa Dec.
1 beginning at 4:30 p.m. Dinner will be
served, Santa will be on hand and there
will be a craft store.
The Men’s Ministry Group of Our
Lady of Guadalupe Parish in Austin will
host its Christmas GuadalupeFest Dec.
2 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Breakfast tacos
and menudo will be served from 9 to 11
a.m. and barbecue chicken will be served
after that. For vendor information, contact Leo De La Garza at (512) 656-3914.
Catholic Charities of Central Texas will present Women of the Well, a
faith and fellowship breakfast, Dec. 3
from 8:30 to 10 a.m. at the diocesan
Pastoral Center in Austin. Kathryn
Whitaker, a mother and wife who is
committed to stewardship and discipleship, will be the guest speaker. Register
online at www.ccctx.org/wow.
An Advent Dinner will be held Dec.
6 at 6:30 p.m. at Cedarbrake Catholic
Retreat Center in Belton. Bishop Wm.
Michael Mulvey of Corpus Christi will be
the guest speaker. The cost is $25 per person. For more information and to register,
contact Cedarbrake at (254) 780-2436 or
[email protected].
St. Thomas More Parish in Austin
will host an Ecumenical Prayer Service
for deceased children on Dec. 9. The
evening will begin at 6 p.m. with appetizers and fellowship, and the prayer
service will begin at 7 p.m. For more
information, contact Dottie at [email protected] or (512) 9924921 by Dec. 1.
Pastoral support for victims of sexual abuse
The Diocese of Austin is committed to providing condential and compassionate care to victims of sexual abuse, particularly if the abuse was
committed by clergy or a church representative. If you have experienced abuse by someone representing the Catholic Church, please contact
the diocesan coordinator of pastoral care at (512) 949-2400.
Apoyo pastoral a las víctimas de abuso sexual
La Diócesis de Austin se compromete a proporcionar ayuda condencial y compasiva a las víctimas de abuso sexual, especialmente si el
abuso fue cometido por el clero o un representante de la iglesia. Si usted ha sufrido abusos por parte de alguien que representa la Iglesia
Católica, por favor comuníquese con el coordinador diocesano del cuidado pastoral al (512) 949-2400.
How to report an incident of concern
The Diocese of Austin is committed to preventing harm from happening to any of our children or vulnerable adults. If you are aware of sexual
or physical abuse and/or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, state law requires you to report that information to local law enforcement or
the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services at (800) 252-5400 or www.dfps.state.tx.us. Additionally, if the suspected abuse is by
clergy or an employee or volunteer of any diocesan parish, school or agency, a Notice of Concern should be submitted to the diocesan Ethics
and Integrity in Ministry Ofce at (512) 949-2400. The l Notice of Concern can be found at www.austindiocese.org (click on the link HOW TO
REPORT ABUSE). Reports may be made anonymously.
Cómo reportar un caso de abuso
La Diócesis de Austin está comprometida a la prevención del daño que se cause a cualquier niño o adulto vulnerable. Si usted está enterado
del abuso sexual o físico y/o abandono de un niño o adulto vulnerable, la ley estatal requiere que se reporte esa información a la policía local
o el Departamento de Servicios Familiares y de Protección del Estado de Texas al (800) 252-5400 o al sitio: www.dfps.state.tx.us y además,
si la sospecha de abuso es por parte del clero, empleado o voluntario de cualquier parroquia, escuela u organización de la diócesis, se debe
enviar un Reporte de Abuso y debe ser presentado a la Ocina de Ética e Integridad en el Ministerio de la diócesis al (512) 949-2400. El Reporte de Abuso se encuentra en nuestra página de Internet diocesana: www.austindiocese.org ( Haga click en la liga COMO REPORTAR UN
CASO DE ABUSO). Estos reportes pueden ser hechos de manera anónima.
ESPAÑOL
26
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Cuando nuestra alma tiene sed de Dios
E L O BISPO J OE S.
VÁSQUEZ es el quinto
obispo de la Diócesis
de Austin. Es pastor
para casi 500,000
católicos en 25
condados en el
Centro de Texas.
Editora: La sequía espiritual
parece ser discutida mucho últimamente. Señor Obispo, ¿cómo dene
usted la sequía espiritual?
Obispo Vásquez: La sequía
espiritual es una condición humana
que sufren las personas que anhelan a
Dios. Se trata de un profundo deseo
de la persona de experimentar a Dios.
En Texas, hemos experimentado las sequías ambientales durante algún tiempo.
Sabemos que sin el don precioso de
la lluvia nuestra tierra, los cultivos, el
ganado y nosotros mismos empezamos
a languidecer. Incluso con una pequeña
cantidad de lluvia, todo nuestro medio
se transforma. El alma experimenta
algo similar con la sequía espiritual.
Esto se expresa vívidamente en las
Escrituras por los salmistas: “Como
ciervo sediento en busca de un río,
así Dios mío, te busco a ti. Tengo sed
de Dios, del Dios de la vida. ¿Cuándo
volveré a presentarme ante Dios?” Sal
42,2-3.
Editora: De hecho, muchos santos han hablado de experimentar la
sequía espiritual.
Obispo Vásquez: Los santos, y
todos nosotros, en algún grado hemos
tenido la experiencia de la sequía espiritual para que podamos apreciar mejor
la presencia de Dios en nuestras vidas.
De hecho, Santa Teresa de Ávila y San
Juan de la Cruz escribieron extensamente sobre la sequía espiritual o la
“noche oscura del alma”.
San Juan de la Cruz escribió en el
siglo XVI, “Esta noche oscura es un
inujo de Dios en el alma — llamada
contemplación infundida o teología
mística. Dios secretamente enseña al
alma y la instruye a la perfección de
amor, sin hacer nada. Es la sabiduría
amorosa de Dios, y Él la prepara para la
unión de amor con Dios”.
Beata Teresa de Calcuta, a quien
conocemos bien como la Madre Teresa,
se sintió abandonada y separada del
Señor en gran parte del tiempo que
pasó haciendo trabajos profundos de
caridad en la India y en todo el mundo.
“En mi alma siento ese dolor terrible de
pérdida… de que Dios... no me quiere
— de que Dios no es Dios — de que
Dios no existe”, escribió a principios de
su camino espiritual. Sin embargo, ella
continuó haciendo el trabajo de Dios
ayudando a los más pobres entre los
pobres. Ella estaba haciendo un gran
trabajo, haciendo cosas maravillosas y
parecía por lo menos poder comunicar
el rostro y el amor de Dios a los demás,
pero ella misma no podía encontrarlo.
Debido a que estos grandes hombres y mujeres de nuestra tradición
católica experimentaron sequía espiritual, también debemos entender que
habrá periodos de sequía espiritual
en nuestras propias vidas. Cualquier
persona que desea vivir una vida buena
y santa puede encontrarse sintiéndose desconectada de Dios. Podemos
encontrar esperanza y aliento a medida
que estudiamos las vidas y escritos de
estos hombres y mujeres santos, porque
perseveraron en su delidad a Dios y a
sus ministerios.
