The Catholic News & Herald 1
December 28, 2001
December 28, 2001 Volume 11 t Number 16
S e r v i n g C a t h o l i c s in Western North Carolina in the Diocese of Charlotte
Inside Catholic Social Services volunteers focus on friendship, fellowship
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Woman defines life through benevolent works for others
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Local News Holy Angels: dignified empowering life opportunities for children and adults
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Family and faith frequent deacon’s life
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Every Week Entertainment ...Page 11
Editorials & Columns ...Pages 8-9
The next edition of The Catholic News & Herald will be published January 11, 2002
New era in American history begins with Sept. 11 attacks B Joann S. Keane
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Editor CHARLOTTE - 2001 will be marked in history as the year terrorism reached the shores of the United States on Sept. 11. A new era in American history began when terrorist attacks with hijacked planes killed more than 3,000 people in New York, Virginia and rural Pennsylvania. The Sept. 11 events had profound religious and moral dimensions, as millions of Americans thronged to worship services and asked new questions about the existence and meaning of evil. “We must not let hate rule our hearts,” said Bishop Curlin on Sept. 11. “Yes, we must defend ourselves. But we cannot let our anger, our despair, and our desire for revenge defeat us.” While the terrorist attacks and ensuing war mar year one of the new millennium, the church marked many significant moments in history. At their fall meeting, the U.S. Catholic bishops said the defense of the people against terrorism like that inflicted Sept. 11 was just cause for war, but they warned, “Every military response must be in accord with sound moral principles, notably such norms ... as noncombatant immunity, proportionality, right intention and probability of success.” Pope John Paul II, who turned 81 in May, remained the world’s most notable religious figure as he guided the church into the new millennium, traveled to places never before visited by a pope and continued reaching out to other faiths and religions. Pope John Paul created 44 new cardinals - setting new records for the most cardinals, 184, and for the most cardinals ever eligible to enter a conclave and vote for a new pope. Locally, Bishop Curlin ordained six new priests, four in June, two in Dec. Since his installation as chief shepherd of Charlotte in 1994, Bishop Curlin has ordained 25 men to the priesthood. Catholic News Service contributed to this article. Many events on national and international fronts of the Roman Catholic Church took a backseat to the Sept. 11 events. Inside this edition, we track month-by-month, the year
Photos by Mary Marshall
A special center spread on Holy Angels can be found on pages 6 and 7. Pictured here from top to bottom: Maria assembles a bouquet, Gaye Dimmick holds Zachary in the Snoezelen room, Edwin cuts paper, and Andy Wisniewski, a Mercy Volunteer Corp member, assists Jerrod.
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December 28, 2001
2001 month by planes, killing more than 3,000; pope News Service By Catholic calls it “dark day in the history of humanity.” Heroism of rescue workers WASHINGTON (CNS) — Here inspires country. Attendance soars at is a month-by-month overview of some worship services, more bil- of religion in 2001. eventsthan in the$1world lion is donated to victim assistance funds. Catholic leaders urge outreach to Muslims and Asian-Americans to counter acts of hate directed against them. Air travel, tourist industry face heavy losses as unemployment rises in economic downturn. Religious leaders, ethicists agree attacks were an act of war, urge U.S. response to focus on justice, not revenge. Bush demands that Afghanistan surrender al Qaeda head, Osama bin Laden. Bishops in predominantly Muslim Pakistan fear for Christians’ safety. Pope visits Kazakstan and Armenia; in Kazakstan he condemns terrorism, begs God to prevent war and warns that religion should not bring division. OCTOBER Bishops from around world meet at Synod of Bishops in Rome to reflect on church governance, ministry, teaching, spirituality and their own church role. First anthrax death — a photo editor Oct. 5 at a national tabloid publishing company in Florida — marks start of bioterrorism by mail. United States, Britain begin bombing campaigns against Taliban and al Qaeda strongholds in Afghanistan. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan wins Nobel Peace Prize. Pope beatifies Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi, first married couple beatified together. Pro-life leaders condemn anthrax threats directed at abortion clinics. Pope seeks dialogue between church, Chinese government. Christian leaders, peace activists march on Bethlehem to urge end to new wave of violence. Vatican approves eucharistic sharing in some circumstances between Chaldean Catholics and members of the ancient Assyrian Church
December 28, 2001 Volume 11 • Number 16 Publisher: Most Reverend William G. Curlin Editor: Joann S. Keane Staff Writer: Alesha M. Price Graphic Designer: Tim Faragher Advertising Representative: Cindi Feerick Secretary: Sherill Beason 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203 Mail: P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237 Phone: (704) 370-3333 FAX: (704) 370-3382 E-mail: catholicnews@charlottediocese.org The Catholic News & Herald, USPC 007-393, is published by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, 1123 South Church St., Charlotte, NC 28203, 44 times a year, weekly except for Christmas week and Easter week and every two weeks during June, July and August for $15 per year for enrollees in parishes of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte and $18 per year for all other subscribers. Second-class postage paid at Charlotte NC and other cities. POSTMASTER: Send address corrections to The Catholic News & Herald, P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237.
on science researchers to observe moral limits. SEPTEMBER World Conference Against Racism goes forward despite U.S., Israeli pullout. Pope calls interreligious dialogue critical to world peace. Scores die in Christian-Muslim violence in Jos, Nigeria. Cardinal Ratzinger says globalization has replaced Cold War as world’s ideological battle ground. Terrorists strike World Trade Center towers and Pentagon with hijacked
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Bishop William G. Curlin will take part in the following events: January 6 — Feast of the Epiphany 6 p.m. priests’ holiday reception Charlotte January 7-11 Region IV bishops’ retreat Florida January 22 — 10 a.m. Celebrant at March for Life Mass Washington, D.C. January 27 — 11 a.m. Sesquicentennial Mass St. Peter, Charlotte 5 p.m. Mass for rosary makers St. Patrick, Charlotte
of the East. Pope denounces slaying of 16 Pakistanis at a Catholic church by masked gunmen. NOVEMBER Court challenges follow U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s decision to prosecute doctors who assist suicide with federally controlled drugs. Vatican challenges World Trade Organization to treat poor countries more fairly; Vatican’s U.N. nuncio calls for closing of rich-poor gap of nations. Pax Christi International, French bishops urge end to U.S.-led bombing in Afghanistan. Taliban power crumbles under air, land assaults. Vatican official warns food conference that world hunger is major threat to world peace. Pope urges aid to refugees; Catholic Relief Services seeks $50 million to aid Afghan refugees, displaced persons. Meeting in Washington, U.S. bishops elect first African-American president, Bishop Wilton D. Gregory of Belleville, Ill. They issue statements on facing the world after Sept. 11 and on solidarity with Africa, revise their pro-life activities plan and approve — after a delay to complete voting by mail — a pastoral statement on the Asian and Pacific presence in the U.S. church. As first “Harry Potter” movie debuts, some commentators laud story’s moral vision while some parents fear influence of occult on children. Vatican urges international convention banning human cloning. Pope issues post-synodal apostolic exhortation on the church in Oceania. Church officials condemn first reported human cloning. Terrorism crackdown draws growing debate over dangers
to human rights, civil liberties. U.S. Catholic-Jewish consultation group warns that losing civil liberties to fight terrorism is “a Faustian bargain.” Pope asks Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople to help break deadlock in Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. DECEMBER Vatican says liberalizing drug laws has “disastrous” effects. Gerhart Riegner, a founder of the World Jewish Congress and pioneer in Catholic-Jewish relations, dies in Geneva at the age of 90. Doctrinal congregation takes jurisdiction over church trials of priests accused of sexually abusing minors. Amid escalating IsraeliPalestinian violence, pope pleads for end to “useless spiral of death.” National Catholic Youth Conference draws 24,000 to Indianapolis. Pope asks that fight against terrorism not distract nations from addressing severe poverty, injustice and other tensions that “menace the fragile equilibrium between nations.” Pope convenes Catholic Holy Land leaders in Rome to discuss pastoral concerns. Pope asks Catholics around world to fast for peace on Dec. 14. In World Peace Day message he says selfdefense against terrorists is justified, but forgiveness is needed for peace.
