New church is blessed for St. Vincent de Paul

FEBRUARY 2013
T H E
V O L U M E 3 1, N U M B E R 2
O F F I C I A L
P U B L I C A T I O N
O F
T H E
D I O C E S E
O F
A U S T I N
New church is blessed for St. Vincent de Paul
BY BURNIE COOK
CORRESPONDENT
The new sanctuary for
St. Vincent de Paul Parish in
Austin was dedicated with a
special Mass celebrated by
Bishop Joe Vásquez on Dec.
29. Many families, numbering more than 1,000 individuals, came out to celebrate the
opening of the new church,
which has been in the works
for years.
St. Vincent de Paul Parish
was founded in 1995 with 230
families and Father Daniel
E. Garcia as pastor. The parish worshipped in the cafeteria at Deer Park Middle
School in Northwest Austin
for six years. In 2001, the parish moved to a multi-purpose
building at 9500 Neenah Ave.,
which is near the intersection
of Parmer and 620 in Northwest Austin. Now the parish has nearly 1,500 families;
Father Garcia is the pastor
and Father Ron Feather is the
associate pastor. The parish
grounds are adjacent to Holy
Family Catholic School and
St. Dominic Savio Catholic
High School.
Austin Diocese
6225 Hwy. 290 East
Austin, Texas 78723
Periodical
Postage Paid
at Austin, Texas
SUNLIGHT
streamed
in from
above as
Bishop
Joe
Vásquez
celebrated
the
dedication Mass
at St.
Vincent
de Paul
Parish in
Austin.
(Photo by
Shelley
Metcalf)
The gathering of parishioners and guests began in the
multi-purpose building featuring a slide show of parish
history and time-lapse footage
of the construction of the new
church from ground breaking
to completion. In the building
where they had worshipped
for more than 10 years, Bishop Joe Vásquez greeted the
congregation.
Representatives from Fisher Heck Architects and Rizzo
Construction, Inc. who with
liturgical design consultant
Ken Griesemer designed and
constructed the new church
were introduced. The plans
and keys for the new church
were presented to the bishop
who then handed them over
to Father Garcia.
From there the crowd processed to the church where
Father Garcia opened the
doors to the public for the
first time. Members of the
crowd were excited to see
the inside, some took deep
breaths, and others walked
with their eyes wide open,
obviously impressed with the
new church features such as
the large entry way, cruciform
baptismal font, wooden pews,
altar and more.
Carol and Joe Loughran
and their three daughters
have been parishioners for
six years. They were amazed
HELPING
MOTHERS
See SVDP on Page 3
FINANCES
Diocese releases 20112012 Financial Report
on Pastoral Services.
Pages 15-18
Gabriel Project
celebrates 20 years as a
ministry in the diocese.
Page 5
BISHOP’S
ESPAÑOL
INTERVIEW
Indulgencia
plenaria para
el Año de la Fe.
Página 30
Finding mercy
and forgiveness
during confession.
Page 21
by the new church and are
excited about what it means
for the growth of the parish.
They are grateful to have such
a beautiful place to worship
and grow in their faith.
From the procession to
the blessing of the altar and
the tabernacle, the choir led
the congregation through the
nearly three-hour Mass.
Kevin McLaughlin, the
cantor for the dedication
Mass, and his wife Paula
have been parishioners since
1998.
“As a music minister, I
was very excited to be part of
the liturgy that relied so heavily on music to support not
only the worship but also the
rites of the dedication itself,”
McLaughlin said.
After the Creed, the Litany of Saints was sung as the
congregation kneeled. Then
Bishop Vásquez placed relics
of St. Vincent de Paul and
St. Louise de Marillac beneath the altar, which he then
anointed with sacred Chrism.
The bishop and Fathers Garcia and Feather anointed the
walls of the church with the
holy oil.
“The altar is the central
focus of this church. The altar
represents Christ … He was
anointed by the Holy Spirit
2
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C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
An age-old story rooted in Catholicism
BY CHRISTIAN R. GONZÁLEZ
CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
I’ve been a fan of “Les Miserables” for a long time. I’m a fan
of the musical, the novel, the movie
and the story itself.
I rst saw the show around New
Year’s Day 1991 in London’s West
End. I have an ad that says in 1992
the musical would be made into a
movie. There was a 20-year wait for
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I often think of the bishop’s actions when I
vide a forum of discussion for the local Catholic community.
The book, musical and movie of the musical all see the candlesticks next to the altar at Mass. It’s a
The views expressed in the letters do not necessarily repre- have a tremendous amount of Catholicism in them, reminder to me of being in the light and that Jesus
sent those of the editor or the publisher of CATHOLIC SPIRIT.
including a pro-life component, which is saying a purchased the reward of eternal salvation.
Letters to the editor should be limited to 250 words.
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The bishop leads Valjean to conversion. We
Name and full address of the writer must be provided,
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though name will be withheld from publication on request.
Spoiler alert: I’ll discuss the plot in some detail, inspire.
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but being that musical is called the “world’s favorValjean breaks parole. He reinvents himself and
e-mail to [email protected] or mail to Editor, Catholic Spirit, 6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, TX 78723.
ite” and the book is said to be the second-most runs a factory that makes glass beads. In the movie,
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story for anyone.
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There are many heart-wrenching moments
6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, TX 78723. Members of a parish
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in the Austin Diocese may receive the newspaper for a regood bishop who is so pro-life he twists his ankle Fantine’s and Eponine’s death, but the one that
duced rate. Contact your parish staff for more information.
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to the guillotine and then says, “Death belongs for-an-eye theology, wants to send Valjean back
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The story is impossible to sum up here, but
Instead Valjean sings, “You are wrong and always
Jean Valjean is paroled from prison after serving have been wrong. I’m a man no worse than any
19 years for stealing bread to feed his sister’s son. man. You are free and there are no conditions. No
STAFF
Publisher: Most Rev. Joe S. Vásquez, Bishop of Austin
(He got ve for theft and the rest because he kept bargains or petitions. There’s nothing that I blame
Editor: Shelley Metcalf; (512) 949-2400,
escaping.) After his parole, he can’t get work or you for. You’ve done your duty, nothing more.” This
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forgiveness. He loses it and goes out in a big way.
Spanish translation: Beatriz Ferrer Welsh
Valjean repays the kindness by stealing the For more on their respective beliefs, listen careColumnists: Barbara Budde, Mary Lou Gibson and
bishop’s silver. He’s caught by police, claiming the fully to their two big solos: Javert’s “Stars” and
Rev. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D.
silver was gift and is returned to the bishop who Valjean’s “Bring Him Home.” Both of these are
Correspondents: Burnie Cook, Amy Moraczewski,
conrms the lie saying, “But my friend you left so actually prayers.
