September | 2025 VOL 35 NO 1
IN THIS ISSUE
AND MORE IN THE NEWS! FIRE FOR CHRIST B1 ON B1 BOOKS A4-5 OLPH Meliora Catholic Parishes in LaFollette, Fanning the Flame Chattanooga dedicate exciting additions
celebration at St. Jude in Chattanooga is grace-filled
bookstore is serving the Diocese of Knoxville
Catholic commentary ....................... A3 Parish news ....................................... B4 Diocesan calendar ............................ B5 Columns ..........................................B6-7 Catholic schools ............................. B10 La Cosecha ............................Section C
Marked with the sign of faith Seftons gift land for new Catholic cemetery By Dan McWilliams
Cemetery continued on page A13
JOHN MECKLENBORG (2)
L
ongtime diocesan benefactors Alan and Sally Sefton have donated 10.9 acres in the FarragutConcord area for a new Holy Cross Cemetery with a potential capacity of 3,500 graves, and the couple additionally contributed $1 million to establish a perpetual-care fund for the land, formerly used as a landscaping nursery. The donation of the Northshore Drive property includes a large onestory building from the nursery and follows a search of several years for a new Catholic burial site as Calvary Cemetery close to downtown Knoxville, maintained by Immaculate Conception Parish, has been close to capacity for a few years. The six-acre Calvary property on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue was acquired by IC, whose church is about two miles away, in 1869. Calvary is landlocked in a residential area. To support Holy Cross Cemetery, including an expensive effort to add topsoil to the site, and to be put on a waiting list for a plot, visit cemetery holycross.com (see below for details). The diocese’s other cemetery, Mount Olivet in Chattanooga, was founded in 1886 and is maintained by the Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul and other Chattanooga Deanery parishes. Mount Olivet covers about 30 acres with another 20 for potential expansion and has columbaria, which Calvary does not. All three diocesan cemeteries have
Site preparation Deacon Sean Smith, Diocese of Knoxville chancellor and chief operating officer, shows the location of a new cemetery for the diocese located on Northshore Drive where Knox County joins Loudon County. Alan and Sally Sefton, who are generous donors to the diocese, gifted the land for the cemetery, which will be one of three Catholic burial sites in East Tennessee.
A work in progress A construction crew readies Holy Cross Cemetery for burial plots as the Diocese of Knoxville prepares to begin offering spaces. The cemetery on Northshore Drive where Knox County joins Loudon County is the third in the diocese along with Calvary in Knoxville and Mount Olivet in Chattanooga.
History in the making Diocese founders recognized at Mass, reception to mark upcoming milestone By Dan McWilliams
Founders continued on page A9
BEE GOODMAN
T
he spirit of 1988 lives on in the Diocese of Knoxville as evidenced in a Founders Mass that honored clergy and laity who were part of the establishment of the Church in East Tennessee that year and its first decade of mission. Bishop Mark Beckman, who as a seminarian was present at the Mass on Sept. 8, 1988, in which the diocese was erected and its founding Bishop Anthony J. O’Connell ordained, celebrated the Founders liturgy on Aug. 31 at the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus. Concelebrating was Bishop James Vann Johnston Jr. of the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph, Mo., a son of Holy Ghost Parish in Knoxville and the longtime chancellor for his native diocese. The second reading at Mass came from Hebrews 12 and described the city of the living God that awaits believers. “This liturgy is a foretaste of that sacred gathering. I want to thank all of you who are part of the found-
Founding Fathers Diocese of Knoxville priests, deacons, and Chancery staff, some of whom helped establish the Diocese of Knoxville in 1988, gather for a group photo along with diocesan laity outside of the Cathedral of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus following the Founders Mass on Aug. 31.