December 28, 2001
The Year in Re-
The Catholic News & Herald 3
JUNE Pope meets with Anglican Archbishop George Carey of Canterbury. McVeigh receives last rites from Catholic chaplain before he is executed in Indiana; Catholic leaders urge end to death penalty. Guatemalan court finds three military officers and a priest guilty in Bishop Gerardi’s murder. Two nuns are among four Rwandans found guilty of participating in 1994 genocidal killings in Rwanda. U.S. bishops, meeting in Atlanta, adopt statements on Middle East, global warming, Christ’s real presence in Eucharist, Communion under both kinds; they also criticize U.S. treatment of refugees, make changes in liturgy norms and health care directives and issue guidelines for granting theologians a mandate to teach. Pope visits Ukraine for first time. Leading U.S. ecumenist, Father John Hotchkin, dies. In message to U.N. meeting on HIV/ AIDS, pope challenges “exorbitant” cost of AIDS medicines in poor countries. Patriarch Maximos V Hakim of Antioch, head of Melkite Catholic Church for 33 years, dies at age 93. JULY
JANUARY Pope John Paul II closes Holy Door to end jubilee year, issues apostolic letter on church agenda for start of new millennium. U.S. Lutherans and Episcopalians enter full communion. Archbishop Theodore E. McCarrick is installed as archbishop of Washington. Afghanistan’s Taliban regime decrees death penalty for converting to Christianity or distributing Christian literature. Hundreds are killed by earthquake off Salvadoran coast; India’s worst earthquake in 50 years leaves thousands dead. President Bush takes office in Washington, reverses Clinton policy on abortion funding abroad, establishes federal offices for faith-based initiatives. Congo President Laurent Kabila is assassinated, Kinshasa archbishop urges end to country’s civil war. British Parliament approves rules letting scientists clone human embryos for research. FEBRUARY Abigail McCarthy, noted Catholic writer and women’s advocate, dies. Israel elects Ariel Sharon as prime minister. Bishops of Americas meet to discuss migration issues in Western Hemisphere. John J. DeGioia is named first lay president of Jesuit-run Georgetown University. Pope installs record 44 new cardinals, including
three Americans: Archbishop McCarrick, Jesuit theologian Father Avery Dulles and New York Archbishop Edward M. Egan. Twelve U.S. and Canadian bishops of Pacific Northwest issue joint pastoral letter on Columbia River region. Vatican warns of potentially misleading doctrinal ambiguities in book on religious pluralism by Belgian Jesuit Father Jacques Dupuis. MARCH National consultation on women in church leadership draws 150 women who hold diocesan posts. Chicago Cardinal Francis E. George leads pope’s Lenten retreat. Death threats force several Catholic missionaries to flee Indian state of Manipur. Afghanistan’s Taliban regime destroys massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues despite international protests. Caritas Internationalis urges immediate suspension of sanctions against Iraq. Church leaders criticize science group’s plan to clone humans. Vatican says it is working to address sexual abuse of nuns by priests. Pope urges fight against racism in the church. Pope John Paul II Cultural Center is opened in Washington. Guatemalan court begins trial of five people accused in 1998 murder of Bishop Juan Gerardi Conedera. APRIL Cardinal George issues pastoral letter on racism. U.S. and Sudanese bishops urge strong U.S. role to end war in Sudan. Vatican, Dutch church leaders condemn new Dutch law legalizing euthanasia. At least 22 Catholics
including bishops and priests reported arrested in China around Easter. Team of scientists claims extraction of stem cells from placenta can bypass embryonic stem-cell debate. Guyana’s Catholic, Anglican bishops deplore wide ethnic violence, including attacks on religious facilities, following divisive elections. Pope says world leaders must control forces of globalization. Bush rejects papal plea not to execute Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. Global coalition of Catholic agencies urges faster, deeper debt relief for poor countries. Pontifical Academy for Social Sciences studies globalization and Catholic social teaching. MAY Pope visits Greece, Malta, Syria; he apologizes for Western Christians’ treatment of Orthodox, visits a mosque and urges Christian-JewishMuslim cooperation in Middle East. U.S. Charity Sister Barbara Ann Ford is gunned down in Guatemala City; fellow human rights backers call it political execution. Vatican issues strict new rules for translation of Latin liturgy texts into modern languages. Pope convenes 150 cardinals for special consistory on church priorities in new millennium. Bush delivers Notre Dame commencement address. Msgr. John Egan of Chicago, social activist, dies. Zambian Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo weds Korean woman in mass ceremony presided over by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Four nuns are among 20 School of the Americas protesters sentenced to six months in federal prison.
National Conference of Catholic Bishops becomes U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Head of U.S. bishops urges president, Congress not to fund human embryo research. Before Group of Eight summit in Genoa, Italy, pope urges leaders of rich countries to protect rights of poor countries. Vatican says it won’t punish two nuns who spoke at international women’s ordination conference. Meeting with Cuban bishops, pope calls for lifting of U.S. embargo. Belgian bishops oppose government plan to legalize euthanasia. Vatican warns Archbishop Milingo he faces excommunication. Vatican says Mormon baptism is not valid. G-8 summit is marred by street violence, forms $1.2 billion fund to combat AIDS and other diseases in Africa, but does not advance on debt relief. Pope meets President Bush, asks him not to fund stem-cell research on human embryos. Catholic-Jewish controversy grows as joint team of scholars suspends study of Vatican’s World War II archives. U.S. House of Representatives votes to ban all cloning of human embryos. AUGUST Pope meets Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, urges end to violence on both sides in Middle East. Interfaith TV programming venture gets reduced hours as Odyssey Channel becomes Hallmark Channel. Bush announces policy of funding research on stem cells taken from human embryos destroyed before Aug. 9. Archbishop Milingo meets with pope, renounces his attempted marriage, reconciles with church. Jim Nicholson, former Republican National Committee chairman, is sworn in as U.S. ambassador to the Holy See. Mother Teresa’s sainthood cause ends local phase, moves to Vatican. Catholic, Anglican bishops appeal for peace in Sudan. Pope calls
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Catholic Social Services focuses on faith filled friendship, ing an invitation for involvement to others took flight and Friends of Catholic Social Services (FOCSS) was born. “The idea of FOCSS is three-fold, awareness, fellowship and participation,” said Ann Kilkelly, director of development for Catholic Social Services. “It is an opportunity to learn about CSS and its services and to participate in a variety of ways. It offers a special way for people to join in fellowship across parishes and other groups.” “It’s a whole new energy,” said Kilkelly of the Young Professionals. “Added to the efforts of past and present supporters,it builds a broader foundation for expanding CSS services.” FOCSS ideas up for consideration are family oriented. “We realize our FOCSS volunteers are families; busy parents who want and need to be with their children,” said Kilkelly. On Dec. 4, the inaugural FOCSS group was treated to a reception against perhaps the most stunning backdrop in Charlotte. From the 60th floor of the Bank of America tower, 101 CSS supporters had the opportunity to meetand-greet their friends in faith. “As
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Belmont-Mt. Holly Rd., hosts perpetual adoration in the campus chapel. For volunteer and other information, call Marie Siebers at (704) 827-6734. CHARLOTTE — All are invited to St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Rd., for perpetual adoration. For volunteer and other information, call Kathleen Potter at (704) 366-5127. CHARLOTTE — St. Thomas Aquinas, 1400 Suther Rd., hosts eucharistic adoration every first Friday from 1:15 p.m.-midnight, and eucharistic holy hour takes place every Friday from 7:30-8:30 p.m. The Blessed Sacrament Chapel in Aquinas Hall is open everyday from 8 a.m.-9 p.m. For more information, call the church office at (704) 549-1607. HIGH POINT — Maryfield Nursing Home, 1315 Greensboro Rd., hosts perpetual adoration in the
By Joann S. Keane Editor CHARLOTTE — Inasmuch as Catholic Social Services ministries focus on the community, the community knows the ministries of CSS are far-reaching and diverse and focused on the populations served. Friends of Catholic Social Services are measured in love. Clients and recipients become friends of the agency that support with an unconditional helping hand. Volunteer friends help the agency with their gifts of time and donations of talent. Meet the new breed of CSS friends: young professionals eager to become active members of a vibrant community outreach. “Catholic Social Services is an invaluable part of Charlotte’s charitable infrastructure,” said Bob Hollmeyer, a member of the Charlotte Catholic Social Services Regional Advisory Board. “CSS is held with such high esteem in the Charlotte community by those familiar with the unique role they provide our community.” From the CSS Regional Office Event Committee, thoughts of extend-
chapel. For volunteer and other information, call Theresa Hansen at (336) 273-1507. SYLVA — Eucharistic adoration takes place every first Saturday at St. Mary Church, 22 Bartlett St., following 9 a.m. Mass until 3 p.m. For more information, call Annette Leporis at (828) 497-7464. Please submit notices of events for the Diocesan Planner at least 10 days prior to the publication date.