Enedelia Obregón, Michele Chan Santos and
early, surely something slipped your mind. You
Prayer is central to the glorious nale of the
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forgot I gave these also. Would you leave the best show. I hope that everyone I love will pass as
behind?” as he hands Valjean two silver candle- peacefully and blessed as Valjean. He prays for his
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sticks. Watch the movie carefully and you’ll see the newlywed daughter, “Take these children my Lord
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candlesticks are never far from Valjean. For the rest to thy embrace and show them grace.” And then he
Copyright 2013 by the Austin Diocese. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any editorial content, photograph,
of his life, the bishop’s candlesticks continue to prays for himself, “God on high. Hear my prayer.
art or design is prohibited without written permission of the pull Valjean out of the darkness. The bishop could Take me now. To thy care. Where you are, let me
publisher CATHOLIC SPIRIT (ISSN 0896-2715) is published 11
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follow6225 Hwy. 290 E., Austin, TX 78723. Periodicals Postage
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someone else does and again, I too, hope to be
to contact Deacon Ralph Arevalo at (512) 949welcomed into heaven by the “angels and saints.”
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Ofcial notice
February 2013
CENTRAL TEXAS
3
Bishop blesses new sanctuary for St. Vincent de Paul
SVDP
Continued from Page 1
and sent to save the world. As
the church proclaims, Jesus is the
priest, the altar and the Lamb of
Sacrice,” Bishop Vásquez said.
Sharon and James Reeves
are very pleased with the new
sanctuary. They see the meaningful and sacred touches, such
as the stained glass rose window
depicting the Holy Spirit above
the new crucix behind the altar
and the Stations of the Cross,
and they are proud to be a part
of St. Vincent de Paul’s history
and to take part in the dedication Mass.
“It [the new building] is icing
on the cake,” the couple agreed.
Mark Fair, a member of
the parish Building Committee said the sense of closeness
and welcoming is the hallmark
of St. Vincent de Paul Parish.
“Throughout the building
project the Building Committee received feedback regarding
the importance of maintaining
these attributes as the parish
continued to grow and move
into a new worship space. It was
evident at the dedication event
that the welcoming spirit of our
parishioners made the day special for all those who attended,”
he said.
At the conclusion of the
Mass, Father Garcia thanked
all those involved in the build-
ing of the new church.
“I pray that this new sanctuary will always be a place
where we gather as church to
give glory and praise to God
for all the good he has done
for us,” Father Garcia said.
In closing, Bishop Vásquez
thanked Fathers Garcia and
Feather and the parish for their
hospitality.
“We continue to marvel at
how great and loving our God
is who chose to reveal himself
in time and in human nature,”
the bishop said. “In this Year
of Faith, may the joy of Mary,
the Mother of God, who lovingly embraced Jesus Christ, be
yours. I pray that your love for
Christ will continue to grow so
that you may become bearers of
Good News.”
St. Vincent de Paul Parish is located at 9500 Neenah Ave. in Austin. For Mass
times, visit www.svdpparish.
org or call (512) 255-1389.
THE NEW CHURCH for St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin seats 1,200. The exterior of the
new church is pictured above. Father Danny Garcia, pastor of St. Vincent de Paul, blesses
the main pillars of the new church. Deacon Allen Desorcie, who served St. Vincent de Paul for
several years, lights the altar candles during the dedication Mass. Bishop Joe Vásquez anoints
the altar with holy oil. (Photos by Shelley Metcalf)
Hundreds gather for Texas Catholic Pro-Life Day
TEXAS CATHOLIC PRO-LIFE DAY was held Jan. 26 in
Austin. This year marked the 40th anniversary of the legalization of abortion. The day included a vigil at the South Austin
Planned Parenthood facility, Mass celebrated by Bishop Joe
Vásquez, a rally at the State Capitol and a Party for Life. All of
the events were well attended, and many commented on the
number of young people who were present.
“As Catholics we speak out against the culture of death. Our
mission is to promote a culture of life that creates a civilization
of love and compassion towards all .... Let us embrace our
mission of promoting life in all of its stages during this Year
of Faith by being radiant examples of Christ’s welcoming and
forgiving love in our world,” Bishop Vásquez told the crowd
during the Mass. (Photos by Evandro Menezes)
CENTRAL TEXAS
4
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
JP II, St. Louis de Montfort inspire priest’s new book
BY MARY P. WALKER
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Updating a spiritual classic is
risky, but Father Brian McMaster
went forth in humility, faith and
prayer to do just that in his new
book, “Totus Tuus: A Consecration to Jesus through Mary with
Blessed John Paul II.”
When asked why he wrote
the book, Father McMaster explained that when he was the
associate pastor at St. Mary Catholic Center at Texas A&M University, he encouraged students
to use St. Louis de Montfort’s
book, “True Devotion to Mary,”
which includes 33 days of spiritual preparation culminating in
a prayer of total consecration to
Jesus through Mary.
Because St. Louis lived in the
18th century, the students often
found his style of writing and
language hard to follow. Father
McMaster thought that someday
he would like to make St. Louis’
work more accessible to a contemporary audience.
In addition, as a great admirer
of Blessed John Paul II, Father
McMaster thought that the late
pontiff’s teachings and devotion
to Mary could enrich the work
of St. Louis. As a young man
during the Nazi occupation of
Poland, the future pope used St.
Louis’ spiritual writings to make
a total consecration of himself to
Jesus through Mary. This spiritual preparation and consecration
was such a profound experience
that he adopted St. Louis de
Monfort’s phrase “Totus Tuus”
(Totally Yours) for his motto as
bishop and pope.
Father McMaster believes
that Blessed John Paul II’s devotion and relationship to Jesus
through Mary enflamed the
hearts of Catholics all over the
world and even changed the
course of history. His goal was
to take the best of St. Louis’
writings and infuse them with
the thought and spirit of Blessed
John Paul II.
The work of St. Louis and
Blessed John Paul II complement
each other and have much to
teach us today, he said.
“If God chose to use Mary
to bring his presence into the
world to save us, wouldn’t it also
make sense for us to go through
Mary to become more Christ-like
and receive his presence into our
hearts as well?” Father McMaster
asked.