Editora: ¿Alguna vez ha experimentado sequía espiritual?
Obispo Vásquez: Sí, lo he experimentado yo mismo al igual que muchos
otros lo han hecho. El cambio y la
transición de una etapa de la vida a otra,
la pérdida de un ser querido, la pérdida
de los padres, la enfermedad, la separación, el divorcio, los niños saliéndo
de casa y comenzando su propia vida
— todos estos eventos pueden causar
esta dimensión de sequía espiritual. Es
tangible, ya que puede afectarnos física
y emocionalmente también. También
puede afectar la forma en que nos relacionamos con otras personas y cómo
tratamos a los demás.
Otras cosas que pueden causar la
sequía espiritual son el pecado, el no ser
o hacer lo que Dios quiere de nosotros,
las relaciones que no son saludables y
equilibradas y nuestra propia separación
de Dios. Si nos hace falta esa conexión
entre nosotros y Dios, o si nos alejamos
de Dios, podemos entrar en una sequía
espiritual.
Editora: ¿Cómo podemos superar tal sequía?
Obispo Vásquez: Lo primero que
debe suceder es que debemos tomar
conciencia de lo que estamos viviendo
y discernir a través de los dones del
Espíritu Santo, lo que está pasando.
Debemos reconocerlo y aceptarlo. No
debemos tener miedo.
Una de las mejores cosas que se
pueden hacer es buscar la guía de un
director espiritual. Todos debemos
tener a alguien que tenga experiencia en
el camino de la fe —alguien en quien
podamos conar, alguien con quien
podamos hablar de nuestras luchas
espirituales. Un buen director espiritual
escucha todo lo que estamos viviendo
sin hacer juicios. El ministerio del
director espiritual es evaluar en dónde
estamos en nuestro camino espiritual.
Cuando estamos luchando con esa
sequedad espiritual, siempre debemos
saber que Dios está con nosotros,
no importa lo que pase. Aún cuando
no podemos sentir su presencia, aún
cuando no nos sentimos como si
estuviera aquí, Dios está con nosotros.
Por lo tanto, nunca debemos vacilar de
clamar a Dios y expresarle verbalmente
a Él lo que estamos sintiendo.
Podemos volvernos a los Salmos
para encontrar formas hermosas de clamar a Dios en esa sed espiritual. “Hacia
ti tiendo las manos, sediento de ti, cual
tierra seca. Señor, respóndeme pronto,
pues ya se me acaba el aliento. No me
niegues tu ayuda porque entonces seré
como los muertos”, Salmo 143, 6-7.
El salmista se pregunta “¿En dónde
estás, Dios? Mi alma está sedienta,
sin agua, como tierra seca. “Cuando
nos sentimos así, nosotros, también,
podemos unirnos a la oración y clamar
a Dios y decirle cómo nos sentimos.
Cuando nos sentimos secos, sin vida y
endurecidos, y cuando anhelamos esa
lluvia espiritual en esta vida que sólo
Dios nos puede dar, tenemos que volvernos al Señor en oración. Este es un
momento en el que podemos apoyarnos en las oraciones que memorizan
los niños — el Padre Nuestro, el Ave
María, la Gloria o el rezo del rosario,
pueden ayudarnos a abrirnos a escuchar
la voz de Dios.
Los santos hombres y mujeres nos
han enseñado que no debemos cambiar
nuestras rutinas porque estamos sufriendo la sequía espiritual. Tenemos que
seguir manteniendo la concentración en
la Misa, los sacramentos y la oración.
La estabilidad que encontramos en
estas prácticas es beneciosa. Los sacramentos son la gracia de Dios que se
derrama, y nos ayudan a conocerlo. El
sacramento de la reconciliación es una
excelente manera de volvernos a conectar con Dios, especialmente si el pecado
es lo que nos ha llevado lejos de él.
Otra razón por la que experimentamos sequía espiritual es debido a la
hiperactividad de nuestro mundo de
hoy. Estamos tan ocupados que no
tenemos tiempo para detenernos y
reexionar sobre la vida, por lo que no
somos capaces de sentir la presencia
de Dios porque no nos hemos tomado
el tiempo para darnos cuenta de su
presencia. ¿Cómo puede Dios penetrar
en mi corazón y en mis oídos para
escucharlo si estoy tan ocupado y tan
involucrado en otras cosas que no me
tomo el tiempo para hacerlo?
El Papa Benedicto XVI habla sobre
nuestra hiperactividad, sobre todo en
el mundo occidental. “En muchas de
nuestras sociedades, junto a la prosperidad material, hay un desierto espiritual que se está extendiendo: un vacío
interior, un miedo sin nombre, una
tranquila sensación de desesperación.
¿Cuántos de nuestros contemporáneos
han construido cisternas rotas y vacías
en una búsqueda desesperada de signicado? El último signicado que sólo el
amor puede dar” el Papa ha dicho.
Por lo tanto, todos tenemos que
tomar tiempo para estar tranquilos. El
tiempo de retiro puede ser muy útil,
sin embargo, a muchas personas les
resulta muy difícil a causa de los niños,
el trabajo y otras obligaciones. Sin lugar
a dudas, hay momentos en cada uno de
nuestros días en los que se pueden crear
unos momentos de tranquilidad — tal
vez temprano en la mañana o durante
la hora de almuerzo o tal vez llegando
a Misa temprano o permaneciendo durante unos minutos después de la Misa.
Cuando llegamos a ser espiritualmente conscientes de Dios, comenzamos a entender su llamado. Él está
siempre con nosotros, siempre nos está
hablando, debemos asegurarnos de que
estamos conscientes de Él y estamos
escuchando lo que está diciendo.
Editora: ¿Cuál es su oración por
los que sufren de sequía espiritual?
Obispo Vásquez: Rezo para que
aquellos que pasan por esta experiencia,
no pierdan la esperanza. Jesús clamó en
sus últimos momentos de sufrimiento:
“Dios mío, Dios mío, ¿por qué me has
abandonado?” Esas son las palabras de
un hombre que se enfrenta a horrible
sufrimiento y dolor, y él clama a Dios.
Así, también, podemos unirnos a la
oración a Dios y no tener miedo de que
Dios, de alguna manera se ofenda si
clamamos en ese sentido. No hay que
perder la esperanza, porque sabemos
que después de su sufrimiento, ¡Jesús
resucitó! Incluso, en tiempos de oscuridad, en el sufrimiento y en la sequía
espiritual, Jesús es nuestra esperanza y
nuestra salvación.
ASÍ COMO LA
TIERRA
SEDIENTA
anhela la lluvia,
nuestros corazones anhelan
a Dios cuando
experimentamos
la sequía espiritual, El Obispo
Vásquez dice
en la entrevista
de este mes.