December 28, 2001
friends of Catholic Social Services, you may feel the desire to learn more about CSS and get involved yourself,” said Hollmeyer. FOCSS has innovative plans for its membership. And as a start-up, the possibilities are endless. “FOCSS is for us to decide, and for the people (the inaugural group attending the reception hosted by the Bank of America) to help set an agenda,” said John Beltz. “I believe my participation with CSS and FOCSS events will provide the opportunity to meet a broad spectrum of people from the Charlotte community,” said Beltz. Relative newcomer to Charlotte, Beltz said, “My wife and I are interested in getting active in the community and to give our time, efforts and resources
back to a community that has been so embracing and caring.” “I look forward to getting involved in making the world and the area a bit better through Catholic Social Services and FOCSS,” said Edward Powell.
details, call (828) 250-9690 or e-mail nazarethhouse@juno.com. BRYSON CITY — The St. Joseph Church thrift shop is open every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and Thursday from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. For more information, call the shop, located at 316 Main St., at (828) 488-2266 or Katherine Kelly at (828) 488-2519.
Church, 1400 Suther Rd. For further information, call Ky Do at (704) 5329094. 13 CHARLOTTE — A charismatic Mass will be held at St. Patrick Cathedral, 1621 Dilworth Rd. East, this afternoon with a prayer service with teams at 3 p.m., Mass at 3:30 p.m., a healing service in front of the Blessed Sacrament at 4:30 p.m. and a potluck dinner at 5 p.m. in the school cafeteria. Father Swamy from St. Ann Church will be the celebrant. For further information, contact Josie Backus at (704) 527-4676.
Perpetual and Daily Adoration ARDEN — St. Barnabas Church, 109 Crescent Hill Dr., hosts eucharistic adoration on the following days: Friday mornings immediately following the 9 a.m. Mass until noon, Wednesday evenings from 7:30-8:15 p.m. every first Friday from 9:30 a.m.-8:45 p.m. For more information, call the church at (828) 684-6098. ASHEVILLE — The Basilica of St. Lawrence, 97 Haywood St., hosts daily adoration from 9 a.m.-6 p.m. For more information, call Jane Sorrells at (828) 298-0334. BELMONT — Belmont Abbey, 100
For more information on FOCSS and other volunteer opportunities with Catholic Social Services, contact CSS Director of Development, Ann Kilkelly, (704) 370-3349, or Event Committee Chair, Jay Blanton, (704) 906-0143.
Ongoing ASHEVILLE — The hours for the Nazareth House Family Ministry and Lending Library, 474 Haywood Rd., are as follows: Tuesdays from 1-3 p.m., Thursdays from 4-6 p.m. and Fridays from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Nazareth House is a family ministry dedicated to promoting the blessings of Christian marriage, chastity, natural family planning and post-abortion healing. For further
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Woman defines life through benevolent works for By DIANE M.A. RIGGS Correspondent BURNSVILLE — God’s calls may be veiled or direct. Elizabeth Turner had no doubt that God was presenting her with a direct call when, at a political function in the mid-1990s, her right arm involuntarily shot forward, and she found herself walking rapidly across a parking lot to shake hands with someone she had never seen. That God-directed encounter began a journey that led to the founding of Sagrado Corazon, a Catholic Hispanic mission church northwest of Asheville, and innumerable friendships with Mexican immigrants in Yancey County. Much in her life had prepared the Maryville, Tenn., native for the catalyst role in which she found herself. Turner grew up in a family immersed in Vatican II Catholicism; those times and Pope John XXIII inspired her parents, who became Catholics as adults. They were hopeful and idealistic young Catholics, active in the church’s prayers and strivings for peace and racial justice. “The most important thing my parents gave me was my faith,” she said. “I am totally grateful that they were so faith-filled and excited about (it).” Sent to St. Genevieve of the Pines in Asheville for high school, Turner loved the Sisters of Religious Education. The sisters were “smart, strong, the best role models,” she said. “They had a huge influence on me.” Turner recalled receiving permission slips to go on civil rights protest marches, “in our white St. Genevieve uniforms, so everyone would know where St. Genevieve’s stood on the issue (of civil rights).” By her junior year, she was heavily involved in running a neighboring school’s after-school program housed at St. Genevieve. Always considering herself Catholic, Turner left the church as an adolescent, and spent years searching for a spiritual home. Meanwhile, she and her husband “Hap” (Henry Clay Turner III), who designs and builds houses, began a family. Abandoning her doctoral studies to become a full-time mother, she and her husband eventually bought a farm in the Burnsville area, living
without electricity, raising goats, and homeschooling their three children. “I have the best husband in the world,” she said. The sacraments were extremely important to Turner, and over the years, she attended different Masses, though alone. Like her parents before her, she tried to give her children her faith, “but you cannot give it without the sacraments,” she said. A meeting with Jesuit Father Frank Reese and Mercy Sister Peggy Verstege, then at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Mars Hill, opened the way back into the church. “They were the perfect gift of God to us,” she said. Her children were baptized about 1990 and her husband a year later. “The people at St. Andrew were wonderful people, living their faith,” she said. Through the years, Turner and her family involved themselves in various ministries. At the former Yancey County Correctional Center, they and neighbors stood outside the fence singing Christmas carols to the prisoners, who, by the second year, began singing them back until the facility closed. Ministry with immigrants was not something she would have anticipated. However, while she and the Rev. Robert Moore talked about a difference in sacramental understanding, it soon became clear that God was concerned with the Mexican
persons living right in their midst. “He thought Hap was called to hire Mexicans — which he was,” she said. But that was just the beginning. Soon the Turners were transporting Mexicans to a little Methodist church in Bakersville where Moore and another pastor held services. In this way, she was slowly introduced to the Mexican community at large. “I didn’t know so many Mexicans were already here — and most were Catholic,” she said. “This Methodist minister was so good — feeding them spiritually through their lives, life stories, especially the men away from their families, in their loneliness,” said Turner. “(But), I thought, ‘How can they live without the sacraments?’” Through a chain of events, including a meeting with Father Reese and Sister Peggy, Capuchin Father Alfonso Pagliara, based in Hendersonville at the time, celebrated a Spanish Mass at St. Andrew. Thus, an “official” Catholic presence emerged among the Hispanic Catholics in the northwestern counties. Soon, the Mass moved to Sacred Heart in Burnsville because of the large number of Mexicans in Yancey County and because many of the Mexicans were within walking distance of the church. Turner said 80 people attended the first Hispanic Mass at Sacred Heart, and Jesuit Father Edward M. Ifkovits,
January 3 GUILFORD COUNTY — The Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians Guilford County Division 1, an IrishCatholic social and charitable interparish group, will be having a meeting tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Ladies’ Cottage at Our Lady of Grace Church, 2205 West Market St. in Greensboro. For further information, call Alice Schmidt at (336) 288-0983. 6 BOONE — Watauga County District Attorney Tom Rusher will offer a presentation entitled “Historical Efforts to Diminish the Death Penalty” at St. Elizabeth Church, 259 Pilgrims Way, between the 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m. Masses from 9:40-10:40 a.m. For further information, call the church office at (828) 264-8338 or (828) 264-6347. 7 CHARLOTTE — Because of the holiday, the cancer support group meeting usually scheduled for the first Tuesday at St. Matthew Church will be cancelled. St. Gabriel Church, 3016 Providence Rd., will hold its normally
scheduled first Monday meeting tonight at 7 p.m. in the ministry center in Room D. For more information, call: St. Matthew - Marilyn Borrelli at (704) 542-2283 and St. Gabriel - Eileen Correll at (704) 362-5047, Ext. 217. 8 CHARLOTTE — The St. Gabriel Church Arthritis Support and Education Group will meet this morning from 10-11 a.m. in Room D of the parish ministry center located at 3016 Providence Rd. For further details, call (704) 362-5047, Ext. 217. 9 CHARLOTTE — All are invited to learn more about how death impacts children at a session entitled “Children and Grief ” at the St. Gabriel Church ministry center, 3016 Providence Rd., from 7-8:30 p.m. Totty Lee from Hospice of Charlotte will talk about how children understand death at different ages and how families can work together to heal after a loss. For further details, call the church office at (704) 364-5431.