After he became director of
Vocations for the diocese, on the
Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes,
JOE WOLF
Father McMaster made a personal commitment to spend his
day off writing this book. Faithful
to St. Louis’ vision, the new book
takes the themes and structures
of his preparation for total consecration and incorporates the
insight of Blessed John Paul II,
while using language and examples familiar to contemporary
Catholics.
One “addition” Father McMaster made was to add resolutions for actions to foster holiness. He explained that because
St. Louis expected that consecration would be life changing, resolutions for holiness were certainly
implied in his writings. This new
book makes them a more explicit
part of the process.
Like St. Louis, Father McMaster wanted to create both a
prayerful and practical guide. To
test his work, he asked a group of
Texas A&M Catholic students,
seminarians and Dominican
Sisters of Mary, Mother of the
Eucharist to use drafts of the
manuscript and pray through the
spiritual exercises. This diverse
group was overwhelming positive about the book and provided
valuable feedback. The students
said that the book taught them
how to pray, and the sisters
were especially helpful with the
JODY SUPAK
245-519-1492
[email protected]
Killeen, Harker
Heights, Copperas
Cove, Granger
979-968-5332
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LaGrange, Giddings,
Somerville, Texas
A&M
EDDIE MAZUREK
DOUG SUPAK
512-301-1218
edwin.mazurek@
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Austin, Smithville,
Blanco, Bastrop,
Wimberley
979-968-5332
douglas.supak@
kofc.org
Bryan-College Station,
Brenham, Caldwell
TED PATAKI
DWAYNE DUNGEN
512-983-6303
theodore.pataki@
kofc.org
Cedar Park, Taylor,
West Austin
979-732-1557
dwayne.dungen@
kofc.org
Fayetteville, Columbus
LOUIS BARRON
CLINT HAJOVSKY
512-750-7491
louis.barron@
kofc.org
Pflugerville, Hutto,
Elgin
254-295-0430
clinton.hajovsky@
kofc.org
Temple, Rockdale,
Hearne, Mexia
PETE PEREZ
RICKY ADAMS
512-743-2315
[email protected]
Central Austin
254-644-2802
ricky.adams@
kofc.org
Waco, West
PHILIP REYNA
CHARLES GUENAT
210-789-9683
philip.reyna@
kofc.org
Round Rock, North
Austin
254-939-1981
charles.guenat@
kofc.org
Temple, Belton
DOUG DEGROOT
WILLIAM JENSEN
512-294-2406
douglas.degroot@
kofc.org
Georgetown, Marble
Falls, Burnet
512-282-2656
william.jensen@
kofc.org
South Austin,
Dripping Springs
nuances of the language of
spirituality.
Although writing the
book was a signicant commitment of time, it was also
an enjoyable spiritual journey for Father McMaster.
He prayed to and believes
his work was guided by St.
Louis and Blessed John
Paul II. He finished the
manuscript at the St. Malo
Retreat Center in Colorado,
which the late pope visited
when he came to the U.S.
for World Youth Day in
1993. Father McMaster feels
particularly blessed to have
stayed in the same room,
FATHER BRIAN MCMASslept in the same bed, and
TER has written “Totus Tuus:
hiked the same trails as
A Consecration to Jesus
Blessed John Paul II.
through Mary with Blessed
Father McMaster’s
John Paul II.” It is published by
book, “Totus Tuus: A ConOur Sunday Visitor. (Catholic
secration to Jesus through
Spirit photo)
Mary with Blessed John
Paul II,” is available in
the book will yield many spiritual
bookstores and online. St. Wil- blessings in the lives of Catholics,
liam Parish in Round Rock will Father McMaster also wants
host a free presentation by Father the book to provide temporal
McMaster on Marian consecra- support for God’s work in the
tion on Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in the Austin Diocese. He is donating
parish’s Sacred Heart Chapel. his advance and all royalties to St.
Afterwards, he will sign copies of Mary’s Catholic Center at Texas
his book, which will be available A&M University and the Dofor purchase.
minican Sisters of Mary, Mother
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CENTRAL TEXAS
February 2013
5
Gabriel Project: 20 years helping women in crisis
BY MICHELE CHAN SANTOS
CORRESPONDENT
Valentine’s Day will mark
the 20th anniversary of the
Gabriel Project, a ministry to
women in crisis pregnancies in
the Diocese of Austin.
On Feb. 14, 1993, with the
support of Bishop John McCarthy, the Gabriel Project began
at St. William Parish in Round
Rock. Father Louis Pavlicek,
pastor at the time, and the parishioners of St. William supported the project, then in its
infancy.
Two decades later, the Gabriel Project has blossomed
into an organization that includes two Gabriel Project Life
Centers, one in Austin and one
in Bryan; 100 volunteers who
work as Gabriel Angels; and 50
parishes. The Life Centers are
staffed by paid employees and
volunteers. Each center serves
more than 100 unique clients
each month. At the centers,
clients receive free self-administered pregnancy tests, in addition to material assistance, mentoring and classes in everything
from breastfeeding to prenatal
nutrition and parenting.
In July 2011, the Gabriel
Project Life Centers became
part of Catholic Charities of
Central Texas.
Rebecca Niemerg, the pastoral care coordinator for the
Gabriel Project, said the ministry looks very different than 20
years ago.
“But the mission has absolutely stayed the same. The
whole mission of the Gabriel
Project is to provide emotional,
spiritual and material support
for pregnant women and families in need,” she said. Niemerg
works for the diocesan Ofce of
Pro-Life Activities and Chaste
Living and coordinates pastoral
care for Project Rachel, the
diocesan Pro-Life Helpline and
Sidewalk Ministry, as well as the
Gabriel Project.
To celebrate the anniversary, there will be a Mass and
reception Feb. 23, where it all
began –– at St. William Parish
in Round Rock. The 10 a.m.
Mass will be celebrated by Msgr.
Louis Pavlicek; a reception will
follow from 11 a.m. to 12:30
p.m. The event is sponsored by
the Ofce of Pro-life Activities
and Chaste Living.
“When we initially started it,
we just wanted to be able to help
women,” said Toni Donley, the
coordinator of the Gabriel Project at St. Luke Parish in Temple.
“There wasn’t a big huge plan.
Father Pavlicek, Ann Bierschenk, Sheri Danze –– these
were the three leading gures.
In their hearts, they all wanted
to help pregnant women.”
Parish Gabriel
Projects
The Gabriel Project signs
stand in front of many Central
Texas parishes. They say, “Pregnant? Need Help?” and give the
number of the Gabriel Project,
1-877-WE CARE 2 or (512)
238-1246.
