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Peoria, Ill., May 8, 2017 / 10:10 am (National Catholic Register).- Today is a good day to join more than 1,000 priests and an even greater number of the faithful in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in remembrance of Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen and with the intention of moving forward his beatification cause.

May 8 marks the archbishop’s 122nd birthday.

The beloved TV evangelist, who was friends with St. John XXIII and Blessed Paul VI, helped bring hundreds — and maybe even thousands of souls — into the Church, with notable converts such as Henry Ford II, politician Clare Booth Luce, actress Virginia Mayo and several of his day’s best-known communists. The actor Ramon Estevez took the archbishop’s surname for his stage name: Martin Sheen.

Archbishop Sheen ordained EWTN’s own Father Andrew Apostoli and is often credited with the fact that many priests make a daily Holy Hour: He constantly exhorted his priestly brethren to adore the Blessed Sacrament.

The idea of birthday Masses in honor of Archbishop Sheen came from his good friend Lo Anne Mayer.

Mayer met Bishop Sheen in 1970 at her parish church. “We just had this instant connection,” she recalled to the Register, and they developed a deep friendship. He even baptized her youngest child.

Mayer previously served on the board for the Archbishop Sheen Foundation, which promotes his canonization cause and long ago sponsored a similar effort.

A hearing this September will seek to resolve a dispute over the Venerable’s mortal remains — which has stalled the canonization caused — between the Archdiocese of New York and Diocese of Peoria, Illinois.

“The only thing that can make a change,” believes Mayer, “is prayer and a lot of it.”

It was while reflecting about the situation on New Year’s Day this year that Mayer remembered the 1,000 Masses that had been offered for the cause previously. She hoped this could be a new way to “storm heaven” in order to help move things along. She made some phone calls, and thus the process began.

The effort employed no website. Instead, it relied on simple word of mouth and people promoting it through social media. Today, what started as an idea has garnered a worldwide response.

In addition to parishes throughout North America, Masses will take place today in roughly 40 countries, including New Zealand, Pakistan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, France, Cameroon, Australia, Turkey, India, Japan, Indonesia, Croatia, Nepal, Denmark, Ethiopia and Italy, as well as at Marian shrines such as Lourdes and Fatima. Chicago Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Perry will celebrate Mass. And every parish in Peoria will celebrate its Mass today for the intention of Sheen’s cause. Masses will also take place at St. Patrick Cathedral in New York and at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., where Archbishop Sheen taught theology and philosophy. Indeed, many of the people who helped spread the word and who will celebrate the Masses are people whom Sheen taught. Others who have helped include those who were either converted by him or whose parents were converted by him.

Larry and Bernadette Schumann will attend Mass in Archbishop Sheen’s honor at St. Bede Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. Bernadette once served as Venerable Sheen’s secretary, and the archbishop presided over the couple’s wedding.

According to Catholic News Service, Larry Schumann, now 80, said, “It is our prayer that with these Masses on May 8, 2017, throughout the world, the Holy Spirit will move his cause forward and that his beatification and canonization will soon be realized.”

The Schumanns’ pastor, Msgr. Tim Keeney, told the Register he is happy to participate because “Archbishop Sheen is one of those whom I have read and listened to and who has sustained my priesthood. Priests also need to have the Word preached to them, and Archbishop Sheen, Bishop Robert Barron and the various Holy Fathers who have served during my 21 years of priesthood have been the principle sources that I have sought out for that ministry.”

For her part, Mayer marvels at how this effort has spread through people doing something as old-fashioned and simple as reaching out to one another, calling this priest and contacting that friend.

Reflecting on this phenomenon, she said, “We have heard that Bishop Sheen is being promoted as the [patron] saint of communication, which I think is most appropriate. Looking back, I feel I have the honor of knowing a saint.”

 

This article was originally published in the National Catholic Register.

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Vatican City, May 8, 2017 / 12:05 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis met with priests and seminarians from the Portuguese College in Rome, asking them to allow Mary to bring them closer to Christ – just like she did for the children at Fatima.

“The meeting with Our Lady was for (the shepherd children) a graceful experience that made them fall in love with Jesus,” he said Monday.

“I must wish the same to all of you, dear friends. Above every other goal that has brought you to Rome and keeps you here, there is always this: knowing and loving Christ – As the Apostle Paul would say – trying to conform more and more to him until a total gift of self.”