(Foto CNS)
ESPAÑOL
November 2012
27
Celebrando el Día de Acción de Gracias
inmigrantes del siglo diecisiete hace eco
en la mente y el corazón de muchos
de nosotros que, por ser inmigrantes,
comprendemos muy bien la experiencia de la carestía, del sufrimiento, de la
La cultura latina en los Estados
Unidos es muy diversa. Las costumbres muerte, de la dependencia de la bondad
de los lugareños para poder sobrevivir.
y tradiciones que celebramos varían
Al igual que los primeros colonizagrandemente dependiendo de nuestro
dores, también nosotros nos sentimos
país de origen, región o población. Sin
profundamente agradecidos por las
embargo, a pesar de la diversidad, los
bendiciones recibidas en esta tierra y
latinos poseemos tres características
comunes: nuestra profunda religiosidad, con aquellos que llegaron antes que
nosotros y nos han tendido la mano.
nuestro amor por la familia y nuestras
Queremos compartir lo poco o mucho
estas. Estas tres características se
que tenemos con los que apenas llegan
ven reejadas en la manera como los
latinos celebramos el Día de Acción de y con los que, bondadosa y generosamente, nos han ayudado en el largo
Gracias.
proceso de inmersión en una nueva
El Día de Acción de Gracias no es
lengua, cultura y país.
una “celebración latina” propiamente
Para muchos latinos, la celebración
hablando, como lo son la Fiesta de la
del Día de Acción de Gracias es un
Virgen de Guadalupe o las Posadas.
En la mentalidad e historia de nuestras punto de llegada y un punto de partida:
hermanas y hermanos estadounidenses, al mismo tiempo que aprendemos de la
historia de los Estados Unidos, también
a quienes cariñosamente llamamos
“americanos”, el Día de Acción de Gra- aprendemos de nuestra propia historia.
cias es una celebración que conmemora Con esta celebración asumimos nuestra
la llegada de algunos de los primeros in- nueva realidad, comprendiendo que al
migrantes británicos que sobrevivieron participar de ella, de algún modo nos
sumergimos en esta nueva cultura, nos
el crudo invierno de 1620. Su sobrehacemos parte de ella, participamos de
vivencia fue posible gracias a la ayuda
que les brindó la tribu Wampanoag. En su riqueza y de su profundo signicado.
Hoy día, muchos latinos ya celebraseñal de agradecimiento a Dios por los
favores recibidos, ellos compartieron el mos el Día de Acción de Gracias: le
pan. Esta parte de la historia de algunos damos gracias a Dios por todo lo que
POR PADRE JAIRO SANDOVAL-PLIEGO
COLUMNISTA
nos ha pasado: lo bueno y lo difícil, las
alegrías y las penas, la acogida fraterna e
incluso la persecución y el rechazo, que
nos dan la posibilidad de hacernos más
compasivos frente al que sufre. Agradecemos a Dios por la oportunidad de
encontrar trabajo, de obtener medios
para sostener a nuestra familia, cercana
o lejana. Cuando es posible, compartimos esta celebración con nuestras hermanas y hermanos americanos, que no
han olvidado que, como nosotros, ellos
o sus antepasados también necesitaron
de alguien que les abriera los brazos y
las puertas de su casa para poder sobrevivir “el crudo invierno”.
Sin embargo, algunas hermanas y
hermanos latinoamericanos aún no han
comprendido la importancia de la celebración del Día de Acción de Gracias.
Los invito a que hagan un esfuerzo
por detener sus actividades cotidianas
y celebrar este gran día en la vida de la
sociedad en la que vivimos. Hagámoslo
con un profundo deseo y consciencia
de querer ser parte de un grupo, de una
familia que va más allá de nuestra propia familia, una familia que se ensancha
y nos abarca e incluye en un grupo que
se compone de nuestras amigas y amigos, paisanos, los que comparten nuestra lengua, nuestras raíces religiosas,
los que trabajan con nosotros, aquellos
para quienes trabajamos, y nuestras
hermanas y hermanos americanos.
Ellos, que llegaron antes que nosotros,
son quienes nos han abierto las puertas
de sus hogares y de sus iglesias, los que
nos dan trabajo, y los que en ocasiones
nos han ayudado y muchas veces nos
acompañan en nuestro caminar.
Quizás nuestras mesas del Día de
Acción de Gracias se vean “ligeramente
alteradas” por la presencia de platillos
o condimentos que no forman parte
de las mesas americanas. Mi mamá,
por ejemplo, suele decir: “¡Si no pica,
no sabe a nada!” Así que, en su mesa,
ese día no pueden faltar las salsas
picantes. Algunas otras mesas tendrán
tamales, patacos, frijoles negros, arepas,
baleadas, y otros platillos que forman
parte de nuestra cultura. Sin embargo,
lo que importa no es tanto lo que hay
sobre la mesa, sino que hay una mesa,
y más aún, los que están alrededor
de esa mesa: hombres y mujeres que
queremos dar gracias a Dios mientras
compartimos. Ojalá en este tiempo
encontremos una iglesia a la que, como
familia, nos acerquemos a dar gracias a
Dios por todas sus bendiciones. ¡Feliz
Día de Acción de Gracias!
EL PADRE JAIRO SANDOVAL-PLIEGO
es Vicario de la parroquia St. Helen en Georgetown.
Masses in Spanish/Misas en Español
Austin
St. Mary Cathedral – domingo: 1:45 p.m.
Cristo Rey – domingo: 6 a.m., 7 a.m.,
10 a.m., 1 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7 p.m.;
jueves: 7 p.m.
Dolores – domingo: 8 a.m., mediodia;
martes-viernes: 8:30 a.m.
Our Lady of Guadalupe – sábado: 6
p.m.; domingo: 7:45 a.m. y 6 p.m.
Sacred Heart – sábado: 7 p.m.; domingo:
9:30 a.m., 1:15 p.m., 5:30 p.m.;
martes, miércoles, jueves: 7 p.m.
St. Ignatius – domingo: 1 p.m.
St. Julia – domingo: 7:30 a.m., 9:30 a.m.
St. Louis – domingo: 6 a.m., 1:30 p.m., 5
p.m.; martes, jueves: 6 p.m.
St. Paul – domingo: 12:30 p.m.
St. Peter – domingo: 1 p.m.
San Francisco Javier – domingo: 8 a.m.,
mediodia; miércoles, viernes: 6 p.m.
San José – domingo: 7:30 a.m., 1:15 p.m.;
jueves: 7 p.m.
Bastrop
Ascension – domingo: mediodia
Belton
Christ the King – domingo: 8 a.m.
Blanco
St. Ferdinand – domingo: 11 a.m.;
segundo y cuarto domingos: 1 p.m.
Brenham
St. Mary – domingo: 12:30 p.m.
Caldwell
St. Mary – sábado: 7:30 p.m.
Cameron
St. Monica – domingo: 7 a.m.
Cedar Park
St. Margaret Mary – domingo: mediodia
College Station
St. Mary – sábado: 7 p.m.
Elgin
Sacred Heart – domingo: 7:30, 11:30 a.m.