What happens after a woman calls the number? She reaches
a Gabriel Angel, a trained volunteer.
“The helpline angel will give
her information about pregnancy resources located in the diocese,” Niemerg said. “They’re
going to listen to her story and
brainstorm with her about what
she needs, whether it’s a referral
to St. Vincent de Paul, job training or social services.”
The caller is given the option of having her own Gabriel Angel, a volunteer who will
meet one-on-one with her once
a month. The volunteers will
talk with the expectant mother,
bring her some material items
and support her emotionally on
her journey.
“Gabriel Angels are a crucial
part of this ministry,” Niemerg
said.
According to Niemerg, in
the last year, Gabriel Angels
have helped 70 mothers.
Donley has been a Gabriel
Angel volunteer for more than
15 years and is the former cocoordinator of the Gabriel Project for the diocese.
“The most rewarding part
about it is you really are able
to give unconditional love to
people who are truly at the
most vulnerable time in the
their lives,” Donley said of her
volunteer work. “You have
heart-to-heart contact with the
mothers.”
“If something happens and
they have to go to the ER and
are afraid they might lose their
baby or they’ve been kicked out
of their homes,” Donley said,
“you are there and physically
present to them and they know
that you care.”
Niemerg shared a personal
story about a pregnant young
woman she helped when she
was volunteering in New York
with a charity similar to the Gabriel Project.
“I worked with one mom
who had an abortion previously. She called to meet with us.
She didn’t know anything we
had to offer; her only thought
was ‘I cannot go through an
abortion again.’ Her mother
was really pressuring her to
have an abortion. Her mom
didn’t talk to her through her
whole pregnancy. I was with
her at the birth. I watched this
young woman grow and blossom into a mother. Her mother stopped by to visit when
the baby was four months
old. This grandmother was
transformed by the child. She
became a doting
grandmother. It
was a wonderful
example of how
the presence of
another changes
us.”
Niemerg shared
this story to demonstrate that “one
of the things we do
in the role of a Ga-
Lenten retreats offered at Cedarbrake
briel Angel is to hold out hope
for the pregnant mother. To tell
her, ‘Things can be better than
they are right now.’ I was able to
hold out hope for her when she
did not have any.”
People assume finances
are always the biggest problem for women calling the
helpline, but that isn’t true,
Niemerg said. “Money is not
always the biggest problem
for these moms. It’s that people are not supporting her.
She needs to be able to make
an act of faith in herself and
that’s what friendships allow
us to do.”
Other times, material needs
are very pressing. Some of the
women Donley have worked
with are struggling with having
enough food or a place to live.
“Some of the mothers are so
hungry when they come to you,
you can’t even talk to them until
they’ve had something to eat,”
Donley said. “That is a reality.
We always meet with them at
our church, we have an ofce
right next to a little kitchen. If
they are hungry we can provide
something for them that day or
I’ll take them to get food.”
Gabriel Project
Life Centers
The Gabriel Project Life
Center in Austin is located
at 1625 Rutherford Lane, in
the Catholic Charities ofces.
It is open Monday through
Friday. The Good Samaritan
Gabriel Project Life Center
in Bryan is at 1314 E. 29th
Street. Both locations offer
pregnancy tests, classes and
trained pregnancy consultants.
Clients have a one-on-one relationship with a consultant
and they meet each month.
Classes are offered four days
a week, twice in English and
twice in Spanish.
“They can take parenting
classes, learn about pregnancyrelated topics such as nutrition,
and we also have partnerships
where EMS comes in and does
a class about car seat safety and
safe sleeping,” said Allison Skinner, director of social services
for Catholic Charities of Central
Texas. (The car seat safety class
is only offered at the Austin
location.)
Clients earn points for coming to class and can redeem
points for baby items like a
stroller, high chair or pack-nplay, or a large amount of diapers.
“A lot of people have a
misconception that it’s all teen
moms, but the majority of our
clients are in their late 20s or
early 30s. We have dads who
attend class, too. The parents
are both married and unmarried,
and we have a good blend of
education levels,” Skinner said.
Some clients have not nished
high school, while others are
college graduates or have advanced degrees.
If a client needs medical services, Gabriel Project staff will
refer them to medical providers.
Skinner said she is grateful
for the work of the people who
founded the Gabriel Project.
“They planted the seed for
something that has ourished,”
she said.
More on the Gabriel Project
The next training for Gabriel Angel volunteers will be
April 6 from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at St. Helen Parish in
Georgetown. Those interested in becoming a Gabriel Project volunteer should contact Rebecca
Niemerg at (512) 949-2488 or rebecca-niemerg@
austindiocese.org.
Women in crisis pregnancies who need help
may call 1-877-WE CARE 2 or (512) 238-1246.
Retreat for struggling marriages
An Ash Wednesday Day of Reection will be presented by Holy Cross Father
Retrouvaille is a marriage program that helps spouses uncover or re-awaken the love,
Charlie Van Winkle on Feb. 13 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Cedarbrake Catholic trust and commitment that originally brought them together. For condential informaRetreat Center in Belton. A Lenten Weekend Retreat will be presented March 8-10; tion about Retrouvaille or how to register for the program beginning with a weekend
Holy Cross Brother Joel Giallanza will be the presenter. Reections on Holy Week on Feb. 22-24, call 1-800-470-2230 or visit the website at www. helpourmarriage.com.
will be held March 23 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.; Incarnate Word Sister Mirian Sturm
will be the presenter. For more information or to register, contact Cedarbrake at
Project Andrew will be held Feb. 9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary Cathedral in
(254) 780-2436 or [email protected].
Austin. Catholic men between the ages of 16 and 45 interested in learning more about
discernment, the priesthood and seminary life are invited to attend. There will be time
Married couples who are looking for a getaway and time to reconnect with for prayer, testimonials by priests as well as Mass and lunch with Bishop Joe Vásquez.
one another are invited to a Worldwide Marriage Encounter March 22-24 at the
Project Miriam will be held Feb. 16 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary Cathedral
Wingate Hotel in Round Rock. The weekend begins Friday at 7:30 p.m. and in Austin. Single, Catholic women between the ages of 16 and 45 are invited to attend.
ends Sunday around 4 p.m. This is an opportunity for husbands and wives to The morning includes testimonials and prayer with religious sisters serving in the
escape the daily distractions of life and focus on each other. For more informa- diocese, as well as Mass and lunch with Bishop Joe Vásquez. For more information,
tion or to apply to attend, contact Anh and Greg Thomas at (512) 677-WWME visit www.austinvocations.com. or contact the Vocation Ofce at (512) 949-2430 or
(9963) or [email protected].