Pope Francis met with priests, seminarians and religious of the Pontifical Portuguese College of Rome at the Vatican May 8.

During the audience he referenced his imminent pilgrimage to Fatima, Portugal May 12-13 for the 100th anniversary of Our Lady's appearance to three shepherd children, or “Pastorelli,” Francisco, Jacinta and Lucia.

In their meeting, Francis encouraged the Portuguese priests and seminarians to look to the example of the child visionaries, of which two, Francisco and Jacinta, will be canonized during his trip.

“Concretely you, dear priests, are called to progress, without tire, in your Christian, priestly, pastoral, and cultural formation,” he said.

“Whatever your academic specialty, your first concern always remains to grow on the path of priestly consecration, through the loving experience of God: a close and faithful God, as Blessed Francisco and Jacinta and the Servant of God Lucia felt him.”

In Mary, the children had a “tender and good teacher,” he continued, who introduces them to the “intimate knowledge of Trinitarian love and brings them to taste God as the most beautiful reality of human existence.”

“Today, contemplating their humble and yet glorious lives, we feel enticed to entrust us, too, to the praises of the same Master,” the Pope said.

Christ invites us to look for shelter under the mantle of Mary as well, who takes us by the hand like a mother, teaching us “to grow in the love of Christ and fraternal communion.”

Pope Francis said he was pleased to hear that since 1929, the chapel of the Portuguese College has had an image of Mary hanging near the altar.

“Look at her and let her look at him,” he said, “because she is your Mother and loves you so much. Let yourself be watched by her, to learn to be humble and even more brace in following the Word of God.”

It is a relationship with Our Lady that “helps us to have a good relationship with the Church,” he explained, because “both are Mothers.”

Through Mary, you can receive the embrace of Jesus, her son, he said, and having a strong friendship with Jesus, you can learn to love each person with the measure of the Heart of Christ.

He warned those present that to lack a relationship with Mary is to be like an orphan of the heart. For a priest to forget his Mother, especially in difficult times, is a very grave absence.

Concluding, Francis offered prayers for the community and their families, and asked Our Lady of Fatima to “teach us to believe, worship, hope and love like Blessed Francisco and Jacinta and Servant of God Lucia.”

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IMAGE: CNS/Cori Fugere Urban, Vermont Catholic

By Cori Fugere Urban

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. (CNS) -- Father Peter Williams built himself a house that has all the comforts of home: a full kitchen, a bathroom with a toilet and shower, a dining area, a living area with a drop-down television, a propane furnace and even electric radiant heat under the laminate wood flooring.

It's all part of his towable, tiny house.

The brown cedar-sided structure with brown standing-seam metal roof has about 160 square feet of floor space plus lofts for sleeping and storage.

Father Williams, pastor of Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Springfield, in southeastern Vermont, lives in its 5,000-square-foot rectory, and though he's not complaining, he quipped, "If you want to know my preference, go look at the tiny house."

Using plans he bought for the exterior of an 18-foot house and modified for 21 feet, he began the building project behind the church four years ago and finished it two years later.

Materials alone cost about $30,000, and he did most of the work himself.

Though he had basic knowledge of tools, he had never built anything, but thought he could -- and should -- build himself a tiny house.

When a friend first introduced him to the concept of tiny houses about six years ago, Father Williams admits he thought it was "crazy." But he realized it would be perfect for a priest who can be assigned anywhere in the statewide diocese; instead of selling a personal home to move to another assignment, he could just move the tiny house with him.

Also, the tiny house could be just right for retirement.

Father Williams, 56, had a liver transplant in 2012 and realized then that he does not need much in terms of a house. In fact, he can picture himself living in the tiny house when he retires, on five to 10 private acres somewhere in Vermont.

He is the sixth of 15 children; his family is originally from the Chicago area and moved to Vermont from Connecticut. A graduate of Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia, he was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Burlington in 1987.

While building the house, Father Williams had many "untypical" visitors who stopped not only to see what he was doing but to talk about everything from faith and heaven and hell to their personal lives. The project was a way for him to be available to people in an informal way outside of office hours.

The tiny house -- with its interior painted in light green and light blue with birch tree decals on one wall -- is now on a parishioner's property in Springfield, and the priest goes there from time to time on days off.