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CHARLOTTE — The Happy Timers of St. Ann Church, 3635 Park Rd., will be having a meeting with a luncheon and program at 1 p.m. in the parish activity center. The Amity Line Dancers will provide the entertainment. All adults age 55 and older are welcome. Next month’s meeting will take place on the usual 1st Wednesday date of Feb. 6. For more information, call Charles Nesto at (704) 398-0879. 9 CHARLOTTE — The 50+ Club of St. John Neumann Church, 8451 Idlewild Rd., will be conducting a meeting at 11 a.m. with a program and lunch in the parish center. Donations are being accepted during the meeting. For more information, call Bobbe Conlin at (704) 643-1376 or Gloria Silipigni at (704) 821-1343. 12 CHARLOTTE — The Vietnamese Cursillo community will meet at 7:30 p.m. tonight and every second Saturday of the month for a school of leaders at St. Thomas Aquinas
pastor of St. Andrew and Sacred Heart, said, “Here’s a whole other parish.” That was the beginning of Sagrado Corazon. Today, after that promising beginning and the continued assistance of many people, the Mexican community “feels very, very at home at Sagrado Corazon,” Turner said. Father Reese, who received special training, says the Mass in Spanish three times a month. Father Ifkovits, the pastor, says Mass once a month; Sister Peggy, who also received Hispanic ministry training, teaches faith formation. Others also help, including a nun, who used to drive all the way from Cherokee. In the mission church’s early days, Turner was involved in many leadership roles. Today, she says with satisfaction, “Now I am only a member — I teach only first Communion.” Turner, her husband Hap and others encouraged the emergence of Mexican lay leadership. Several young men have made visible differences in the community, including one who said the rosary with many men gathered around him, for 30 days in a row at a trailer camp. While some have had to return home to Mexico because of their families, the mission now has a music ministry whose Hispanic leader has written worship songs and even a Mass liturgy composition. “This Mexican community brings so much to our (North American) church. There is such a tremendous faith, reverence and remembrance of what is holy. And, (they) really know how to be community to each other,” she said, citing their easy willingness to offer shelter, food or money to those in need or their spontaneous, intergenerational play. They have been community to Turner and her family, as well. She has visited Mexico and knows a bit of Spanish, but she credits the Burnsville Mexican community with her current grasp of the language: “I would just say, ‘Hello, I’m Elizabeth. I’m a Catholic.’ They were very patient. My family and I have become immersed in the lives of Mexicans.” Not only do phone calls come in nightly from the Hispanic community wanting help with everything from homework to understanding insurance problems, she believes she and her family have gained immeasurably from experiencing a different culture. And she has made true friends — the kind with whom she has laughed and cried.
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HOLY ANGELS: Providing Dignified, Empowering Life Op expected to live long. Today, she works part time as receptionist at Holy Angels and also helps make candy bouquets at Cherubs Candy Bouquet.” WHAT IS HOLY ANGELS? Holy Angels is a place of loving, living, and learning which maintains the highest standards of excellence in service while continuing to develop outstanding innovative programs that respond to the changing needs of our community. Holy Angels was originally staffed by the Sisters of Mercy. Today, there are two sisters within the staff of 250. “We served 35 medically fragile children when I came here twenty years ago,” said Moody. “Today we serve a total of 125 in residential and day programs which include 65-70 children and adults with mental retardation and additional physical disabilities. The majority of these are medically fragile needing 24 hour nursing care. We’ve gone from an operating budget of less than a half million to today’s budget of $7.5 million, and from one facility to 13 facilities.” Holy Angels’ residents are from North Carolina, primarily Gaston, Lincoln, Cleveland and Mecklenburg counties. An ecumenical facility, it is the only Catholic facility in the state of North Carolina for the mentally fragile. Holy Angels was originally a custodial facility. As the years progressed, the programs advanced to developmental, helping each person reach his or her fullest potential. Each person’s needs are analyzed and creative programs are developed. Development takes place by bringing the environment to them. For example, a Snoezelen room of sensory stimulation arouses the senses of sight, touch, and smell. Colorful bubble machines are soothing to watch; a board of colored lights and various textured items encourages touching; vibrating and heat control lounge chairs are soothing. Cause and effect are demonstrated by one hitting a timer to renew the cycle of operation. Residents can play in the dirt or paint a pot in the horticultural center. They have the opportunity to see cause and effect by planting and watering. In the Main Center, all classrooms are brightly lit and decorated to keep up with the seasons.
Photos by Mary Marshall
From Holy Angels, pictured above, one of the littlest angels. Below, Robert assists Father Frank O’Rourke during Mass. And pictured above, the newest home. Each room has a special education teacher licensed by the Department of Public Instruction. All shifts are goal oriented with first shift the most active.
Street in Downtown Belmont, Cherubs offers the community and surrounding areas the opportunity to learn more about the programs, services, work and ministry of Holy Angels.
ADDITIONAL PROGRAMS OFFERED BY HOLY ANGELS Holy Angels offers other programs such as the Community Group Homes, which provide a residential service for adults and adolescents who have mild to moderate mental retardation. These programs provide a normal home environment and assist each resident in attaining his or her highest level of independence. Supported Living is a service of support to individuals with mental retardation who are living in a more independent environment within the community. These supports are in areas of transportation, financial management, medical and counseling assistance, and independent living skills training. Cherubs Café, Gifts & Candy Bouquets provides vocational training and meaningful supported employment options for individuals with mental retardation. Located on Main
HOLY ANGELS, A PRIVATE, NONPROFIT CORPORATION Holy Angels Inc. is the parent board that oversees policy making of all programs and services. The Holy Angels Foundation board of directors oversees the fund raising. The 35 members on these two boards are volunteers from the Charlotte region who contribute their expertise in banking, business, law, architecture, and health care. Twenty-five percent of Holy Angels’ operating budget is dependent upon individual contributions, corporate grants, special events and other fund raising efforts. OUR VISION Each individual, regardless of
physical and mental ability, has the right to the highest quality of life. OUR MISSION In a positive environment of spiritual, physical, educational, social, and emotional support, Holy Angels provides children and adults with dignified and empowering opportunities for living, with special emphasis on those individuals with varying degrees of mental retardation who may also have multiple disabilities. OUR VALUES At the heart of our vision and mission are the values of the Sisters of Mercy: sacredness of life, human dignity, justice, compassion, service, and excellence.