[email protected].
Discernment opportunities for teens
Married couples invited to weekend away
6
CENTRAL TEXAS
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Regina South: An example of kindness in action
Editor’s Note: The Year of
Faith began last October and
will run through this November.
Each month during the Year of
Faith, the Catholic Spirit will
feature lay men and women
who live their faith in a variety
of ways. To suggest a lay person
to feature, write catholic-spirit@
austindiocese.org.
BY MARY P. WALKER
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Regina South is a busy wife,
mother and business owner, who
characterizes herself as “typical.”
However, those who know her
use adjectives such as “seless,”
“humble” and “hardworking.”
They can cite an almost endless
list of times where she has seen
a need for Christian charity and
either met that need herself or
mobilized others to work along
with her.
South’s focus on service is a
natural extension of her upbringing, and she credits her late mother for giving her an example of
kindness in action. Her Catholic
faith serves as a pillar for her life.
“Catholic is who I am, and I
try to make decisions daily based
on the Catholic faith,” she said.
These decisions reflect a
passion for helping the poor.
As a life-long member of St.
Anthony Parish in Bryan, she
participates in parish life, both
as a leader and one who humbly
follows the lead of others. In
addition, she is quick to praise
the good work of others, who
in turn inspire her.
“If you want something
done, you just call Regina,” said
Becky Scamardo, the parish
business administrator at St. Anthony, who has known South for
many years.
South did not wait to be
asked when she started St. Anthony’s meal ministry in 2004.
South explained that as she was
praying, the word “assume”
came to mind. We often assume
things are being done, a need
is being met, and everything is
working as it should. However,
after some research, we often
nd out otherwise, she said.
The ministry started when
she discovered that the local
Meals on Wheels program,
which provides the elderly with
nutritious cooked meals delivered to their homes, only operates Monday through Friday.
On the weekends, the clients
must fend for themselves. Many
are unable to leave their homes,
have low incomes and are limited in their ability to care for
themselves.
Although South knew she
could not address the entire
problem, she believed that St.
Anthony Parish could make a
difference. Forging ahead with
prudence and excellent organizational skills, South rallied her
parish to action. One Saturday
a month, volunteers meet in the
parish kitchen to prepare, package and deliver a freshly cooked
hot meal to nearly 100 elderly
people in the Bryan-College
Station area.
The parish supports the
ministry nancially and by volunteer efforts, and local businesses provide generous donations. South hopes that other
parishes and faith communities
in the area will adopt the other
weekends during the month.
A tasty meal is not the only
good thing delivered by the
ministry. South explained that
many of the clients have limited
social contact. Members of the
ministry phone ahead to conrm delivery. Some clients enjoy
these friendly phone calls for
much welcome conversation.
When the meals are delivered,
the caring human contact lifts
the spirits of people who cannot
leave their home.
“You wonder if one Saturday a month will make a
difference, but then you talk
to people and they are so appreciative,” South said. The
ministry also receives phone
calls of appreciation and thank
you notes. Many of the clients are ill, and some have
died over the years. South is
touched when they receive
notes from family members to
thank them for the care they
had shown their loved one.
South’s concern for the poor
extends to other endeavors.
The parish has an extensive
Thanksgiving food basket outreach. Carol Rhodes, a leader
in that project, praised South’s
dedication in ensuring that 250
families, many from among the
area’s working poor, receive a
Thanksgiving dinner and other
food items.
“Regina is a very special person. She has a heart of gold. We
are blessed to have her at St. Anthony’s, and I’m blessed to have
her as a friend,” Rhodes said.
In addition to her service in
parish programs, South is active in the community and she
serves on the advisory council
of Catholic Charities of Central
Texas.
“She was always at school
volunteering,” said Doreen
Wentrcek, who also worked
with her on the parish’s Advent
angel tree, which provides 20 to
250 gifts to the needy through
the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
REGINA SOUTH, above with her pastor Father Patrick
Ebner, has inspired many at St. Anthony Parish in Bryan
to help others. (Photo by Mary P. Walker)
While she enjoys helping others, South admits
that sometimes she needs to
step back and become less
of a “Martha” and more of a
“Mary,” listening for the voice
of God in her life. She asks
herself in prayer, “Is this something that I want to do or what
God wants me to do?”
For her example, faith, inspiration, organizational skills
and dedication to helping
those in need, South received
the diocese’s 2012 Lumen
Gentium Award, which recognizes lay persons who live
their baptismal call in an extraordinary way through stewardship and leadership.
Parishioner Gerilyn Kleckley
believes that South is a true witness of Christ-like love in action,
“She is the most seless person
that I know. She is genuine and
giving.”
How to obtain a plenary indulgence during Year of Faith
BY CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
Catholics who participate in
events connected with the Year
of Faith can receive a special
indulgence, according to a decree
issued by the Vatican on Sept. 14,
2012. Pope Benedict established
the Year of Faith to run from
Oct. 11, 2012, to Nov. 24, 2013.
An indulgence is a remission
of the temporal punishment due
for sins that have been forgiven.
It can be granted on behalf of
the individual petitioner or on
behalf of departed souls. The plenary indulgence is being offered
to those who visit designated
churches and shrines, to those
who participate in local events
connected to the Year of Faith,
and to those who may be too
ill or otherwise prevented from
physical participation.
According to the Vatican
decree, conditions for the special
Year of Faith indulgence include
the normal requirements set by
the church for all plenary indulgences, that is that the person
truly repents of their sins, goes to
confession, receives the Eucharist, and prays for the intentions
of the Holy Father. A member
of the church who has fullled
those conditions may acquire a
plenary indulgence in any of the
following ways:
• Each time they attend at
least three sermons during a mission, or at least three lectures on
the Second Vatican Council or
on the Catechism of the Catholic
Church.
• Each time they visit by way
of pilgrimage a papal basilica, a
Christian catacomb, a cathedral
church or a holy site designated
by the local bishop for the Year
of Faith and there participate in
a liturgy, or at least remain for an
appropriate time of prayer and pious meditation, concluding with
the recitation of the Our Father,
the Creed in any legitimate form,
and invocations of the Blessed
Virgin Mary and, depending on
the circumstances, of the holy
Apostles or patron saints. In the
Diocese of Austin the following
four sites have been designated
by Bishop Joe Vásquez for the
Year of Faith plenary indulgence:
St. Mary Cathedral in Austin, St.