Gatesville
Our Lady of Lourdes – domingo: mediodia
Georgetown
Lockhart
St. Mary – domingo: 7:30 a.m., 5:30 p.m.;
martes: 6:30 p.m.
Luling
St. John – domingo: 8 a.m.
Manor
St. Joseph – domingo: 7 a.m., 11 a.m.
Marble Falls
St. John – domingo: 12:30 p.m.
Marlin
St. Joseph – domingo: 11:30 a.m.
St. Margaret – domingo: 11 a.m.
Hamilton
St. Thomas – sábado: 7 p.m.
Hearne
St. Mary – domingo: 11 a.m.
Hornsby Bend
Santa Barbara – domingo: 8 a.m.
Killeen
St. Joseph – domingo: 9 a.m.
Kyle
St. Anthony – domingo: mediodia,
martes & jueves: 6:30 p.m.
La Grange
Buda
Lakeway
Santa Teresa – sábado: 7 p.m.; domingo: Sacred Heart – Primer y tercer domingos:
mediodia
8 a.m., mediodia, 2 p.m.
Emmaus – domingo: 12:15 p.m.
Salado
San Marcos
Guadalupe Chapel - sábado: 5:30 p.m.
y miércoles; 7 p.m.
St. John - domingo: 9:30 a.m., 1:30
p.m.; sábado: 8 a.m.
San Saba
St. Mary – domingo: mediodia
Smithville
St. Paul – domingo: mediodia (excepto
por el último domingo del mes)
Stoney Point
Martindale
San Juan Diego – sábado: 6 p.m.;
jueves: 6 p.m.
McGregor
Our Lady of Guadalupe – domingo: 8
a.m. y 1 p.m.; martes-viernes: 8 a.m.
St. Helen – domingo: 7:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m.;
Immaculate Heart of Mary – domingo: 8
miércoles: 6:30 p.m.
a.m.; sabado: 6 p.m.; jueves: 7 p.m.
Giddings
Bryan
Santa Cruz – domingo: 8:30 a.m.
Lampasas
St. Mary – domingo: 12:15 p.m.; jueves: 6 p.m. St. Stephen – Domingo: 11:30 a.m.
St. Eugene – domingo: 8 a.m.
Mexia
Taylor
Temple
St. Mary – domingo: mediodia; jueves: 6 p.m. Our Lady of Guadalupe – domingo: 8 a.m.,
11:45 a.m., 6 p.m.; martes-viernes: 6 p.m.
Moody
Our Lady of San Juan – sabado: 7 p.m.
Pugerville
St. Elizabeth – domingo: 1:30 p.m.
Rockdale
St. Joseph – domingo: mediodia
Rogers
St. Matthew – domingo: 9 a.m.
Rosebud
St. Ann – domingo: 11:15 a.m.
Round Rock
St. William – domingo: 7:30 a.m., 1:30
p.m.; martes: 6 p.m.; jueves: 6 p.m.
Uhland
St. Michael – domingo: 5 p.m.
Waco
Sacred Heart – domingo 8: a.m.; mediodia
St. Francis on the Brazos – sábado:
7 p.m.; domingo: 8 a.m.; mediodia
St. Peter Catholic Center – viernes: 7:30 p.m.
West
Assumption – primer y tercer domingo:
mediodia
Wimberley
St. Mary – domingo: mediodia
Send corrections to
[email protected].
ESPAÑOL
28
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Co-op de Austin ayuda a los trabajadores
a iniciar negocios
POR ENEDELIA J. OBREGÓN
CORRESPONSAL PRINCIPAL
Cuando María Muñoz tenía
14 años, comenzó a trabajar
como empleada doméstica. Se
ocupaba de los niños, planchada
la ropa, la casa, incluso limpiaba
ventanas - y cocinaba.
“Se sentía humillada”, dijo
Muñoz. “Nos trataban mal, pero
no tenía elección. Si se quejaban
le despedían y encontraban rápidamente a alguien que tomaría
el trabajo”.
No había muchas opciones
de empleo en la pequeña comunidad en el estado mexicano
de Guanajuato, y su ingreso era
necesario para ayudar a sus padres y a nueve hermanos.
Hoy, sin embargo, Muñoz
es co-dueña de parte de los servicios de limpieza Dahlia Green
en Austin con Lorena Hernández, Cyndi Jiménez, Brenda
Jiménez y Eva Marroquín.
El negocio se inició en junio con la ayuda de Cooperation Texas, una organización
sin fines de lucro basada en
Austin, fundada en 2009 para
crear puestos de trabajo sostenibles a través del desarrollo,
el apoyo y la promoción de las
cooperativas propiedad de los
trabajadores.
Por primera vez, Cooperation Texas recibió dinero de la
Campaña Católica para el Desarrollo Humano (CCHD por
sus siglas en inglés), lo que les
permitió ayudar a Dahlia este
verano.
Barbara Budde, director de
la Ocina diocesana de Asuntos Sociales, dijo que durante
muchos años la CCHD ha nanciado becas de desarrollo
económico porque “el trabajo
con buena paga es el mejor
camino para salir de la pobreza”.
Esta ayuda nanciera hizo
una gran diferencia.
“Sin el entrenamiento y
dinero para ayudarnos a empezar, no habríamos sido capaces
de hacer esto”, dijo Muñoz.
Como parte del proceso de
solicitud de ayuda a la CDHD,
la diócesis se reunió con el director ejecutivo y la persona que
estaba a punto de convertirse
en trabajadora-propietaria de un
negocio nuevo.
“La emoción y el orgullo que
tenía era increíble”, dijo Budde.
“Ella contaba historias acerca
de cómo trabajar para otros que
le pidieron utilizar productos
químicos para la limpieza que
ella sabía iban a ser perjudiciales.
Ella estaba lista para lanzar su
negocio, y hacer un gran tra-
bajo, haciéndolo de una manera
que ella sabía iba a ser mejor
para ella y para sus clientes”.
Budde dijo que el comité votó
unánimemente para recomendar
al Obispo Joe Vásquez la aprobación de la subvención. Los
otros obispos que revisan las
subvenciones aprobadas estuvieron de acuerdo con el Obispo
Vásquez y dieron su aprobación
al proyecto.
“A través de las generosas
donaciones de los católicos a
la colecta de CCHD, los trabajadores pueden ser capacitados
para poseer y operar sus propios
negocios, dándoles un camino
para salir de la pobreza”, dijo
Budde. “Es una inversión real
en la vida y la dignidad humana
y es una gran manera en que
podemos actuar sobre nuestra fe
al apoyar a estos trabajadores”.
En un reciente domingo por la
mañana, Muñoz y Carlos Pérez
de Alejo fueron a conciliar los
libros para el nuevo negocio.
Pérez de Alejo es director ejecutivo de Cooperation Texas y
ayudó a Muñoz a repasar el
estado de cuenta bancaria de
la empresa y las copias de los
cheques cancelados. Las cinco
mujeres se turnan para hacer la
contabilidad y todo voto en las
decisiones empresariales.
