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Charleston, S.C., Jun 28, 2016 / 02:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Heavy storms dumped more than nine inches of rain in much of West Virginia last week, with the resulting floods killing at least 25 people and damaging or destroying thousands of homes and businesses.

It’s the worst flooding the state has seen in a least three decades. A federal disaster has been declared in three of the hardest hit counties, while a state of emergency has been declared in 44 of the state’s 55 counties due to the floods.

Bishop Michael J. Bransfield of the diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, the only Catholic diocese in the state, offered Mass on Sunday for the victims of the flood, and released a statement calling for prayers.

“We pray for those affected by this natural disaster, including those who have lost their homes and livelihoods; those who do not have electricity, food or clean water and, most importantly, for those who are injured and have lost loved ones,” Bishop Bransfield said. “Let us prayerfully remember those who died.”
 
“As floodwaters rise and recede, I ask you to please join me in praying for the protection of the brave men and women who are working to bring relief to our neighbors,” he added.

Patti Phillips, Director of Development and Marketing for Catholic Charities in West Virginia, told CNA that Catholic Charities is partnering with Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) in cleanup and relief efforts.

The most needed items right now include rubber boots, gloves, rakes and other items that can help with cleanup, Phillips said.

And while immediate help is needed, Phillips said it’s also important to remember that the process of rebuilding will be ongoing for the next several months.

“We have this immediate response where people want to come and help, and that’s beautiful,” she said.

“But if people give a thought to the time they may be able to offer in the coming months with a church group or parish group, they can contact us,” she said.

“We have a work camp program and many of our work camps end up working on disaster-affected areas and homes.”

Archbishop Joseph Kurtz, President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, offered his prayers and support to the people of West Virginia in a letter to Bishop Bransfield.

“Once again, the suffering of so many calls us closer to the Cross of Christ,” he said in the letter. “I entrust those who have died to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and pray all those affected will find strength for the recovery.”  

Archbishop Kurtz also expressed his gratitude for the generosity of the Church and for Bishop Bransfield’s witness in a time of tragedy.

“Amid the widespread pain we witnessed after the violence in Orlando and, now, the natural disaster in West Virginia, we also see how such events can draw us closer together as brothers and sisters in need of each other’s assistance,” he continued.

For more information on donating to the relief efforts through Catholic Charities, visit: http://www.catholiccharitieswv.org/.

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Sydney, Australia, Jun 28, 2016 / 03:44 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In the 1970s, a teenager boarded a boat to escape the cruelty of war in his homeland of Vietnam. He landed as a refugee in a foreign land.

Now, he has been installed as the fourth Catholic bishop of Australia’s Parramatta diocese.

On June 16, Vietnamese native Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen, O.F.M. Con. became the new shepherd of the Parramatta diocese.

“I have taken many leaps of faith before, including the one that launched me literally onto the Pacific Ocean,” Bishop Nguyen said at his installation Mass at Parramatta’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

The bishop explained his episcopal motto “Duc in Altum,” which means “Go into the deep.” He connected it to his own struggle as a refugee.

Born in 1961 in Dong Nai, Vietnam, Nguyen entered St Paul’s Minor Seminary in the Diocese of Xuan Loc, located about 37 miles north of Saigon.

With the fall of Saigon in 1975, the communist authorities forcefully evicted all the seminarians from the seminary building, which they converted into army barracks. Tumult and persecution caused a major refugee crisis. People abandoned their homes and sought to escape the country on boats – becoming known as “boat people.”

The future bishop, at the age of 18, became separated from most of his family. He boarded a 55-foot-long boat with a few family members and 146 other refugees.

The journey was perilous and the destination was unknown. After time at sea, the closely-packed boat ran out of food, water and fuel.

But the passengers were saved when their boat drifted near an oil rig. The refugees were housed in a refugee camp off the coast of Malaysia.

After a year, Nguyen was moved to Australia. There, he faced language differences, cultural shocks, and even a few incidents of bullying.

He later entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, a Franciscan order, and was ordained a priest in December 1989. He went on to secure a licentiate in Christology and Spirituality from the Pontifical University of St. Bonaventure. He was elected as the Australian superior of the Friar Conventuals in 2005. He served as the order’s assistant general in Rome from 2008-2011, overseeing the Asia-Oceania region.

