Catholic News 2

Full Article

Full Article

 WASHINGTON-National Migration Week 2016 will take place January 3-9 with the theme, "A Stranger and You Welcomed Me." The celebration provides an opportunity to raise awareness about the hardships faced by migrants, including children, refugees, and victims of human trafficking.

The call to welcome the stranger plays an important role in the lives of faithful Christians and has a particularly central place in the Year of Mercy. "People often forget that the Holy Family themselves were refugees fleeing into Egypt," said Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, auxiliary bishop of Seattle and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Committee on Migration. "Likewise, refugees around the world, all of whom are extremely vulnerable, are fleeing for their lives. As Catholics, we are called to welcome and support these families who also need our help."

As part of the 2016 National Migration Week celebration, the USCCB established a small grant program that will provide Catholic parishes, schools and other organizations funding to help them better integrate the Church's teaching on migration into new or existing programs, materials, events and other activities. Grant recipients will be announced during National Migration Week.

The observance of National Migration Week began over 25 years ago by the U.S. bishops to give Catholics an opportunity to take stock of the wide diversity of peoples in the Church and the ministries serving them. The week serves as both a time for prayer and action to try and ease the struggles of immigrants, migrants and vulnerable populations coming to the United States.

Dioceses across the country including Chicago, Illinois; Portland, Oregon; Jackson, Mississippi; and Metuchen, New Jersey; have planned special events and Masses throughout the week.

Educational materials and other resources for National Migration Week are available for download at www.usccb.org/nationalmigrationweek. Posters, prayer cards, and booklets are available through the USCCB publishing service at www.usccbpublishing.org

---
Keywords: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB, Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, Committee on Migration, refugees, migrants, immigrants, human trafficking, National Migration Week

# # #
MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3202

15-169

Full Article

WASHINGTON-The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe has approved 99 grants totaling nearly $2.5 million to fund projects such as church reconstruction, youth programs, evangelization initiatives and family ministry efforts.

"Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the countries of the former USSR have been struggling to create spaces for prayer and spiritual growth," said Archbishop Blase J. Cupich of Chicago, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Church in Central and Eastern Europe. "Providing for all of the pastoral needs of those in that region can be a real challenge. These grants from the Subcommittee help meet such great need."

Among the projects approved for support, the Subcommittee awarded a grant to Tervezz Természetesen Egyesület (TeTe) - Plan Naturally Association - located in the Diocese of Szombathely, Hungary. The funds will help establish a model for monitoring, maintaining and evaluating a woman's reproductive and gynecological health and offering natural solutions for infertility. TeTe will also create a professional office setting and purchase the technical equipment needed to provide pro-life medical services. In addition, they will translate English materials to Hungarian and help defray the cost of clients' registration for post-abortion retreats through the Hungarian Rachel's Vineyard Association.

The Subcommittee also awarded a grant to the Albertine Sisters in the Diocese of St. Joseph in Irkutsk, Russia. The grant will be used to build a daycare center to serve children from socially or economically disadvantaged families. The sisters currently provide care and meals for 50 children in a safe environment that fosters their growth and spiritual development. The new center will be centrally located for the families and will allow the sisters to continue their ministry.

The Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe oversees the annual collection for the Church in Central and Eastern Europe and the allocation of grants as part of the USCCB Committee on National Collections. The next collection is scheduled to take place on Ash Wednesday, February 10, 2016, although some dioceses schedule the collection for a different date.

More information about the collection and the work of the Subcommittee is available at www.usccb.org/ccee.

---
Keywords: Collection to Aid the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, USCCB, Archbishop Blase J. Cupich, Subcommittee on Aid to the Church in Central and Eastern Europe, national collection, reconstruction, infrastructure, pastoral, educational, grants, Plan Naturally Association, , Albertine Sisters, Hungary, Russia

# # #
MEDIA CONTACT:
Norma Montenegro Flynn
O: 202-541-3202


15-170

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS

By Carol Glatz

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The god of Mammon, who is "like a wild animal, trying to clutch me with his talons and enslave me," and people not open to the Holy Spirit, who "are like swamps that give off foul-smelling gases," are just a few of the analogies that appear in the latest collection of papal homilies.

Rigid doctors of the law "imagine God as a kind of really strict school teacher who assigned humanity homework that only very few are able to do. For the majority, the notebook of life will be handed back with the grade: 'Poor!'"

If it sounds like the usual fare from Pope Francis, it is strongly similar, but the author in this case was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the future Pope Benedict XVI.