Cooperation Texas también
proporciona el apoyo legal y
educativo para ayudar a las empresas a tener éxito, lo que es
vital para el éxito, ya que las
empresas pequeñas tienen una
alta tasa de fracasos.
Según startupbusinesshub.
com 85 por ciento de las empresas pequeñas fracasan en el
primer año, la tasa de fracaso
se reduce a 55 por ciento en el
cuarto año y 35 por ciento
después de 10 años. Las razones
más comunes son la falta de experiencia en los negocios, la mala
planicación y la capitalización.
Pérez de Alejo, dijo la cooperativa es una herramienta para
sacar a la gente de la pobreza y
tiene un historial probado en
comunidades de bajos ingresos.
Cooperation Texas es el único
centro de desarrollo cooperativo
en Texas y ofrece asistencia en
la educación, capacitación y asistencia técnica a las cooperativas
de trabajo existentes y a las que
empiezan.
“Los estudios han demostrado que las empresas cooperativas tienen una tasa de
fracaso inferior a los negocios
convencionales”, dijo Pérez de
Alejo. “Varias personas están invirtiendo dinero y eso distribuye
el riesgo y los benecios en lugar
de tener una o dos personas.
CARLOS PÉREZ DE ALEJO, director ejecutivo de Cooperation Texas, ayuda a María
Muñoz con la contabilidad de los Servicios de Limpieza Dahlia Green. Muñoz es una de
las cinco mujeres co-propietarias del negocio con ayuda de Cooperation Texas, quien
recibió una subvención de la Campaña Católica de Desrrollo Humano. (Foto de Enedelia
J. Obregón)
Se democratiza la riqueza y la
propiedad”.
Hasta ahora, Cooperation
Texas ha lanzado a Dahlia, una
cooperativa de limpieza verde,
propiedad de los trabajadores
y la Panadería Cooperativa
el Conejo Rojo Bakery, una
panadería vegetariana propiedad de los trabajadores, cuyos
productos están disponibles en
varios negocios minoristas.
En lugar de ser impulsado
únicamente por las ganancias,
las cooperativas de trabajo también miden el éxito por el bienestar de los trabajadores, la
sostenibilidad de la contribución
de las empresas y en general la
comunidad y el medio ambiente.
El método de cooperativa se
centra en la creación de puestos
de trabajo que sean dignos a las
personas y al planeta, que ayudan a las personas a salir de la
pobreza y generan una riqueza
para las generaciones futuras.
“Sin embargo, rara vez consideran qué tipos de trabajos
son”, dijo Pérez de Alejo. “¿Son
de desarrollo sostenible? No
todos la creación de empleo
es inherentemente bueno para
nosotros”.
Dijo que la belleza de una
cooperativa es que los trabajadores son los dueños, por
lo tanto, tienen la facultad de
tomar la mejor decisión, no sólo
para la línea de fondo, sino para
ellos y sus familias.
A Muñoz, de 29 años, le
gusta ser su propio jefe.
“Nos ganamos mejores salarios y controlamos nuestras
horas”, dijo. “Quiero poder
pasar tiempo con mi familia”.
En México, ella ganaba muy
poco y vivía con la familia que
trabajaba, veía a su hijo sólo los
nes de semana. La comunidad
en la que vivía era un paseo
de dos horas en autobús de la
ciudad en la que trabajaba y no
podía permitirse el lujo de ir a
casa todas las noches.
“Él estaba llamando a mi
hermana ‘mama’”, dijo. “Ella lo
cuidaba mientras yo trabajaba”.
Ella llegó a los EE.UU. en
2004 como una viuda joven
con su niño a cuestas porque
quería una mejor vida para
él. Trabajó como sirvienta de
planta durante cinco años, y
fue agradecida que le dieron
una habitación para vivir con
él. Pero había otros que no
eran tan generosos, diciéndole
que iban a estar de vuelta en
un momento determinado y
llegando horas después, sin
molestarse en pagarle extra.
Desde entonces, se ha vuelto
a casar y ahora también tiene
dos hijas y ella sueña con un
futuro diferente para sus tres
hijos, que incluye una educación
universitaria. Ella es estricta
acerca de la tarea e insiste en que
no hay televisión.
“Estoy haciendo esto para
su futuro”, dijo. “Yo quiero que
tengan buenos empleos y no
sufran como yo. Este tipo de
trabajo es muy duro”.
Ella espera que su negocio
cooperativo tendrá éxito para
que pueda ayudar a su familia
en México. Ella no los ha visto
desde que se marchó porque es
demasiado peligroso debido a la
creciente violencia vinculada al
narcotráco. Muñoz sabe que
va a tener un montón de trabajo,
pero no es ajena al trabajo duro.
“Las cosas aquí son fáciles
en comparación con México”,
dijo. “Es por eso que cuando
venimos aquí hacemos muchos
trabajos que otras personas no
quieren hacer”.
Pérez de Alejo dijo que
las cooperativas se centran en
el cambio sistémico, que llevará tiempo, pero benecian
a las comunidades de bajos
ingresos mejor que la simple
caridad.
“La diferencia entre la caridad y la solidaridad es que
en solidaridad las personas
afectadas por la desigualdad
están en el asiento del conductor. Ellos conocen las necesidades que deben ser atendidas”, dijo.
En las empresas cooperativas, el trabajador/propietarios
toma las decisiones por igual. El
personal de Cooperation Texas
está allí sólo para ayudar.
“Necesitamos menos corredores de velocidad y más
corredores de larga distancia”,
dijo Pérez de Alejo. “El cambio
sistémico requiere tiempo. Mira
los Derechos Civiles; esos cambios no fueron proporcionados
de la noche a la mañana”.
Para obtener información
sobre los servicios de limpieza
Dahlia Green, visite www.dahlia.coop o llame al (512) 786 a
4249. Para obtener información
sobre Cooperation Texas, visite
www.cooperationtexas.coop o
llame al (512) 948-3423.
ESPAÑOL
November 2012
29
La fe y la familia del olimpista le llevan lejos
POR ENEDELIA J. OBREGÓN
CORRESPONSAL PRINCIPAL
La fe en Dios y sus raíces
católicas llevaron a Leonel
Manzano desde sus humildes
comienzos hasta el podio olímpico como medallista de plata
en 2012, en la carrera de 1500
metros en Londres.
Los feligreses de la Parroquia St. John the Evangelist en
Marble Falls, donde su familia
todavía asiste, se encontraban
entre los que observaban con
orgullo al joven que hizo su
primera comunión y se conrmó junto a sus propios hijos.
Manzano, de 27 años, regresó a Marble Falls a nales
de septiembre, y fue recibido
como un héroe. En la escuela
secundaria realizaron un rally,
con sus antiguos entrenadores
de pista y ex funcionarios electos presentes. En el cercano
Granite Shoals —donde vive la
familia— él ayudó a inaugurar
el Leo Manzano Hike Bike and
Run Trails.