December 28, 2001
Around the Di-
pportunities for Children and Fulfilling a By Mary Marshall Correspondent On Thursday, Dec. 20, residents, staff members, and special guests of Holy Angels gathered for the ribbon cutting, house blessing, and official naming of the fourth Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded (ICF/MR) on Holy Angel’s campus in Belmont, North Carolina. “This is truly a wonderful day for Holy Angels,” said Regina Moody, President/ CEO of Holy Angels. “We are able to continue to meet the changing needs of these medically fragile young adults who we have been serving since they were children. We will be able to continue our approach of concentrating on their unlimited abilities with unconditional love. It is a comfort for their families to know that the special needs of their sons and daughters will continue to be met by Holy Angels.” The new group home is named Belhaven, whose origin stems from “bel” for Belmont and “haven” for a safe place. Belhaven was the name of Holy Angels’ first group home, recently closed due to funding changes. The new home was designed by architects Martin, Boal, Anthony and Johnson of Shelby and constructed by Pinnix Construction Co. of Gastonia. Funding for the $760,000 facility was through foundations and private donations. Foundations included: The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, Bank of America Foundation, Duke Endowment, Pearl Dixon Balthis
Foundation, Carrie E. & Lena V. Glenn Foundation, Community Foundation of Gaston County, and The Philip Van Every Foundation. Designed to be as “homey” as possible, the house features a large great room (recreational/gathering space), nursing and therapy areas, and a Snoezelen (sensory stimulation) room. The bright and airy interior has a nautical theme with vivid blue counter tops, fish and dolphin wallpaper borders and a blue ceiling in the great room. “These people probably will never have the opportunity to see the beach, so we’re bringing the beach to them,” said Moody. Belhaven will be home to four males and four females all over age 21, who have extensive medical and developmental needs. It will be staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “We will continue to help them develop in the best way we can,” said Moody. “The house will be self-contained yet complemented by the programs available on campus.” The dedication of the 6,500 square-foot group home comes during the 45th anniversary of Holy Angels, and on the 46th birthday of Maria Morrow, the first resident. “What began as a love story between Sister Patrice and Maria has grown into a complex comprehensive service designed to meet the needs of both children and adults with developmental disabilities,” said Moody. “Holy Angels began when a young mother brought her severely disabled baby girl to the nuns for help. Maria was not
Parent’s
By Mary Marshall Correspondent When Kimberly Sarvis was born with profound mental retardation and physical disabilities, her parents, Gary and Phyllis Sarvis, were told she might live three to six months. The Sarvis’ plan was to care for her at home. By the time Kimberly turned 11, her condition became even more medically complex, requiring round-theclock care. It was Gary who first visited Holy Angels. “You must come and visit,” he told Phyllis. “She is missing so much by not being at Holy Angels, such as physical therapy, hands-on activities, visiting the greenhouse, and round-the-clock nursing care.” As soon as Phyllis was introduced to the Main Center, she knew this was the place for Kimberly. That was 12 years ago. Throughout the years, Phyllis has kept up with Kimberly’s schedule, activities, and her health on a daily basis. Phyllis is also a familiar sight around campus. “Holy Angels is a God-send,” said Phyllis. “You feel love when you walk through the front door. I’m very close to the people here; there are so many dedicated people who love these children as their own.” But there was a fear hanging over the Sarvis’ head. Once they fell in love with Holy Angels, they began worrying about their daughter’s future care. What would happen to Kimberly
The Catholic News & Herald 7
when she reached age 21, the maximum age of care? The only alternative at that time, although not a good one, was to place her in a nursing home. Holy Angels also began researching the options for those residents who were living longer and would age out of the Main Center. In 1996, they began the process of presenting their needs to the state with the goal of attaining the necessary certificates to building an eight-bed facility to accommodate some of the residents who were living in the Main Center but were aging out. Phyllis actively joined in the process, writing letters, making phone calls, conducting interviews on WJZY TV, and traveling to Raleigh, where she was a spokesperson at a legislative breakfast. Phyllis joined Holy Angels’ Board Chair Lynn Leonard, who is guardian of one of the people that will be living in the new home, speaking on behalf of Holy Angels to the State Health Care Coordinating Council. It took three years to attain all the necessary certificates. An architectural drawing was then prepared and bids sent out to contractors. On December 20, 2000, a ground-breaking ceremony took place for the new group home, which will be called Belhaven. Kimberly along with three other women and four men will move into the 6,500 square-foot home in mid February. “We’re elated,” said Phyllis. “This is such a peace of mind; I no longer have to worry about her care as she can stay here for as long as she lives. I knew I couldn’t let her leave Holy Angels. Now, my dream has come true.”
8 The Catholic News & Herald
December 28, 2001
Editorials & Col-
The Pope Speaks
POPE JOHN PAUL II
Juan Diego, Padre Pio, Opus Dei founder headed for sainthood By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope John Paul II ordered the publication of decrees clearing the way for the canonization of Blessed Juan Diego, Blessed Padre Pio and the founder of Opus Dei. The decrees issued Dec. 20 recognize scientifically unexplainable healings related to intercessory prayers to the three men. Acceptance of a miracle is the last step needed for canonization; dates for the ceremonies will be set only after Pope John Paul discusses the causes in late January or early February with cardinals living in Rome. The three decrees were among 13 read at the Dec. 20 ceremony. The miracle in the case of Blessed Juan Diego, the peasant who saw Our Lady of Guadalupe, involved a 20-year-old man who suffered a crushed skull in a suicide attempt; his mother’s prayers for her son’s life were answered over the course of a week in 1990. Blessed Padre Pio, an Italian Capuchin, was invoked by an 8-year-old Italian boy’s parents, doctors and staff members at the hospital Padre Pio founded in San Giovanni Rotondo in January 2000. The boy was in a coma in intensive care suffering severe organ damage as a result of meningitis. The boy, Matteo Pio Colella, attended the Dec. 20 ceremony with his parents and leaders of the Capuchin community of San Giovanni Rotondo. Colella carried with him a statue of the Baby Jesus from the monastery’s Nativity scene, a statue the friars said was particularly dear to Padre Pio. Pope John Paul kissed the hand of the statue before kissing Colella on the head and blessing him. Prayers for the intercession of Blessed Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, the Opus Dei founder, were credited with saving the life of a Spanish physician suffering from end-stage skin cancer as a result of years of exposure to X-ray radiation. The doctor was not a member of Opus Dei and although he had been given a holy card with Msgr. Escriva’s image on it, he did not begin praying for healing until finding similar holy cards in a church in Vienna, Austria. But Joaquin Navarro-Valls, papal spokesman, told the Italian news agency ANSA that Blessed Padre Pio’s cause “followed the ordinary procedures; nothing was accelerated and no one put pressure on anyone.” Other decrees issued Dec. 20 cleared the way for the canonization of an 18th-century Italian Capuchin, Father Ignazio da Santhia, and a 19th-century Italian Benedictine, Sister Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello. Decrees recognizing the miracles needed for the beatification of four Italian priests and one Spanish priest, all founders of religious orders, also were read.
It Keeps Giving and Giving and Giving The little figure in the commercial promoting long-lasting battery power reminds me of the enduring character of an endowment fund. Once established, it just keeps paying out money year after year after year. But unlike the battery that eventually runs down, the endowment fund lasts in perpetuity. And perpetuity is a long time. The permanence of an endowment is exactly what attracts some of our donors to this means of supporting The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. They like the idea that the principal of their gift will stay intact while the income will be used for a worthy cause. They realize that someday they will be gone and their outright annual gifts will no longer be available to help meet current needs. But through an endowment they can keep making their annual gifts. Some endowment donors are attracted to the opportunity an endowment gives to memorialize a loved one or other respected person by naming an endowment after them. They use this perpetual giving arrangement to bring honor and recognition. Other thoughtful donors want to establish an endowment in their own name as a means of placing themselves on permanent record as persons who believe in and support either their parish, the Foundation, the Diocese, Catholic school or Catholic agency. An endowment can be created during life, or at death through a bequest, trust, real estate, life estate, annuity, life insurance or retirement plan. It can be restricted to specific needs or unrestricted for general use. You can create your own endowment or contribute to one that already exists. Endowments can be made at once with a single gift or established over time with repeated gifts. Endowments can originate from a single source or through the efforts and support of many persons. Endowments are especially useful in drawing other family members into the giving arena. For example, grandparents who establish an endowment in the family’s name are providing
By Dan Morris Catholic News Service
fades or disappears in less time than it takes to turn 23. For St. Vincent de Paul members: Give thanks often for the lessons the poor can teach and for the grace God has given you for reaching out to them — even when you are treated less than kindly. For finance committee members: Hold close to your heart the truth that witness speaks more powerfully to those of us in the pew than slogans, slick handouts or guilt-o-grams. For those of us in the pew: Spend one minute per week praying over the reality that the holy Mass is an occasion of joy and that we need to resist the easy trap of letting our attendance become mechanical, habitual and heartless. Certainly, it is only fair that these folks make New Year’s resolutions for me, in turn. I only hope they sympathize with the fact that I prefer resolutions that involve MSG-enhanced, tasty-yet-terminal fast food. (Comments are welcome. E-mail Uncle Dan at cnsuncle@yahoo.com.)
By Gina Rhodes Dir. Planned Giving
their children and grandchildren with a continuing tie with The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte as well as a means for them to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing “their” annual endowment grant benefit a worthy cause. There are other good reasons for tapping into the endowment opportunities at The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. You owe it to yourself, and your family, to consider this charitable option. The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte has developed sound policies for creating and managing our endowment funds. This information is available upon request. Please contact either me at 704-370-3320 or gmrhodes@ charlottediocese.org or Jim Kelley, Executive Director, The Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte at 704-3703301 or jkkelley@charlottediocese.org.
