SEPTEMBER 13, 2024
mississippicatholic.com
Half-century of faith: Father Joe Dyer continues to serve BY JOANNA PUDDISTER KING AND TEREZA MA
JACKSON – Being a priest for 50 years, one could imagine the immense changes in that half of a century. For Father Joe Dyer, the first Black diocesan priest in Mississippi, God threw him “many surprises.” Celebrating 50 years of priesthood on Friday, Aug. 16 at Christ the King parish in Jackson was a full-circle moment for Father Dyer, having been his first assignment in the Diocese of Jackson as associate pastor shortly after his ordination to the priesthood in 1974. Father Dyer was ordained by Bishop Joseph Brunini in New Orleans at St. Mary of the Angels Church – an event he was “forever grateful” to Bishop Brunini for allowing him to be ordained at one of the parishes of his youth. Growing up in New Orleans, Father Dyer recalled his home church of Holy Redeemer a “colored” parish that was destroyed by Hurricane Betsy, a powerful category 4 storm in 1965 that breached levees and inun- JACKSON – Father Joe Dyer celebrates Mass with Father Tony Arguelles of the Diocese of Biloxi on his 50th an-
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niversary of priesthood on Friday, Aug. 16, 2024. Also pictured are Sister Thea Bowman School students Zachary Gordon (fourth grade) and Harry Chia (fifth grade) with Bishop Joseph Kopacz. (Photo by Tereza Ma)
US bishops’ diocesan survey sets new baseline for Hispanic ministry in parishes nationwide BY MARIETHA GÓNGORA
(OSV News) – The U.S. bishops’ Subcommittee on Hispanic Affairs conducted a survey of dioceses and archdioceses in the country’s 14 episcopal regions and released its results Aug. 21. The survey shows how Hispanic ministry has taken off across the country and that in most dioceses, there is a parish-based pastoral response to Hispanic Catholics. Alejandro Aguilera-Titus, assistant director of Hispanic Affairs under the Secretariat for Cultural Diversity in the Church at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, explained that the subcommittee sought to determine a
baseline about the state of Hispanic ministry at the parish level. He told OSV News that it was important to observe the implementation of the National Pastoral Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, a 10-year plan that was approved by the U.S. bishops in June 2023, and “to see how that parish ministry will develop in the years ahead.” The survey, which was conducted from last April through mid-August, included questions on the number of parishes in each diocese, the number of parishes offering Mass in Spanish, and the number of parishes with a Hispanic/Latino presence or ministry without a Mass celebrated in Spanish. “It was very important to know what the starting point is, what is the number of parishes that already have a Sunday Mass in Spanish, which is the quintessential sign that we see that the Hispanic community has been welcomed as
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Shroud of Turin 7 Bloodstains are ‘consistent with Jesus Christ’s tortures’
Intercultural Ministry 11 Diocesan leaders gather to learn about ministry
Youth 15 Photos of youth activities from around the diocese