Mary Parish in College Station,
St. Mary Parish in Lampasas and
St. Louis Parish in Waco.
• Each time they participate
in the Mass, or the Liturgy of the
Hours adding the Creed, in any
parish church in the diocese, on
the days determined by the local
bishop. In the Diocese of Austin
the following days have been
designated by Bishop Vásquez
for the Year of Faith plenary indulgence: Feb. 13 (Ash Wednesday), March 28 (Holy Thursday),
March 30 (Easter Vigil), March
31 (Easter Sunday), April 8 (Solemnity of the Annunciation),
May 19 (Pentecost), Aug. 15
(Solemnity of the Assumption),
Nov. 1 (All Saints’ Day), and
Nov. 24 (Solemnity of Christ the
King).
• On any day they choose,
during the Year of Faith, if they
make a prayerful visit to the place
where they received the sacrament of baptism, and there renew
their baptismal promises in any
legitimate form.
Members of the faithful who
are truly repentant and are unable
to take part in public liturgies for
serious reasons (for example,
cloistered nuns, prisoners, the
elderly and the sick) will gain the
plenary indulgence on the same
conditions, if, united in mind
and spirit with the faithful present, especially at a moment when
the words of the Holy Father or
one of the diocesan bishops are
broadcast via the television or radio, they recite at home, or wherever their impediment obliges
them to be, the Our Father, the
Creed in any legitimate form,
and other prayers in conformity
with the objectives of the Year of
Faith, offering up their suffering
or the hardship in their lives.
CENTRAL TEXAS
Ashes to Easter supports missionaries all over the world
February 2013
BY CATHOLIC SPIRIT STAFF
This year more than 51,000
little boxes have been distributed
to parishes throughout the Austin
Diocese so that families can take
part in the Ashes to Easter campaign. During Lent, which begins
with Ash Wednesday on Feb. 13,
families are asked to contribute
coins to the boxes and to pray
for the missionaries for whom
the money is collected.
Christina Krueger, the diocesan Missions Coordinator, has
taken the reigns of the Ashes to
Easter project, which was operated by Father Tom Frank for
more than 20 years.
“Father Frank lovingly ran
this project for so long because
he wanted to encourage and
support local missionaries and
raise awareness about missionary
activities throughout the world,”
Krueger said.
Missionaries are committed
to bringing Christ’s love to those
who might not ever be offered
the gift of faith, she said.
“Missionaries work for the
universal church,” Krueger said.
“Many of them live and work and
bring the faith to remote villages
and people that the rest of us have
forgotten about. It is in people
such as these, that we always encounter the face of Christ.”
The money collected through
Ashes to Easter supports the efforts of several locally connected
missionary efforts:
Friends of Los Niños in El
Progreso, Honduras – A ministry dedicated to helping meet the
nutritional, medical, spiritual and
educational needs of children in
a small community in Honduras. For information, visit www.
friendsoosninos.org.
International Foundation
for Hope for Arul Ashram
in India – Carol Collins, a parishioner of St. Theresa Parish
in Austin, works with the Little
Brothers of St. John to run an
Indian orphanage and school
for 40 children living with HIV/
AIDS. For information, visit
www.ifoundhope.org.
Kids to Kids Outreach
Mission Hope in Guatemala
– Norm and Maria Kaesberg of
Round Rock are missionaries who
serve malnourished and homeless
children in Guatemala. They teach
about the Catholic faith, and they
bring in health care workers and
medicines to help the sick. For information, visit k2kmissionhope.
wordpress.com.
Nuestra Madre Santísima
de la Luz in Guadalupe Nuevo
Leon, Mexico – Holy Cross
priests with Father John Herman as pastor serve the poor
in a mission parish struggling
with violence, kidnapping and
killings perpetuated by Mexican
drug cartels. The mission serves
50,000 people and offers food,
medical care, school supplies and
scholarships for teens. For information, visit www.holycrossusa.
org/ministries/parish/mexico/.
New Hope for Cambodian
Children in Cambodia – John
and Kathy Tucker are originally
from the Temple area and currently provide medical care and
shelter to Cambodian children
who have been abandoned and
are living with HIV/AIDS. They
are developing more educational
programs and vocational trainings for the children. For information, visit www.newhopeforcambodianchildren.com.
Hope for Rio Dulce, Guatemala – Ryan Eckert serves
the indigenous Q’eqchi villagers
by promoting the Catholic faith
and supporting four chapels,
education and programs that
help villagers develop sustainable
incomes. For information, visit
www.hopefortheriodulce.com.
Weavers of Hope – This
is an Austin-based project that
supports Catholics in the Village of Villa Garcia in Zacatecas,
7
Mexico. Villagers make rugs and
tapestries that are sold in the U.S.
and the proceeds are returned to
the villagers. The ministry also
provides educational scholarships. For information, visit
www.weaversofhope.org.
Wildower Home in Thailand – Mike and Elizabeth Thaibinh, who have ties to St. Mary
Parish in College Station, serve
pregnant young mothers in crisis
situations in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
They provide food, shelter, counseling, health care, educational
opportunities and vocational training for young women and their
children. For information, visit
www.wildowerhome.net.
MIKE AND ELIZABETH THAIBINH
and their children are
missionaries who run
the Wildower Home,
which serves young
mothers in Thailand.
This year the Wildower Home will receive
funds from the Ashes
to Easter collection.
(Photo courtesy Elizabeth Thaibinh)
CENTRAL TEXAS
8
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Young priest felt God’s call from an early age
BY AMY MORACZEWSKI
CORRESPONDENT
Father Jonathan Raia, associate pastor at St. William Parish
in Round Rock, rst felt called
to the priesthood around the
time of his rst Communion.
Entering seminary following
graduation from the University of Texas, the Houston native faced a critical decision.
Would he remain in the Diocese
of Austin or return home to
the Archdiocese of GalvestonHouston? And there was a third
option of pursuing priesthood
as a member of a religious order.
Thanks to the guidance
and support of Archbishop
Gregory Aymond, who at the
time served as bishop of Austin, Father Raia was able to
enter the seminary while continuing to discern where the
Lord was calling him to serve.
Father Raia got to know
Archbishop Aymond while
working at the Chancery as a
college student.
“He helped me a lot in my
discernment. He was very generous in opening the door and not
putting any pressure on me,”
Father Raia said.
Ultimately, the connections
he formed across the diocese
while working at the Chancery helped draw Father Raia to
Central Texas. Although Archbishop Aymond played a large
role in his formation, the young
seminarian knew that the bishop
would not be here forever. As it
turned out, six days after Father
Raia’s ordination in 2009, the
bishop’s appointment as the
Archbishop of New Orleans
was announced.