Desde que se convirtió en
el primer mediofondista condecorado desde 1968, Manzano
ha estado en la Casa Blanca y se
ha presentado en programas de
televisión. Pero se mantiene con
los pies en la tierra gracias a su fe
católica y al sabio consejo de sus
padres, María y Jesús Manzano.
“Desde que era joven, la fe
fue impresa en nosotros por mi
abuela”, dijo María. “Ella nos
enseñó a rezar el Rosario y el
Padre Nuestro. Ella tenía una fe
muy fuerte”.
La pareja siguió las tradiciones, rezando el Rosario juntos
cada noche y asistiendo a Misa
todos los domingos en la parroquia de San Juan. Los niños
recibieron ahí sus sacramentos.
Ella tenía que organizar que los
llevaran a las clases de educación
religiosa ya que no manejaba ni
tenía coche cuando era joven y
vivían demasiado lejos para ir
andando desde su casa.
Don Jesús dijo que él y su
esposa están orgullosos de que
su hijo ha seguido ese rico patrimonio.
“No se puede negar que es
católico”, dijo la hermana de
Jesús con una sonrisa. “Él nació
a dos cuadras de la Catedral”.
Su familia reza porque él
nunca se desvíe de la senda correcta en la que le han colocado.
“Nosotros siempre nos
hemos encomendado a Dios
y a la Virgen (de Guadalupe)”,
dijo. “Todo paso que dábamos
nos persinábamos. Lo hacíamos
al levantarnos y al acostarnos”.
Su hijo mayor dijo que se
prepara para cada competencia
con la oración, y siempre hace la
señal de la cruz antes del inicio
de la carrera.
“Siento que Dios está siempre conmigo”, dijo Leonel. “Algunas personas se centran o se
ponen en la “zona” a través de
la música. Yo me meto en la
“zona” con la oración. Rezo
mucho y hago un montón de
auto-conversación”.
La fe les ha sostenido en los
buenos tiempos como en los
malos. Les dio fuerza al dejar
atrás su país natal, México. Jesús,
el papá, se vino primero de Dolores, Guanajuato, en busca de
trabajo. María le siguió cuando
Leonel tenía cuatro años y su
hermana Laura tenía dos años.
Don Jesús obtuvo la residencia legal bajo la Ley de 1986
de Reforma y Control de Inmigración, pero tuvieron que pasar
10 años para que el resto de la
familia pudiera obtener la residencia legal. Leonel se convirtió
en ciudadano de los EE.UU. en
2004 y compitió en los Juegos
Olímpicos de Beijing representando a su país de adopción.
Sus hermanos, Lulú de 22 años y
Jesús Jr. nacieron en los EE.UU.
Se mudaron a Granite
Shoals de Flatonia pocas semanas después de que María
llegó con los dos hijos mayores.
Don Jesús consiguió trabajo
en Capitol Aggregates Inc. que
tritura piedra para las carreteras.
Él todavía trabaja allí, mientras
que María cuida de ancianos
residentes en sus hogares.
“Tengo también una base
sólida a través de mi familia”,
dijo Leonel. “Tratan de tomar
las mejores decisiones y las
decisiones correctas acerca de
nosotros. Con Dios y con la fe,
hacemos lo correcto”.
Algunos feligreses recuerdan
a Leonel como un estudiante
inteligente, tranquilo y educado
que trabajó muy duro para salir
adelante. Él sigue diciendo: “Sí,
señora” y “No, señora” en la
conversación.
“Él es un buen chico que
es un gran trabajador”, dijo el
padre Jairo López, párroco de
la Parroquia St. John. “Trabajó
como camarero en un restaurante. Es muy humilde y también lo
son sus padres”.
Sara Dutch, una maestra
de primer grado y compañera
feligrés, dijo que Leonel fue
siempre un gran triunfador.
“Es un gran modelo para los
niños”, dijo.
“Pensé que la cumbre sería
cuando se graduó de la universidad”, dijo. Manzano se
graduó de la Universidad de
Texas en Austin — el primero
de su familia — en 2008 antes
de ir a los Juegos Olímpicos por
primera vez.
Sus hermanos lo han
seguido. Laura de 25 años,
está impartiendo su enseñanza
a los estudiantes después de
graduarse de la Universidad de
St. Edwards en Austin. Lulú de
22 años, está estudiando en la
Universidad Estatal de Texas,
y Jesús Jr. de 21 años, tiene
previsto pasar de Austin Community College a la Universidad
de Texas, obtener su título en
gobierno y asistir a la escuela
de leyes.
“Él es un buen modelo y un
ejemplo a seguir por otros”, dijo
Dutch. “Le da prioridad a su fe
y se nota en su carácter”.
Leonel dijo que no diría que
es un modelo a seguir.
“Quiero seguir siendo la
persona que soy”, dijo. “Sé que
muchas personas me admiran.
Así que también tengo un deber con ellos, para inspirarlos
o ayudarles a cumplir con sus
sueños”.
Esto es especialmente cierto
para los jóvenes hispanos.
“Quizás ellos piensan, ‘se
parecen a mí’ y si ven el éxito
en alguien a quien se parecen
se planta la idea en su mente de
que si este tipo hispano que es
sólo 5’5” va bien, tal vez no hay
ninguna razón por la que yo no
pueda tener éxito”, dijo.
Diane Sherman es una feligrés de St. John que recuerda a
Manzano del tiempo en que ella
enseñó en la escuela primaria
Marble Falls.
“Siempre fue muy tranquilo”, dijo Sherman. “Se podía
decir, por la forma en que se
conducía, que era muy inteligente y había trascendido la
barrera del idioma, aunque era
difícil para él”.
Jesús dijo que su hermano
es casi una “gura paterna” para
sus hermanos menores.
“A veces todavía piensa en
nosotros como niños”, dijo,
“pero él es una persona muy
comprensiva. Él fue el primero
en pasar por todo. Cuando tenemos un problema y no podemos
hablar con nuestros padres,
hablamos con él”.
Don Jesús dijo que su hijo
regaña a sus hermanos menores
porque él quiere que ellos tomen
buenas decisiones.
“Yo les digo que si les regaña es porque él tiene razón”,
dijo, y señaló que Leonel espera
trabajar duro y tener éxito.
Jesús dijo que su hermano
es su “héroe”, no por sus logros
deportivos, sino porque siempre
se puede contar con él.
Jesús también compitió en
atletismo hasta que una lesión
en la pierna lo marginó denitivamente durante su tercer año
en la universidad. Su madre dijo
que fue la única vez que su hijo
menor dudó del amor de Dios.
LEONEL MANZANO, un feligrés de la Parroquia St. John
the Evangelist en Marble Falls, ganó una medalla de plata
en la carrera de 1500 metros en los Juegos Olímpicos
de 2012. Nació en México, pero llegó con sus padres a
los EE.UU. cuando era un niño. (Foto por Enedelia J.
Obregón)
“Le dije que Dios nos da
fuerza para continuar a través de
los tiempos difíciles y tenemos
que seguir siendo fuertes”, dijo
María. “Entonces le envié a un
retiro y le ayudó a mejorar”.