"I'd love to use it more, but it doesn't fit into my life right now as much as I thought it would," he said.

Last summer, he built a camper on a trailer he can pull with his pickup truck. "You need a really big truck to pull the tiny house," which weighs about 12,000 pounds, he said.

Building the house gave him a greater appreciation for tradespeople such as carpenters, electricians and plumbers. "We really need people who know how to build things," he said. "And they have a greater appreciation for me because I was willing to build my own house."

Having practical skills "grounds you," he added. "There is a lot of peace from working with your hands. You realize the value of labor."

He enjoys watching television programs about tiny houses and especially likes the clever ideas for ladders to lofts and for storage.

When Father Williams built his house, his focus was not on using less energy, but he likes that he spends only about $100 a year on energy costs for it, with its limited use. "It's practical wisdom that if you don't need to use a lot, don't," he said. "There is something about that that is very attractive to me."

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Urban is content editor/staff reporter for Vermont Catholic magazine, publication of the Diocese of Burlington.

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Copyright © 2017 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.

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IMAGE: CNS/Tyler Orsburn

By Chaz Muth

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The chief communications officer for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Department of Communications announced a restructuring that will shift the focus of its operation from a traditional print structure to a digital model.

"It's an exercise in enculturation," said James Rogers, USCCB chief communications officer. "If you're going to evangelize, you need to reach people where they are."

The communications department was built when print and newspapers were the dominant force in media. The landscape has been dramatically transitioning in recent years to a digital platform, where information is frequently sought and shared in real time, Rogers told Catholic News Service May 8.

Though print content will continue to be generated, more resources will be directed toward visual media, digital content and social media dissemination, Rogers said.

The restructuring involves the elimination of 12 jobs and the creation of 10 new positions.

Employees whose jobs were eliminated will be considered for the newly created positions if they have the required skills to do the work, Rogers said.

Planning for the restructuring began in 2014 with the commission of two different studies from independent communications consulting groups.

The consultants were charged with examining the department's operation and recommending how to best reach the USCCB's targeted audiences.

The only area not directly impacted by the communications restructuring was Catholic News Service, which will retain its current staff and remain editorially independent of the USCCB.

"A part of the review was to look at the position of Catholic News Service within, for the lack of a better word, the space of the dialogue that takes place," Rogers said. "Catholic News Service is very well-respected. When we did the survey of clients and customers, we found its position of trust is on par with, or higher than that of any other Catholic news outlet that you could compare CNS to.

"The reason you are not seeing change, in terms of the core structure of Catholic News Service, is because of the tremendous content creation capacity that is there," he said. "It's a well-respected, well-known brand."

The challenge for CNS is that "people tie it to channels and since it was born as a print wire service," they don't necessarily associate it with the digital content it produces, such as video, its multimedia offerings, or its social media endeavors in breaking Catholic news, Rogers said.

"So, we're making changes to the marketing structure of CNS," he said, "because the content is there. The key is raising the awareness among those who would be interested in that content."  

In addition to retooling how the communications department markets CNS, the reorganization also will build a dedicated digital team and provide episcopal resources to help bishops throughout the U.S. share national and international news of the church to their audiences.

The marketing team is being renamed Marketing and Episcopal Resources with specialists who will focus on web development, digital media, graphic design, marketing, sales, distribution and content coordination.

The creative services team also will develop multimedia content using elements of graphics, video and writing.

Outside vendors and freelancers will be brought in for ongoing opinion research, as well as creative and content development, so that the USCCB can stay in tune with how the world is receiving its information, Rogers said.

Calling the restructuring a "repurposing of resources and not a retrenchment," Rogers acknowledged some displaced employees will not meet the requirements for the newly created positions and will ultimately lose their employment at the USCCB.

The independent consultants called their study a "clean-slate" approach, requiring the USCCB to look at the challenges it faces, develop the best structure to meet those challenges, "and that work was done without regard for the current structure within communications at the (USCCB)," he said. "It was based on positions and not people."

It was done that way to make sure the leadership was focused on the outcome and concentrated on where the communications efforts needed to be, Rogers said.

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Follow Muth on Twitter: @Chazmaniandevyl.

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Copyright © 2017 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.

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