Making New Year’s Resolutions for Others There are two hard-and-fast rules about New Year’s resolutions. First, the ones we make for ourselves are usually way too hard to keep unless it is something like, “Eat tasty-yet-terminal fast food as often as possible because it supports millions of entry-level jobs.” Second, it is much easier to make resolutions for others. With this in mind, I have started a New Year’s resolution list for the church in the United States with as little personal sacrifice on my part involved as possible. So, for starters, how is this for the bishops of the United States: Call a moratorium on pastoral letters until it can be established that three out of five adult Catholics: a) know what one is; b) can name one they have read; c) are convinced it would speak to the message of Jesus more clearly than spending the same amount of time volunteering at a soup kitchen as it took to write it. For pastors: Be more cognizant of fatigue, and do not consider it a sign of weakness to seek retreat, rest and renewal. Signs of fatigue might include dozing while driving, bouncing one’s forehead against the confessional wall and/or screaming “Oh, yeah, big surprise!” when the parish secretary says, “It’s for you on Line 1.” For women religious: Find a young family with at least a couple of kids and ask if you can stay at their place for a couple of days. For deacons: Pray to accept and appreciate the leavening power and potential of your ministry even when at times it seems invisible or misunderstood. For chancery employees: Keep in focus that you are very much to be the hands and voice of Jesus, that your income is provided by the free-will offering of many who make less than you (often far less) and that ministry begins in one’s heart not one’s job description. For youth ministers: Pray daily for the vision to understand how the wisdom, clarity and energy of the young people with whom you work too often
December 28, 2001
Editorials & Col-
Light One Candle FATHER Msgr. JIM LISANTE Guest Columnist ing, swearing and mean-spiritedness are the exception. In fact, it seems not unlike the spirit you find at holiday time. Around Christmas, people who once shared only anonymity make an effort to connect. We see ourselves as members of the human family, setting aside differences and allowing for the possibilities of goodness in one another. We are not surprised when a total stranger wishes us a hearty “Merry Christmas” or “Happy New Year” for no reason except to share the goodwill or the season. I, too, will always treasure being in New York during these last few months. In the midst of unspeakable tragedy, people responded with kindness, care for others, and an unexpected civility. Most importantly, that sensitivity hasn’t faded. Instead, people act as though they’re in this for the long haul. September 11th changed us in so many ways - not least in giving us pause, and helping us to remember that we are sharing the human journey. The ties that bind are so much more vital than those that separate. It’s as simple as this: We need each other. The power that inspired Michael Berresse and others to stay in New York, to come here, to connect and to share with their brothers and sisters is alive and well in the U.S.A.and in the world, today. May it be a spirit that grows and prospers.
Or is he just too stupid to figure out the source of his pain and what will stop it? You may have a similar quandary when it comes to the boundaries in your own life, and I’m sure there are scads of them: curfews and house rules, term-paper deadlines, uniform regulations and class rules. There are guidelines for how you’re to look, what to say and how to act at work. Then there are the boundaries that aren’t so definable: You will go to college. You will major in something “useful.” You will not embarrass your mother or father. Is crossing these boundaries a brave act of exploration of your true identity? Or is it just a stupid act that shows you just don’t know what’s good for you? Well, it depends. Not all boundaries are there for the same purpose, and an important part of growing to adulthood involves learning to distinguish them. The person who slavishly reveres all rules just because someone made them is just as foolish as the person who thinks it’s the height of maturity to disdain all boundaries. Would you like a helpful clue to help tease all these boundaries apart so that you could see which are useful and which could stand a little stretching with no harm to you or others? Look at Jesus. Jesus pushed some boundaries to the limit: he mingled with the despised, which was supposed to render him “unclean.” He broke Sabbath rules about eating and working. But he respected just as many boundaries as he challenged: He talked tough about marriage and divorce. He was enraged by those who violated the sanctity of the temple. Yes, you’re surrounded by boundaries: invisible fences that just might shock you if you cross them. With Jesus’ help, though, as you grow you’ll be able to tell which crossings are worth the pain and which are just plain stupid.
Giving Us Pause Michael Berresse, a native of Joliet, Illinois, is a star on the Broadway stage. His two biggest roles so far, have been in the hugely popular shows Chicago and Kiss Me Kate. He’s also appeared in several movies, including Steven Spielberg’s much discussed film A.I. This talented young man is clearly on the move. He was recently a guest on our Christopher Closeup television program. Our taping took place shortly before Michael was scheduled to move to London and reprise his Tony-nominated part there as Bill Calhoun in Kiss Me Kate. Few members of the Broadway cast were asked to take part in the English production, but Michael’s singing, dancing and amazing acrobatic skills are a marvel. Yet what most impressed me about Michael Berresse was something else entirely. Michael should have left New York City around the time it was attacked. Instead he chose to stay. Here’s what he later wrote from London: “I too was in New York on the 11th of September. I delayed my departure until the 19th so that I might find solace and hope in the connection with so many in search of a greater unity. It was incredibly powerful to see so many eyes meet mine in the streets hour after hour, day after day following the disaster. All pleading for contact. No judgment, no borders. I have never felt such grief and reverence simultaneously. It is a magnificent lesson in understanding that peace and security do not come from without, rather from within. The desire to connect is a beautiful one, but even more so when one can find the holiness and peace in that connection.” In yet another message from London, Michael spoke about the many British people who have offered support and kind words simply because he’s an American. “So much sorrow and grief,” he added, “and yet so much potential for growth and unity.” This “potential” offers a unique opportunity. Those stories you’ve heard about New York are true. In the wake of horror, people were and are different. More people now hold the door open for others. Drivers are not as consumed with bolting past the light. Curs-
Coming of Age By Amy Welborn Catholic News Service
Boundaries and Rules: Blessings or Curses? In the house behind us live a couple of dogs — beagles. Most of the time they’re inside. But twice a day, they come out for some air. There’s no fence between the properties, so I can see the happy little critters out my back window as they bound out and sniff the ground. It’s a calm little scene much of the time. But once in a while, the mood changes. For while there’s no physical fence as a barrier between the dog’s yard and the rest of the world, there is something designed to keep them contained: one of those underground electrical fences which sends a nasty little shock via the dog’s collar when he crosses over. One of the dogs is fine with the situation. He obviously absorbed his lessons well, and never crosses the invisible line. Such is not the case with his brother. It’s easy to tell when he’s ventured further than he should: The yelping does it. When I look out the window, I can see him hopping too, as if in mild pain. None of this stops him from his real job, though. Yipping and jumping, he keeps right on sniffing the ground in our yard, then around to the front and into the neighbor’s until one of his owners comes and fetches him. I cannot make up my mind whether that dog is brave or just stupid. Is he a creature with a strong will and a determination to follow adventure wherever it leads, no matter the cost?
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Bottom Line By Antoinette Bosco Catholic News Service Resolved: No More Worry Waiting My New Year’s resolution this year was inspired by Ray Romano, the star of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” I became impressed early in life with the romanticism of new starts and how we get the chance every Jan. 1 to resolve to make some. I can hardly remember a year I didn’t tell somebody, usually my patient children, about the resolutions I was making. In time, these became a kind of frothy ritual, having a boring sameness every year. You know: Don’t gain weight. Do more exercise. Stay in better touch with friends. Don’t criticize co-workers. Eat more vegetables. Throw out the old clothes in the closet. Yet, some years I’d come up with a new resolution, one that was worth going for. This is one of those years. I’ve probably seen, at most, a half dozen episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond,” laughing a lot at each one of them. I credited Ray Romano for his talent and would have assumed he was a celebrity with a strong dose of confidence. Then I saw him interviewed on a morning show. There he was, saying honestly that everything might be going well for him, but always lurking in the background is his fear that he won’t measure up for the next opportunity. He said he’s always got “worry waiting,” and while he smiled, he projected an honesty about this fear of the future. I grabbed a pencil and wrote it down: “worry waiting.” Wow, did that hit home. If I had to count all the times in my life that a good achievement got short shrift because I worried immediately that I wouldn’t be able to keep up the good work, I’d run out of numbers. I thought about relatives, friends and co-workers I have known who have been similarly bogged down. First I remembered that when I was a teenager I read that “worry is the interest you pay on money that you never had.” Now, I asked myself, why is it that we let something as ambiguous as worry take root in us when we get to be adults? What are we really afraid of? Each of us has to find our own very personal answer to those questions. I know that for many of us worry is the baggage we carry after some traumatic event shakes our lives. We worry that if we were hit once, we can be hit again, and we live in mortal terror of a new pain shattering us, one we might not be able to handle. So we live with miserable, constant “worry waiting.” Thanks to Ray Romano, I learned something important, and I made a New Year’s resolution: No more “worry waiting.” I invite you to join me in this resolution. There’s help, too, from above, if we can believe, as these words, found on a mantle in an old English hotel, profess: “Fear knocked at the door. Faith answered. No one was there.” Have a happy, worry-free New Year!