Jesús dijo que su fe le ha
enseñado que tiene que trabajar
para ayudar a los demás y por el
bien de la gente. “Quiero ir a la
escuela de derecho para ayudar
a la gente”, dijo. “Mi fe me
enseña que Jesús dijo:”Amaos
los unos a los otros como yo os
he amado”.
María dijo que como su hijo
mayor pasa más tiempo fuera
de casa, ella y su marido oran
por que continue viviendo los
valores que le han inculcado.
Ella también se siente orgullosa de que no ha olvidado sus
raíces espirituales y culturales,
como ha señalado su decisión
de cubrirse a sí mismo con las
banderas de México y Estados
Unidos en los Juegos Olímpicos,
lo que causó una cierta controversia en este país.
“Los Juegos Olímpicos celebran una competencia amistosa”, dijo Leonel. “Los países
detienen guerras y se juntan sin
armamento o disputas. Cuando
llevé ambas banderas, fue simbólicamente, tratando de llevar
los dos países juntos”.
María también está orgullosa de que él se hace cargo de
sus hermanos, consiguiendo un
lugar en Austin para que todos
vivan.
Leonel dijo que si bien puede parecer que está cuidando a
sus hermanos, ellos cuidan de
él “Eso es lo que la familia es”,
dijo. “Es una calle de dos vías”.
Ellos lo apoyan con sus
oraciones, aunque no siempre
pueden asistir a los eventos. Sus
padres asistieron a los Juegos
Olímpicos en Beijing en 2008,
donde él no pudo llegar a las
nales de los 1500 metros. No
pudieron asistir a los Juegos
Olímpicos de Londres por motivos económicos.
Leonel planea competir en
los Juegos Olímpicos de 2016
en Río de Janeiro.
“Me encanta correr”, dijo.
“Si es la voluntad de Dios voy
a seguir haciéndolo. Me siento
muy bendecido. Es algo con lo
que fui bendecido. Pero todavía
tengo que trabajar. Dios me dio
el don, pero sin el trabajo duro
y el tiempo que ponga, no hay
manera de que podría haber
hecho lo que hice”.
Su consejo para sus hermanos y para los jóvenes es que
“si seguimos a Dios, ustedes
encontrarán sus dones”.
Para los jóvenes que miran
hacia él, él les aconseja encontrar algo que les gusta hacer
y hacerlo a la medida de sus
capacidades.
“Todo el mundo tiene
dones”, dijo Leonel. “Algunas
personas piensan que no los
tienen. Pero aun el tiempo es un
don. Todo el mundo lo tiene”.
Sobre todo, Leonel dijo que
está agradecido a Dios por todo
lo que él ha recibido.
“Siempre le doy gracias a
Dios por todo lo que me ha
dado - por lo bueno y lo malo”,
dijo. “A veces, muchas cosas
buenas pueden venir de algo
malo. Usted simplemente no ve
el panorama completo. Hay que
dar gracias, incluso en tiempos
difíciles. Todo esto es parte de
su plan. Aunque no lo entendamos”.
30
YEAR OF FAITH
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Saints to get to know in this Year of Faith
BY CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
The Year of Faith began
Oct. 11 and will continue
through Nov. 24, 2013. Pope
Benedict XVI called the year in
order to strengthen the faith of
Catholics and draw the world
to faith by their example. Pope
Benedict encourages Catholics
to study the lives of the saints
as part of the Year of Faith in
order to follow their example.
Jeannine Marino, program
specialist for the Secretariat of
Evangelization and Catechesis of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops (USCCB),
offers “10 Saints Who Were
Great Evangelizers” in honor
of the Year of Faith and All
Saints Day, which the church
celebrates on Nov. 1. Marino is
a canon lawyer who has served
as a postulator and adviser to
several canonization causes. A
postulator conducts research
into the life of a proposed saint.
Marino offers:
1. Sts. Peter and Paul –
Peter and Paul laid the foundations of the early church and
are among the most venerated
saints. Peter was the first to
profess that Jesus is the Son
of God, and the papacy is built
on his witness. Paul’s mission
trips expanded the reach of the
young church, and his writings
articulate our faith. Both men
were willing to bear witness to
the point of death, and both
were martyred in Rome.
2. St. Jerome – A fourth
century doctor of the
church, Jerome made
the Bible more accessible to everyday people when he translated
it into Latin from its
original Hebrew and
Greek. St. Jerome is
famous for saying, “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of
Christ.” We can follow
in Jerome’s evangelizing footsteps by loving
the Word of God.
3. St. Augustine
– Bishop of Hippo,
a contemporary of
Jerome, and another
doctor of the church,
Augustine was notorious for his life of sinful
indulgence prior to his conversion. He continues to inspire
people, not only because of his
conversion, but also with the brilliance of his writings — most
famously his “Confessions,”
which have had a profound
impact on Christian thought
down to the present day.
4. St. Patrick – As the fth
century apostle of Ireland, Patrick exemplies how Christian
witness can have a pervasive,
lasting impact on a culture.
Following the example of Jesus,
who taught with imagery, St. held interreligious gatherings to
Patrick is known for using the pray for peace, they met not in
image of the shamrock to illus- Rome, but in Assisi.
trate the Holy Trinity, making a
6. St. Ignatius of Loyola
– Founder of the Society
of Jesus, or the Jesuits,
Ignatius of Loyola was
a former soldier from
Spain. He founded the
Jesuits in 1540 as an effort to counter the effects of the Protestant
Reformation by the promotion and defense of
the teachings and authority of the church across
Europe. Ignatius also developed his spiritual exercises, a model of prayer
still used today.
7. St. Francis Xavier – A close friend of
St. Ignatius and one of
the rst Jesuits, Francis
Xavier was a great missionary to Asia, visiting
great mystery of God accessible India, Indonesia, Japan and
to all people.
other countries. He was named
5. St. Francis of Assisi – the patron of Catholic missions
One of the most beloved saints, by Pope Pius XI.
Francis of Assisi lived the Gospel
8. San Juan Diego – The
by identifying himself with the peasant to whom Our Lady
poor, embracing outcasts and of Guadalupe appeared Juan
enemies, and celebrating the Diego is essentially the evangoodness of God present in all gelizer of an entire hemisphere.
creation. His witness revitalized Blessed Pope John Paul II
a church that had “fallen into named Our Lady of Guadalupe
ruin,” and his influence today the patroness of the Americas
goes beyond the order he found- in 1999 and canonized Juan
ed and even beyond the Catholic Diego in 2002. He is the rst
Church. When the last two popes indigenous Mexican saint.
9. St. Daniel Comboni
– Another great missionary
in the history of the church,
Daniel Comboni traveled from
his native Italy to Central Africa and founded the Comboni
Missionaries and the Comboni
Missionary Sisters in 1867 and
1872, respectively. He spent
nearly all of his priesthood in
Africa and was named a bishop
and apostolic vicar to Africa in
1877. He died in 1881 and was
canonized in 2003.