Never-before published, the 10 homilies are informal, colorful, off-the-cuff reflections that seek to make the mystery, relevance and force of the faith clear and inspirational to everyday Catholics in a small Bavarian parish. The 100-page book -- currently available only in Italian -- is titled, "The Homilies of Pentling," the German village where the cardinal vacationed and kept a home he had hoped to retire to one day.

"Apart from a few small corrections, I kept the familiar style of the text just as it flowed out back then," the retired pope wrote in the book's preface. He said he hoped the homilies, taken from transcribed audio recordings between 1986 and 1999, would help not just "my fellow citizens of Pentling," but all readers in "understanding and living the word of the Gospel."

While Pope Francis consistently crafts clever, memorable metaphors in his writings and talks, many people don't remember that Pope Benedict was quite good at it, too.

The former professor and pre-eminent theologian had that same teacher-talent of being able to present or explain complex concepts clearly and simply. But perhaps because so many of his encounters were more formal, scripted affairs, his gift of warm, informal instruction found few outlets in his busy pontificate -- the best ones being rare Q&A sessions, especially with children.

One young boy, who had recently celebrated his first Communion, once asked Pope Benedict how Jesus was really present in the Eucharist when "I can't even see him."

With a polite laugh, the pope smiled and explained that there were lots of important things that exist even though they cannot be seen. For example, electricity is invisible, but people know it is there because "we see the light" it produces -- people can see its effects, the pope said during a festive ceremony featuring clowns and stilt-walkers in St. Peter's Square in 2005.

And just as people cannot see Jesus with their eyes, they can see him through what he affects.

"We see that where Jesus is, people change, they become better," he said.

When preaching to his fellow German village parishioners, he showed he understood most of the world did not understand Christ's real presence, either. God truly came down to dwell among people, he said in a homily from 1991, "to become accessible to us, to become a God for us. He became a God at your fingertips, a God who puts himself in our hands."

But "what is our reaction? If all of a sudden today talk got out or news spread that there was someplace people could see God, that you could go straight to him, imagine the flow of tourists that would be set in motion, think how much the media would follow this event."

But despite being always present, "silently and without making a racket, in the divinely simple and loving way he really is," he said, "our response in great measure is indifference. Churches are empty and even the disciples leave."

Then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who was in Rome as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, touched on many of the same themes Pope Francis has made central to his pontificate, as both popes' teachings are so rooted in Scripture.

On the need for a church that is open to the vitality of the Holy Spirit, then-Cardinal Ratzinger said in a homily in 1987, "A church community that closes up inside itself saying, 'It's so nice here, just us, we understand each other so well that all the other things that come from Rome or elsewhere bother us so that's that,' -- such a community would collapse upon itself and shrivel up. It wouldn't have any more life force."

He spoke of how pride and a kind of laziness can lead to self-righteousness, which pushes people further from God as they push others more forcefully toward human judgment: "It is none of our business, so to speak, to check on God's bookkeeping, to take hold of his accounting ledgers, to outguess his thinking. ... The task of deciding the destiny of other people has not been entrusted to us. We are before him and we need to have him look at us and allow him to address us. The others are in his hands."

Making the life, teaching and words of Jesus universally clear to everyone was a hallmark of his pontificate and the focus of a village homily from 1999.

Reflecting on the keys to the kingdom of heaven Jesus gives Peter, the future pope said Jesus rebuked those "who use the keys badly, who, with their specialist knowledge, complicate sacred Scripture so much that no one knows what it actually says anymore."

Having the keys "means that you have to unlock it so that it becomes understandable, so that it becomes the path of life," he said -- a sign he saw his whole life's ministry to teach and preach with clarity, and sometimes a splash of color, to help people discover "the word of God truly points out the way."

- - -

Follow Glatz on Twitter: @carolglatz.

- - -

Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

IMAGE: CNS photo/Sid Hastings, EPA

By Dave Leucking

VALLEY PARK, Mo. (CNS) -- At about 8:30 on a chilly morning Dec. 30, Mickey Downing of the Valley Park Fire District went house to house in lower Valley Park, knocked on doors and asked people to evacuate for their safety with the Meramec River nearing the top of the levee protecting the small town.

The levee gate was built to withstand a crest of 42 feet and 6 inches, a foot lower than the Army Corps of Engineers predicted crest of 43 feet and 6 inches between midnight of that day and 6 a.m. Dec. 31. The levee itself could withstand a 44-foot crest. The record crest was 39, set in 1982.

Most of Downing's knocks in the community 20 miles southwest of St. Louis went unanswered, which was good news -- residents already had sought higher ground. Most of the few who answered were packed and ready to leave. A few diehards were staying behind, hoping to stay dry.