1 0 The Catholic News & Herald
December 28, 2001
In the
Pope says true peace must include justice as well as suffering of his friends and acquaintances in Poland under Nazism and communism. “I have often paused to reflect on the persistent question: How do we restore the moral and social order subjected to such horrific violence? “My reasoned conviction,” he said, “is that the shattered order cannot be fully restored except by a response that combines justice with forgiveness.” People often see justice and forgiveness as contradictory, the pope said, “but forgiveness is the opposite of resentment and revenge, not of justice.” “Forgiveness is in no way opposed to justice, as if to forgive meant to overlook the need to right the wrong done,” he said. “But because human justice is always fragile and imperfect, subject as it is to the limitations and egoism of individuals and groups, it must include and, as it were, be completed by the forgiveness that heals and rebuilds troubled human relations from their foundations,” he said. The pope said countries had a right to defend themselves against terrorism, as long as the right was exercised “with respect for moral and legal limits in the choice of ends and means.” “The guilty must be correctly identified, since criminal culpability is always personal and cannot be extended to the nation, ethnic group or religion to which the terrorists may belong,” he said. Vatican officials at the press conference declined to comment directly on whether the U.S.-led bombing of Afghanistan or a potential extension of the military campaign to other countries like Iraq, Sudan or Somalia would fit the pope’s ethical parameters. Several said the lack of solid information coming out of Afghanistan made it impossible to form a judgment. But one official, Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, approvingly noted U.S. stated objectives in Afghanistan to target only the terrorists blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks and the Taliban regime that gave the terrorists protection and support. The pope said international efforts to fight terrorism must include addressing “situations of oppression and marginalization which facilitate the designs of terrorists.” But, he said, “it must be firmly stated
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that the injustices existing in the world can never be used to excuse acts of terrorism.” In addition, those hurt most by the breakdown of global order caused by terrorism are the poor, especially those in developing countries, he said. “The terrorist claim to be acting on behalf of the poor is a patent falsehood,” he said. The pope condemned terrorism as a “true crime against humanity,” saying it “springs from hatred” and “is built on contempt for human life.” He said the “fanatic fundamentalism” that often breeds terrorism “is an attitude radically opposed to belief in God” and offends human dignity by trying to force one’s own vision of truth on others. “Even when the truth has been reached — and this can happen only in a limited and imperfect way — it can never be imposed,” he said. “Respect for a person’s conscience, where the image of God himself is reflected, means that we can only propose the truth to others, who are then responsible for accepting it.” The pope said no religious leader could condone terrorism, much less preach it. He said he intended a Jan. 24 summit of world religious leaders in Assisi, Italy, to be a sign of hope to the world and a joint commitment for peace and forgiveness. “We will show that genuine religious belief is an inexhaustible wellspring of mu-
writing clips and photography samples to: Freelance Writer Search, The Catholic News & Herald, P.O. Box 37267, Charlotte, NC 28237, or send email to jskeane@charlottediocese.org. Music Director: Our Lady of Grace in Greensboro is seeking a full-time director to be responsible for all music activity in a church with over 2,300 families. Applicants must be fully competent in both organ and piano, and experienced in directing both adult and children’s choirs. If you meet these requirements, please send your resume and salary requirements to: Music Ministry, Our Lady of Grace Church, 201 S. Chapman Street, Greensboro, NC 27403. Principal: Experienced principal for St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Southern Pines, NC, to open Fall 2002. K-3. Minimum MA/MS. Expected to
By John Norton Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) — In his strongest statement since the Sept. 11 attacks, Pope John Paul II said countries had a right to defend themselves against international terrorists. But he said true peace could not be achieved without “justice and that form of love which is forgiveness.” In a message for World Day of Peace, celebrated Jan. 1, the pope urged Jewish, Christian and Islamic religious leaders to condemn terrorism publicly in order to deny “terrorists any form of religious or moral legitimacy.” He said the international community must fight terrorism by addressing underlying injustices like poverty, but he called the terrorists’ claim to be acting on behalf of the poor “a patent falsehood.” The 14-page text, “No Peace Without Justice, No Justice Without Forgiveness,” was released at a Vatican press conference Dec. 11 and focused on the unstable world situation since Sept. 11. The message’s theme, originally announced in June as a reflection on the role of forgiveness in peace, was changed after the attacks to add the element of justice. The pope said the terrorist attacks, through which “the power of evil seems once again to have taken the upper hand” in the world, had made him think of the
tual respect and harmony among peoples; indeed, it is the chief antidote to violence and conflict,” he said. The pope acknowledged that forgiveness, which he defined as “a decision of the heart to go against the natural instinct to pay back evil with evil,” was often difficult to understand and accept. “Forgiveness, in fact, always involves an apparent short-term loss for a real longterm gain. Violence is the exact opposite; opting as it does for an apparent short-term gain, it involves a real and permanent loss,” he said. Saying he hoped that his insistence on the necessity of forgiveness would spur “serious and mature thinking on this theme,” the pope closed his message with prayers not only for peace and for victims of terrorism, but also for the terrorists. “May the light of our prayer extend even to those who gravely offend God and man by these pitiless acts, that they may look into their hearts, see the evil of what they do, abandon all violent intentions and seek forgiveness,” he said.
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December 28, 2001
Movie Review
By Anne Navarro Catholic News Service NEW YORK (CNS) — A few months ago, most Americans probably would not have been interested in a small movie by an Iranian director dealing with the plight of the Afghan people. Most also would be hard-pressed to find the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on a map. But by now, nearly all Americans are familiar with the Afghan city that was home to the Taliban leader Muhammad Omar, and curiosity about things dealing with Afghanistan has grown. This is, in a strange way, good news for director Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s grim drama “Kandahar” (Avatar). One of the most influential directors in Iran today, Makhmalbaf has created a visually exotic film which addresses the plight of women under the stringent Taliban rule and the accumulated misery of the Afghan people. Inspired by a true story, the film has a simple premise, but packs an emotional wallop as it describes the suffering and oppression of the Afghan people in graphic, inescapable terms. Nafas (Nelofer Pazira), a young Afghan woman exiled in Canada, is desperately trying to reach Kandahar from Iran to rescue her maimed sister, who was left behind when the family fled the country. Her sister intends to commit suicide during the last solar eclipse of the millennium, giving Nafas’ trip the urgency and motivation needed to make the perilous journey into Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. But this central story isn’t what is compelling to the viewer. It is the incidental people and situations that Nafas encounters along her journey, depicting a horrifying view of life under the Taliban regime, that grips the viewer. Hidden behind a head-to-toe burqa, Nafas is guided first by a refugee family, then by a boy expelled from a religious/ military Quranic school, an AfricanAmerican working as a self-taught paramedic, and finally a man maimed by a land mine. Most of the “actors” in the film are refugees living in camps in northeast Iran close to the Afghan border where the film was shot. This gives the film a realistic — almost documentary — quality. It was Pazira who inspired Makhmal-
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Entertainbaf’s story. A radio and television journalist in Ottawa, Pazira was drawn back to the region after receiving a desperate letter from her closest friend who was living an oppressive life as a woman under the Taliban’s rule. Having difficulty entering Afghanistan alone, Pazira contacted Makhmalbaf to make a documentary of her planned voyage. Though the director could not accept at the time, he contacted her a year later and proposed a fictionalized version of her story. Visually, the film has a lyrical, poetic feel. As women line up on a bleachedwhite desert to be searched by the military, their long, colorful burqas flap in the wind, creating a burst of color against the stark sand. At a Red Cross station, dozens of men missing legs line up to receive painkillers and prosthetic limbs. And when a helicopter starts dropping plastic legs by parachute, a flock of men are seen from overhead, hobbling frantically across the desert to reach the falling limbs in the hopes of being made whole. Throughout the film, Makhmalbaf uses images to create emotionally charged metaphors such as the burqa as a prison and artificial legs as freedom. Two important issues come to light: the obliteration of women’s dignity as they are stripped of their civil rights and the devastation and mutilation caused by land mines. However, despite the vivid depiction of suffering, and as visually arresting as the film is, it is sometimes hampered by heavy-handed dialogue, most of it in English, that lessens the film’s overall impact. Yet “Kandahar” is nevertheless a moving experience that serves to remind that each person, whether male or female, whole or crippled, deserves to be treated with respect and compassion. Some subtitles. Because of a few startling images of amputees, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops classification is A-II — adults and adolescents. Not rated by the Motion Picture Association of America. Navarro is on the staff of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Office for Film and Broadcasting.