Pope Benedict XVI named him auxiliary bishop of Melbourne in May 2011.  Bishop Nguyen serves as the Australian bishops’ delegate for Migrants and Refugees and also chairs the bishops’ Catholic Social Justice Council.

At his installation Mass, Bishop Nguyen stressed his commitment to being “a bridge builder.”

“We must foster pathways across the political and religious divide to build not only a rich and strong Australia but also an inclusive and humane society and a responsible world citizen,” he said. He urged the faithful to take heed to Pope Francis’ counsel to be a Church “where everyone can feel welcomed, loved, forgiven and encouraged to live according to the Gospel.”

He voiced his commitment to Church renewal patterned on Christ: “the Church that dies to worldly power, privilege, clericalism and rises to humility, simplicity, equality and servanthood – the Church that might be smaller, poorer and humbler but hopefully more of a light and a sacrament of God’s love to the world.”

The bishop lamented “the flood of secularization that has washed away much of the Church we’ve known and loved.”

“We have been battered and bruised. We’ve been reduced in numbers and status,” he said. “What is more, we have to admit with the greatest humility that we have not lived up to that fundamental ethos of justice, mercy and care for those who have been hurt by our own actions and inactions.”  

Bishop Nguyen noted the sexual abuse crisis, voicing hope it will be “a catalyst for transformation.”

He also encouraged everyone to be part of the Church.

“There can be no future for the living Church without there being space for those who have been hurt, damaged or alienated, be they abuse victims, survivors, divorcees, gays, lesbians or disaffected members,” he said. “I am committed to make the Church in Parramatta the house for all peoples, a Church where there is less an experience of exclusion but more an encounter of radical love, inclusiveness and solidarity.”

The bishop’s mother, godmother and four siblings were present at the installation.

Bishop Nguyen succeeds Archbishop Anthony Fisher O.P., who was appointed Archbishop of Sydney.

The Parramatta diocese is about 14 miles west of Sydney. It is predominantly Catholic, with about 330,000 faithful in 47 parishes and 120 active and retired priests.

 

 

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IMAGE: CNS illustration/Liz Agbey

By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- At first glance, it's difficult to distinguish Father Lukasz J. Willenberg as a Catholic priest as he gathers with U.S. Army paratroopers preparing for a training jump at Pope Field near Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Instead of wearing the traditional black clerics, the 34-year-old Polish immigrant is sporting fatigues, a camouflage helmet and a contraption strapped to his back that will release a parachute after he jumps out of a military aircraft, along with the scores of other soldiers waiting in that same harness shed on a warm March afternoon earlier this year.

Shortly before the men and women are called to board the aircraft, Father Willenberg stands up, and with the heavy jump gear fastened to his fit body, he sluggishly makes his way to the center of the shelter to lead everyone in a prayer.

Yes, this priest prays, works, trains and jumps out of airplanes with the men and women in the second battalion of the 3rd Brigade in the U.S. Army's famed 82nd Airborne Division's 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment located at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville.

Though he is an ordained priest of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island, Father Willenberg also is a captain in the U.S. Army and one of the dwindling numbers of Catholic chaplains serving in the U.S. military.

Chaplains have had a presence in the American military since the U.S. Army Chaplains Corps was established July 29, 1775.

Military chaplains are commissioned officers serving in the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. The priests are basically on loan from their dioceses while they serve. Unlike traditional parish priests, most chaplains work side-by-side with their flock.

"I spend most of my day with the people I serve with, so my involvement in their lives is definitely more intensified than when I served as a parish priest," Father Willenberg said. "It's the commission of Jesus in the purest sense, to go out and preach and teach and baptize, go everywhere basically and give yourself completely to those you are with."

He views his chaplaincy as a way of fulfilling Pope Francis' call to priests to get out of their rectories and smell like the sheep.

"It's the beautiful aspect of being a chaplain," Father Willenberg said. "As a priest, there is no greater fulfillment. There are so many opportunities to impact the lives of the people we serve with and their families."

To say there is a shortage of Catholic military chaplains currently serving in the U.S. armed forces is an understatement, according to Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services in Washington.

The U.S. Department of Defense estimates there are 1.3 million active duty and 811,000 reserve men and women serving in all five branches of the U.S. military, about 25 percent of whom are Catholic.

Yet, there are only 214 priests on active duty serving in the U.S. military, accounting for about 8 percent of the chaplain corps, Archbishop Broglio told Catholic News Service during a June interview.