10. St. Thérèse of the
Child Jesus – Also known as
St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the
Little Flower, Thérèse was a
French Carmelite in the late
1800s. She is best known for
pursuing the “little way” to
holiness, serving God in every
little action of daily life, before
dying of tuberculosis at the age
of 24 in 1897. She was named
the patroness of Catholic missions by Pope Pius XI because
of her devotion of praying for
missionaries. She was named a
doctor of the church (the third
woman and youngest person
ever to receive this honor) by
Blessed Pope John Paul II in
1997.
More information on
the Year of Faith is available at www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-weteach/new-evangelization/
year-of-faith/ and www.
austindiocese.org.
Celebrating the Year of Faith at St. Mary Cathedral
ONE OF THE WAYS THAT ST. MARY CATHEDRAL IN AUSTIN is celebrating the Year of Faith is by
having parishioners commit to praying for each other during the year. Cards were passed out during Mass
and parishioners can choose to pray once a week an Our Father, Hail Mary, Apostle’s Creed, Nicene
Creed, rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, etc. The children are also asked to commit to pray, even if it
is just one Hail Mary, Glory Be, or Grace before Meals. The focus of the prayer is for parishioners to
increase their faith.
Another way the Cathedral is celebrating the Year of Faith is through works of art drawn by children of
the parish. They will draw what prayer means to them. Each month the Cathedral will host a contest for
elementary-age children. The children can paint, sketch,
water color, or use any form/style of art they wish to illustrate
a specic prayer that is set for each month.
Each month a group of local artists led by professional artist
John Cobb will judge the art work. The winners will be given
an award and be displayed at the Bishop’s Hall each month.
The art contest is open to all elementary students from the
Cathedral School, religious education, parishioners, homeschoolers, friends of the Cathedral, or any students from the
surrounding parishes.
To encourage young artists, professional local artists will
display their best Catholic art work at the Bishop’s Hall
once a month. Some of the art work on display has received
recognition nationally and some of it will also be for sale.
With these art projects, the Cathedral staff hopes to create
a “spark” of faith throughout the parish. (Photos courtesy
St. Mary Cathedral)
SITINGS
November 2012
KJZT SOCIETY 93 held an Ice
Cream Social and collected donations for the “Feeding Families
Across Texas,” which is the
fraternal’s cause to extend their
charitable work throughout Texas
and reach those in need. (Photo
courtesy Annette Kohoutek)
THE ARCHICOFRADIA SOCIETY of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Martindale
traveled to San Juan for a retreat. (Photo
courtesy Christina Gomez)
THE ST. FRANCIS
ROSARY MAKERS
CLUB makes and
sends rosaries to
military personnel
serving overseas
and to missions in
India and Africa.
(Photo courtesy
Orlando Salas)
MEMBERS of Girl Scout Troop 2416,
Claire Cohan, Cecily Castillo, Celine Castillo and Solana Olivereach, completed more
than 50 hours of work and met several
requirements to earn their Girl Scout Silver
awards. (Photos courtesy Cristy Oliver)
THE EARLY
CHILDHOOD
DEVELOPMENT
Center at St. Louis
Parish in Austin
celebrated its 30th
anniversary in
September. (Photo
courtesy Evelyn
McNair)
31
FRIENDS OF SAINT LOUISE HOUSE hosted a “Dessert Before Lunch” fundraiser Sept. 21 in Austin.
Saint Louise House helps
homeless women and their
children establish stability in
their lives. org. (Photos courtesy Karen Teneriello)
FOR MORE
information about
the Saint Louise
House,
call (512) 3020027 or visit www.
saintlouisehouse.
HOLY FAMILY PARISH in Copperas Cove
held a retreat for those
youth who will be
conrmed later this
month. The STRONG
Team from the University Catholic Center in
Austin presented the
retreat. (Photo courtesy Linda McHugh)
THE KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS 13927 from St. Vincent de Paul
Parish in Austin cooked and served a lunch to the construction crew
that is building the parish’s new church, which will be dedicated by
Bishop Joe Vásquez on Dec. 29. (Photo courtesy Bob Crow)
ST. HELEN PARISH in
Georgetown participated
in the Georgetown LIFE
CHAIN along with 18 other
churches from the area.
Parishioners held pro-life
signs in a prayer vigil along
the city sidewalk on Oct.
7. (Photos courtesy Julie
Tefft)
Send photos by the 10th of the month to [email protected].
SITINGS
32
THE SIXTH GRADERS
from Sacred Heart Catholic School in La Grange
celebrated Msgr. Harry
Mazurkiewicz’s 86th
birthday on Sept. 18 at
his home. The students
made a birthday card
and sang songs to him.
(Photo courtesy Wendy
Becka)
ALEX MILLER, a parishioner of
St. Thomas More Parish in Austin,
has been selected to be the male
Team Texas representative with
the Team USA to compete in Figure Skating for the 2013 Special
Olympics World Winter Games.
Knights of Columbus Council 9997
from St. Thomas More contributed
$200 toward his expenses. (Photo
courtesy Peter Pang)
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
SEVERAL YOUNG MEN
from the Scout troop at
St. Louis Parish in Austin
earned their Eagle Scout
last summer. Michael
Dugan’s (top) Eagle
Scout project included
planning and installing
curbing for a living history village at Jourdan-Bachmann Pioneer
Farms in Austin. Martin Prado (middle) enlarged and beautied an existing Schoenstatt shrine at Holy
Family Catholic School
in Austin. Matthew
Leary (bottom) beautied his high school by
planting Italian cypress
trees. (Photos courtesy Dave Dolezal)
ST. PETER’S
CATHOLIC STUDENT CENTER
AT BAYLOR held
its New Student
Retreat welcoming freshmen
and other new
students into its
Catholic campus ministry community. (Photo
courtesy Alexandria Pane)
THE GROWING WITH GOD PRESCHOOLERS at St.Martin de
Porres Parish in Dripping Springs sold ags by donation for a
Sept. 11 memorial. The ags were placed in the church courtyard
the week of Sept. 11 and Father Ed Koharchik celebrated a memorial Mass that evening. (Photo courtesy Lisa Phillips)
PARISHIONERS from St.
John Neumann Parish in
Austin visited churches
and holy sites in Italy. They
were led by Father Bud
Roland, their current pastor,
and Msgr. David Jaeger,
former pastor of St. John
Neumann who now resides
in Rome. (Photo courtesy
Rick Ebert)
BISHOP JOE VÁSQUEZ blessed
the new prayer garden of St. Matthew in Rogers on Oct. 7. (Photos
courtesy Keith Thompson)
ST. THERESA’S CATHOLIC SCHOOL
in Austin celebrated the Feast of St. Theresa on Oct. 1. The entire school prayed
the St. Theresa novena in front of the
church. The school also held its annual
Blessing of the Animals on Oct. 2 in celebration of St. Francis of Assisi. (Photos
courtesy Suzanne Leggett)
Send photos by the 10th of the month to [email protected].

November 2012 - Diocese of Austin

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