Word to Life
ily
Sunday Scripture Readings: Dec. 30, 2001 Cycle A Readings: December 30, The Holy Fam-
1. Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14 Psalm 128:1-5 2. Colossians 3:12-21 3. Gospel: Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23 By Beverly Corzine Catholic News Service One hot September afternoon I welcomed the blast of refrigerated air as I entered the mall. The Christmas season was the farthest thing from my mind. Labor Day had just passed, and the atrocities of Sept. 11 had not arrived. I simply had decided to saunter through my favorite store with the happy knowledge that I had my birthday gift certificate poised in case a great bargain should present itself. It has been my experience that time spent wandering among stacks of merchandise may occasionally lead to serendipitous discoveries, which emphasize the word “gift” in gift certificate. Rounding the corner into what recently had been the linen section on my last visit to the store, I found myself deep in the heart of Christmas decorations 2001. Here on this hot September afternoon the strains of “Away in a Manger” filled the air. Another shopper gave me a knowing look that said, “It starts earlier every year!” After a few minutes of examining the latest Christmas decor, I was ready to free myself from the holiday maze and move on to the allure of discov-
ering the new home of the elusive linen department. Then I saw it. On a shelf at almost eye level were the most beautiful Nativity figures I had ever seen. I stopped and just looked. I then followed their delicate lines with my fingertips. Mary looked serene and peaceful. Joseph looked mature and tender. The baby could barely be seen among the folds of his mother’s wrap. Unexpectedly, I paused once more to marvel at the miracle of the incarnation. The artist had captured every perfect, stylized ideal that we have come to expect in a rendition of the Holy Family. However, we know like the audience in a suspenseful play that this idealized moment of calm will be fleeting. Today, in this season of Christmas, we savor the drama of the infancy narratives in Matthew’s Gospel. They contain a truth that time, space, separation and pain cannot diminish. The family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus were not immune from people of evil intent right from the start. However, from the beginning we see the strength of this family, its trust in God and its will to survive. Of course, we know that because of this family and its remarkable child we have been given the gift of assurance that even death can be conquered. QUESTION: In the narrative of your own family’s progress, can you see the hand of God leading, providing, offering grace?
Weekly Scripture Scripture for the week of Dec. 30 - Jan. 5 Sunday (The Holy Family), Sirach 3:2-7, 12-14, Colossians 3:12-21, Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23; Monday, 1 John 2:18-21, John 1:1-18; Tuesday (Mary, Mother of God), Numbers 6:22-27, Galatians 4:4-7, Luke 2:16-21; Wednesday (St. Basil and St. Gregory Nazianzen), 1 John 2:22-28, John 1:19-28; Thursday, 1 John 2:29—3:6, John 1:29-34; Friday (St. Elizabeth Ann Seton), 1 John 3:7-10, John 1:35-42; Saturday, (St. John Neumann) 1 John 3:11-21, John 1:43-51 Scripture for the week of Jan. 6 - Jan. 12 Sunday (Epiphany), Isaiah 60:1-6, Ephesians 3:2-3a, 5-6, Matthew 2:1-12; Monday (St. Raymond of Penyafort), 1 John 3:22—4:6, Matthew 4:12-17, 2325, Tuesday, 1 John 4:7-10, Mark 6:34-44; Wednesday, 1 John 4:11-18, Mark 6:45-52; Thursday, 1 John 4:19—5:4, Luke 4:14-22; Friday, 1 John 5:5-13, Luke 5:12-16; Saturday, 1 John 5:14-21, John 3:22-30
1 2 The Catholic News & Herald
Living the
December 28, 2001
Family and faith frequent deacon’s By ALESHA M. PRICE Staff Writer GREENSBORO — It was only a country club membership. Gordon Forester had been a longtime member of his Westbury, Long Island, country club until something told him —twice — to resign. What he experienced was not as fantastic as the voices that Kevin Costner’s character heard in the movie “Field of Dreams,” but the messages were similarly inexplicable. Ignoring the first directive, he listened the second time and left. Five months after he gave up his membership, he saw the headline “Diocese of Rockville Centre installs diaconate” in his diocesan paper. He instantly knew why he felt compelled to resign from the club. “I would have been playing golf on Saturdays, and the formation classes were held on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.,” said Rev. Mr. Forester, who was ordained in 1979 and retired from full-time service three years ago. “The classes were exhausting, but they paced them well. We had magnificent teachers in that first class of deacons. “I feel that I was called to it (the diaconate), and I get a great deal of pleasure out of being a deacon and being able to perform ministry. What has been most rewarding for me was performing baptisms and weddings for my grandchildren,” said the father of six and grandfather of seven. “I derive pleasure out of working with people and being reaffirmed by those who have been touched by ministry.” Long before serving as a permanent deacon, Forester, the oldest of three boys, grew up in Evanston, Ill. His father was a furniture salesman who frequently traveled to North Carolina furniture stores, and Forester would sometimes accompany him to Hickory and surrounding areas. He attended Catholic school and served as an altar boy as a child and while attending the University of Notre Dame.
salesperson for major department “My past has been asphalted over,” store chains. said Rev. Mr. Forester wistfully of his “I enjoyed it because of the perelementary and high schools being sonal relationships I developed. I got to torn down for parking lots. know these people well and maintained He graduated from high school friendships with many of them,” said in 1941, the same year the United Rev. Mr. Forester who often traveled to States entered World War II. Forester, North Carolina like many young men to textile mills around the country at as his father did that time, wanted to years before. enlist. An overbite preHis faith life vented his joining the developed more Navy, so he went to slowly than his Notre Dame on a scholprofessional life. arship and majored in He says that his business administrawife was more tion. spiritual than Determined to he at that time, serve his country and so they attendwith his overbite cored Mass twice a rected, he joined the week. Navy ROTC. One se“I had a sense mester before earning of spirituality his degree, he was sent but was a normal to the Pacific in 1944. Sunday Catholic Kamikazes hit his ship at first,” he said. in 1945, and the vesRev. Mr. Gordon Forester “We became insel had to be towed to volved in things the United States. The because of the sailors thought they kids. It was hard to get your kids in were through with attacks, but nature Catholic school back then. We had to had other plans. A typhoon knocked get involved in parish work; it was a their vessel up and down 40- to 60necessity in those days.” foot waves against a backdrop of dark, Marriage preparation, Girl Scouts, stormy skies. Little League, charismatic renewal and “I was working the radar and eucharistic ministry consumed the was too busy to be scared, but I was couple’s time as Forester grew closer scared,” he said. to his faith. He spearheaded the develHe returned home to marry his opment of a grief support group that high school sweetheart, Ann, who had met twice a year. waited anxiously for him. They met The diaconate created more opwhen she was 14; he was 17. They wed portunities for his involvement in in June 1946, a few months after bechurch, including faith formation work coming engaged. He graduated in Sepand other ministries. After retiring tember 1946 with his business degree from the merchandising industry, he and moved to New York to accept a entered the world of academia as an position with Chase Manhattan Bank. adjunct professor of marketing for In need of a better salary, he began Nassau Community College for many working as a buyer and became the head of purchasing for J.C. Penney. After 12 years, he moved to Imperial Reading, now Health Tex, as a jeans
years. The Southern bug bit him as he and his wife pondered where they would spend their retirement years. Greensboro was one of their main choices. His familiarity with the small city from his travels, the climate and a friend living in the area were solid reasons to move in the late ’80s. The Foresters joined St. Paul the Apostle Church, which reminded them of their home parish. He began a grief support group in his new parish and also became involved in hospital ministry as an adjunct chaplain at Moses Cone Hospital. His life changed in 1998 after a family trip to France and a visit to his oldest grandchild in Florida. He and his wife had driven up the coast to Hilton Head, S.C., and she began complaining of breathing problems. He followed the ambulance to the hospital, but it was too late. His wife of more than 50 years had died of an aneurysm of the thorax en route to the hospital. “It was a horrible experience for the first seven or eight months. I had been working in grief support ministry, but it made it no easier for me,” said the deacon, who continues to serve when needed and spends his spare time playing golf and fishing. “(There comes) a time when you overcome grief, or it overcomes you. You never get over it completely, but what has helped me is working with others.” Contact Staff Writer Alesha M. Price by calling (704) 370-3354 or e-mail amprice@charlottediocese.org.