While the loss came
sooner than expected, the recently ordained Father Raia
had formed strong bonds
with other priests in the diocese throughout his time in
seminary, and through the
priestly fraternity Cor Jesu,
which means “Heart of Jesus.” Looking back, Father
Raia is now convinced that
this brotherhood of priests,
the rst of its kind in the Diocese of Austin, is “a large part
of why the Lord has called me
to this diocese.”
In his three years as a priest,
Father Raia has discovered a
multitude of other reasons for
his presence here, many of
which stem from his role in
walking with people on their
path to a deeper relationship
with Christ.
“A big thing both my brother and I received from our parents growing up was having a
personal relationship with the
Lord,” said Father Raia. That
personal relationship began at
home and was fostered through
Catholic school, involvement
in their parish and especially through the friendships he
formed at the University Catholic Center as a student at the
University of Texas.
Now he has the privilege
and responsibility of leading
thousands of parishioners on
their own spiritual journeys.
Whether through preaching,
the sacrament of penance, faith
formation classes, or individual
spiritual direction, Father Raia
is acutely aware of the transformation occurring in people’s
lives. Speaking to a diverse audience who may all be at different
points in their faith, he has realized that the Gospel message
can transform people in a variety
of ways.
“We have people coming
back to the faith and your faithful every Sunday Catholic saying
‘I’ve never heard this before,
and this really helped bring it
alive for me.’ It’s amazing to see
how it transforms people’s lives,
even people who have been
faithful Catholics. Getting to see
that conversion happening is so
rewarding,” Father Raia said.
As a testament to the importance of on-going religious
education, Father Raia continues
to deepen his own knowledge of
the faith by pursuing a master’s
degree in Christian Spirituality. Father Raia has spent ve
months over the course of three
summers in Omaha, Neb. studying at Creighton University. He
has also helped provide spiritual direction for seminarians
Bishop ordains transitional deacon
BISHOP JOE VÁSQUEZ ordained Augustine Uchenna Ariwaodo to the transitional
diaconate on Jan. 5 at St. Elizabeth Parish in Pugerville. With the help of God, Deacon Ariwaodo, Deacon Jason Bonifazi, Deacon Barry Cuba, Deacon Alejandro (Alex)
Caudillo and Deacon Timothy Nolt will be ordained to the priesthood June 8 at 10:30
a.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin. (Photo by Shelley Metcalf)
FATHER JONATHAN RAIA is associate pastor of St.
William Parish in Round Rock. He was ordained in 2009.
(Catholic Spirit le photo)
from all over the country in the
summer Institute of Priestly
Formation on Creighton’s campus. When time allows for a
study break, the men enjoy their
relentless search to discover
Omaha’s best steakhouse.
As an undergraduate student, Father Raia spent a semester in Spain. As a dual major
between liberal arts and Spanish, he was no stranger to the
language, but that time abroad
enhanced his ability to communicate effectively in Spanish,
he said. This has proven to be a
key component in building relationships with parishioners, as
Father Raia now conducts nearly
half of his ministry in Spanish.
However, he has occasionally
learned the hard way that certain
jokes and stories do not translate
well when he receives nothing
but blank stares during a homily.
Although priesthood remained at the forefront of his
mind throughout his college
years, Father Raia imagined a
possible alternative career in
international relations. Instead
he has been able to channel
his passion for languages and
traveling into his ministry, including a recent mission trip
to Guatemala.
God has provided Father Raia with opportunities
to pursue two other passions
–– theater and music. Shortly
before Christmas, Father Raia
put his theatrical talents on
display for the high school
youth group, alongside members of the core team, with a
skit the adults wrote. Earlier
in the fall, the associate pastor
joined members of the parish
in performing Mozart’s “Requiem” as part of the parish’s
Sacred Music Concert Series.
“It was a great change of
pace to sit in rehearsal and be
part of the choir, and not be
the one leading for a change,”
Father Raia said.
While he has enjoyed the
vast array of duties assigned
to him as a priest, he said,
“The things that I thought
I would most love when I
was discerning and in seminary were celebrating Mass
and hearing confessions, and
I would say those are the two
things still that are most rewarding. In terms of celebrating Mass, one of my favorite
things is preaching, especially
the Sunday homily. I just really love that opportunity to
help people see how God’s
Word speaks to their life.”
Although the initial inclination toward the priesthood
came at age 7, what Father
Raia refers to as his “burning
bush moment” did not occur
until the summer before his
sophomore year of college.
During adoration, the thought
of priesthood came to mind.
This was nothing new, but his
response suddenly changed
when he heard himself say,
“There’s nothing I want more
than that.”
Father Raia now realizes
that, “It was really God calling
me through my own desire.”
CENTRAL TEXAS
February 2013
9
Retreat for those struggling with abortion
Workshop for those who help engaged couples
Project Rachel is a compassionate and condential ministry that helps women
and men suffering emotionally and spiritually from the trauma of abortion. Weekend
retreats are available throughout the year at private locations. They are led by a priest
and the Project Rachel team. The next retreat is March 15-17. To condentially
register for this retreat, call (877) We-Care-2 (1-877-932-2732).
A workshop for those who prepare couples for marriage will be held March
9 at the diocesan Pastoral Center in Austin. The training will prepare participants to give the PREPARE premarital inventory to couples preparing for marriage and to discuss the results in a manner that has been shown to effectively
reduce later marital conict. The PREPARE has a specially-designed version
for Catholic couples and is available in both English and Spanish. This training,
given by a certied PREPARE-ENRICH trainer, will also cover the ENRICH
instrument, for couples who are already married. This instrument can be used
in marriage mentoring and other marriage enrichment approaches. To register
or for more information, contact the diocesan Ofce of Family Counseling and
Family Life at (512) 949-2495 or [email protected].
White Mass celebrates health care workers
The Catholic Physician’s Guild of Central Texas invites clinicians, health care providers, administrators, and other interested parties to attend the 12th Annual White
Mass on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin. Bishop Joe Vásquez will
celebrate the Mass. All are welcome to a reception to be held immediately following
the Mass. Please RSVP to [email protected].
Men’s conference features Matthew Kelly
The Central Texas Fellowship of Catholic Men will host its rst Men’s Conference
Feb. 16 beginning at 9 a.m. at St. William Parish in Round Rock. Matthew Kelly, a wellknown Catholic speaker, will be the presenter. This workshop is for men who want
a thorough look at where they are in their lives, personally and spiritually and enables
them to better love, live and share the Catholic faith in a more dynamic way than ever
before. For more information, call (512) 560-2048 or visit www.dynamiccatholic.com.