It's about 500 priests fewer than the archbishop says there should be just to meet the pastoral needs of the people serving in the armed forces and their families.

So, if you break the current numbers down just for the active duty service men and women, there are currently 214 chaplains serving approximately 325,000 Catholics in the U.S. military, or about a priest for every 1,519 Catholic and that doesn't include their family members.

The military does contract with priests near several military installations to help out and in some cases serve as the Catholic presence, but there is always a preference for a chaplain who is actually embedded in that particular branch of the armed forces, Archbishop Broglio said.

"There is a tremendous gap between the need for Catholic priests and their actual presence in the military," he said. "This means that you have installations where if the archdiocese is unable to find a contractor who might fill in for the military chaplain, there simply isn't a Catholic program."

So far the archdiocese has been able to ensure a chaplain is on every aircraft carrier in the U.S. fleet, allowing each of these men to minister to all of the surrounding ships, but with only 48 priests currently serving in the U.S. Navy, Archbishop Broglio isn't sure that can continue to be the case.

Contract priests tend to be older clergy members, sometimes they are former military, and in cases where there is no chaplain available, they are able to offer essential Catholic services and can be available for counseling.

Though Archbishop Broglio is grateful for each contract priest who serves, he said that "his ability to minister is limited by the fact that he doesn't necessarily have the security clearance and he can't always go where the men and women work."

There are a number of reasons why the number of military chaplains has dropped from more than 400 at the turn of the 21st century to the current 214.

There are fewer priests serving in U.S. dioceses than during the vocations heyday of the mid-20th century.

Though there has been a bit of an uptick in ordinations in recent years, most dioceses and archdioceses are still ending up with a net loss of clergy, because for every priest ordained each year, sometimes two are leaving ministry because of retirement or death.

Another factor is that priests tend to be older at ordination than Protestant clergy, making the physical demands and the age requirements of serving in the military more restrictive for many current Catholic priests, Archbishop Broglio said.

It's also a difficult decision for a bishop or archbishop to release one of their priests to serve in the military, since most of them are dealing with clergy shortages of their own.

When Providence Bishop Thomas J. Tobin was approached by Father Willenberg about his desire to service as an Army chaplain, the answer wasn't immediately yes.

Bishop Tobin's primary responsibility is to Catholics in the state of Rhode Island and he told CNS that losing the "ministry of a fine young priest like Father Luke" was a significant sacrifice for the diocese.

He ended up releasing Father Willenberg to serve for at least a three-year tour in the army, but said he struggled with the decision.

Numerous recruiting efforts have been employed to bring more priests into the military chaplaincy corps, including biannual discernment retreats for interested eligible clergy.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services also now has a full-time vocations director.

Though Archbishop Broglio has been encouraged by the number of recruits in recent years, he said it will take years of steady increases to reach the number of Catholic chaplains he really needs.

Though the armed forces chaplaincy is most frequently viewed as a positive military component, some Catholic peace organizations object to priests serving in institutions that engage in war.

Melkite Father Emmanuel Charles McCarthy of Brockton, Massachusetts, a co-founder of Pax Christi USA, sees a conflict of interest for a follower of Jesus Christ to serve in, and be paid by, a branch of the armed services, which sanction the killing of other humans in combat situations.

Father McCarthy doesn't have a problem with priests providing pastoral care to soldiers, airmen, sailors, Marines or members of the Coast Guard. However, he believes that being a commissioned officer in the military makes it impossible for that priest to maintain his objectivity when preaching the Gospel message that killing any human is an act of evil.

But Archbishop Broglio and the numerous chaplains interviewed by CNS say chaplains have an essential role in the military. They all say having priests embedded in each branch of the military provides them access to serve as a moral compass to those who make life and death decisions.

"A large part of my effectiveness comes because I live the life of the people that I serve," said Father Michael A. Mikstay, a Navy chaplain currently serving at Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. "Those hardships that men and women endure in combat, I endure in combat.

"That gains me entrance into people's lives that can't be accomplished simply because you're a clergy person," he told CNS during a May interview. "My credibility rests on that very fact that wherever that unit, that command that I'm assigned to goes, I go. Whatever training they do, I do. They're sent to combat, I go. Day in and day out, especially in war, we're there."

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Follow Muth on Twitter: @Chazmaniandevyl.

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