However, Dixie Freeman was neither a diehard nor an evacuee. She was stranded, with her disabled 94-year-old mother, a couple of dogs and a cockatiel. She also was cold, shivering in the 33-degree air as she approached Downing a couple of blocks from her home. She wore lightweight pants and a green knitted sweater.

"Can you help?" she asked Downing.

He quickly learned how dire her situation. She had no phone, no way to communicate with anyone, and a broken-down car. A son was expected to get her, but his arrival was uncertain because of flooding and road closures in his area. Freeman, her mother Nora Dell, dogs Rocky and Fifi, and the cockatiel were stuck.

"My hands are really full," she said. "Oh, boy, it's hard."

Downing quickly offered advice.

"I am recommending you go to City Hall for transportation and then go to (Sacred Heart) Church as a shelter, especially since you don't have wheels to get out," he said.

A couple of bystanders volunteered to take Freeman, her mother and the pets to City Hall, where buses were waiting to evacuate residents. After a few phone calls and help from city workers, bus driver Tamekia Davis drove Freeman to her home, where Rocky and Fifi scampered about as she gathered belongings in a couple of suitcases and grocery bags. However, Nora didn't want to leave. A diabetic, she is partially deaf. She is also blind and uses a walker or a wheelchair.

"What are you doing with me? What are you doing with me?" she asked, repeatedly. Freeman assured her that everything was all right, that they had to leave for their safety. Freeman again faced the prospect of losing everything, as happened in the 1982 flood.

Ultimately, Nora agreed to leave, but she pleaded to bring her dog. "I want my Rocky. I want my Rocky," she said.

A veterinarian came for the cockatiel, Downing came by with a couple of other firefighters, and Davis got everyone, including Rocky and Fifi, on the bus for the one-mile ride to Sacred Heart Church.

There, pastor Father Denny Schaab greeted them with open arms. Vehicles from lower Valley Park, including U.S. Postal Service trucks and vans from a food pantry, already filled the parking.

In an agreement with Fire Chief Rick Wilken, a parishioner, Father Denny opened the church basement for a shelter, as the parish had done during previous floods. But there was a hitch because the Red Cross had not yet arrived to coordinate efforts even as parishioners steadily called to volunteer to help.

Father Schaab worked his smartphone and discovered that the Red Cross was shifting the shelter to another church because the flood waters threatened the parish site.

Davis reloaded the bus with Freeman and her crew and off they went again -- hopefully to eventually return to a dry home but with uncertainty hanging over their heads.

"We pray for the best," Father Schaab said, watching them drive away.

Elsewhere, parishes in areas of the St. Louis Archdiocese affected by flooding responded to people in need and made plans for a coordinated community response.

"Keep us in your prayers," said Pam Manuel, parish secretary at St. Bridget of Kildare Parish in Pacific, 35 miles southwest of St. Louis.

The parish is allowing people affected by the flooded Meramec River to leave their vehicles and boats in its parking lot, which overlooks the low-lying, water-soaked southern end of the city. Calls came from people seeking housing and while housing options are limited, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference at the parish is assisting displaced residents.

Manual is president of the Pacific Lions Club, which has received a grant from Lions Club International to purchase food, water, mops, buckets, gloves and "pretty much anything people will need to get their homes cleaned up," she said.

Most Sacred Heart Parish in Eureka, not far from St. Bridget, also worked on plans to respond Dec. 30. The former head of the parish's Society of St. Vincent de Paul conference, who has experience from two previous floods, was among those being consulted. The parish gym was being considered as a place for programs, according to parish staff.

Staff at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in south St. Louis were glad that sandbagging of the River des Peres was completed, but they remained on edge in case the water tops the levee. The parish buildings were a possible source of shelter in a community response. Parishioners were among the volunteers in the sandbagging effort.

St. Mark Parish in nearby suburban Affton had some water damage in the chapel of its school.

The Arnold Food Pantry, which has worked with Immaculate Conception Parish in Arnold and volunteers from nearby St. David Parish, assisted flood victims in northern Jefferson County.

- - -

Leucking is a reporter at the St. Louis Review, newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. Joseph Kenny of the St. Louis Review staff contributed to this report.

- - -

Copyright © 2015 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. www.catholicnews.com. All rights reserved. Republishing or redistributing of CNS content, including by framing or similar means without prior permission, is prohibited. You may link to stories on our public site. This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To request permission for republishing or redistributing of CNS content, please contact permissions at cns@catholicnews.com.

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article

Full Article