Catholic Advocacy Day is April 9 at Capitol
Catholics from across the state will gather on April 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the
State Capitol. Everyone is encouraged to take this opportunity to meet with their local
representatives and advocate for the common good. For more information, contact
Barbara Budde at [email protected] or Marie Seale at marie-seale@
austindiocese.org or call (512) 949-2400.
Retreat for couples preparing to marry
Couples planning to marry should contact their priest or deacon at least six
months prior to their wedding date in order to begin the marriage preparation
process. Engaged couples are encouraged to inquire at their parish about premarriage retreats and classes. Couples planning to attend the diocesan pre-marriage retreat, “Together in God’s Love,” are encouraged to register as soon as
possible. The program will be offered in a series of classes Feb. 5, 12, 19 and 26
and Nov. 5, 12, 19 and 26 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the diocesan Pastoral Center
in Austin. The program will be offered in retreat format March 15-17, May 1719, July 12-14 and Oct. 25-27 at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Belton.
Engaged couples must provide proof they have taken either the FOCCUS or
PREPARE assessment before attending the “Together in God’s Love” retreat.
Couples must register by contacting the diocesan Ofce of Catholic Family
Counseling and Family Life at (512) 949-2495 or rick-bologna@austindiocese.
org.
MEDICAL SERVICES
DIRECTORY
WEIGHT LOSS
Ideal Weight Loss
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Oak Hill
Eye Care
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The Jefferson Building
1600 W. 38th St, Ste 115
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The Vitae Clinic, Inc., provides wellness, prenatal, delivery and
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with the teachings of the Catholic Church in conformity with the
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Examination & Treatment
of Eye Disease
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David W. Tybor, O.D.
Monday through Friday
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10
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Advent traditions come together for Year of Faith
BY ENEDELIA J. OBREGÓN
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Parishes in the Killeen-area
came together during Advent to
celebrate the Nativity traditions
of Las Posadas and Simbang
Gabi. The traditions were combined by Servants of the Risen
Christ Father Vincent Romuald
to promote the Year of Faith in
daily liturgical celebrations Dec.
15-23.
The celebrations began at St.
Joseph Parish and proceeded to
Holy Family Parish in Copperas
Cove, St. Paul Chong Hasang
Parish in Harker Heights and St.
Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in
Fort Hood.
Father Romuald, associate
pastor at St. Joseph, came up
with the blending of the two
celebrations as opportunities for
parishioners to appreciate the gift
of faith, deepen their relationship
with God and strengthen their
commitment to sharing faith with
others as called for in the Year of
Faith by Pope Benedict XVI.
“Last year we did the traditional posadas,” he said, noting
that those are usually done in
homes. “This year with the call
to enrich, direct and educate we
wanted something that would
lead us back to church and the
Eucharist.”
Father Romuald, a monk in
the order of the Servants of the
Risen Christ in the Philippines,
was in Houston prior to coming
to St. Joseph almost two years
ago. He received permission from
Bishop Joe Vásquez in 2011 to
incorporate several cultural traditions in the celebrations. Because
of nearby Fort Hood, parishioners
come from a variety of cultures:
last stop, the hosts let the procession in and everyone is treated to
a party.
Las Posadas is also celebrated
in the Philippines along with
Simbang Gabi, which also owes
its origins to Spanish missionaries
in the 17th century.
Since many Filipino farmers
and shermen began or ended
their day at dawn, missionaries
began having Mass as early as 4
a.m. Simbang Gabi is Tagalog
as she had in her youth in the
Philippines.
Lily Cruz, president of the
Cultura Filipina and the FilipinoAmerican Dance Troupe, said
it’s easy to lose cultural traditions
when one leaves home. She left
the Philippines at age 14.
“Sometimes our kids don’t
even know the heritage,” she
said. “I remember other feast
days like Santa Cruz and the
Flores de Mayo (Feast of Mary).”
“It is Christ who brings us together ... We may be from
different cultures, but we are brought together by him.”
–– Myrna Martínez from St. Joseph Parish in Killeen
Filipino, Panamanian, AfricanAmerican and Puerto Rican, to
name a few. They are brought
together by their common faith.
Many of those cultures celebrate Las Posadas, traditionally
observed Dec. 16-24, which reenact Joseph and Mary’s search
for shelter prior to the birth of
the Christ Child. Posada in Spanish means “lodging.” Traditionally, people gather at dusk and
the “pilgrims” led by an angel,
Mary and Joseph go door to door
singing for shelter. Hosts inside
each home sing a reply. At the
–– a Filipino dialect –– for Night
Mass, and is also celebrated Dec.
16 to 24. Through the years,
Simbang Gabi became a religious
celebration infused with Filipino
customs and food.
Since it was typically dark
when the churchgoers walked
to Mass before dawn, people
hung “parols,” colorful star-like
lanterns made of paper and
bamboo to represent the star of
Bethlehem, in their windows.
Luz Valiante, 85, made the
12 parols for St. Joseph with the
help of her husband, Miguel,
Pastoral support for victims of sexual abuse
The Diocese of Austin is committed to providing condential and compassionate care to victims of sexual abuse, particularly if the abuse was committed by clergy or a church representative. If you have experienced abuse
by someone representing the Catholic Church, please contact the diocesan coordinator of pastoral care at (512) 949-2400.
Apoyo pastoral a las víctimas de abuso sexual
La Diócesis de Austin se compromete a proporcionar ayuda condencial y
compasiva a las víctimas de abuso sexual, especialmente si el abuso fue
cometido por el clero o un representante de la iglesia. Si usted ha sufrido
abusos por parte de alguien que representa la Iglesia Católica, por favor
comuníquese con el coordinador diocesano del cuidado pastoral al (512)
949-2400.
How to report an incident of concern
The Diocese of Austin is committed to preventing harm from happening to
any of our children or vulnerable adults. If you are aware of sexual or physical abuse and/or neglect of a child or vulnerable adult, state law requires
you to report that information to local law enforcement or the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services at (800) 252-5400 or www.dfps.
state.tx.us. Additionally, if the suspected abuse is by clergy or an employee
or volunteer of any diocesan parish, school or agency, a Notice of Concern
should be submitted to the diocesan Ethics and Integrity in Ministry Ofce
at (512) 949-2400. The l Notice of Concern can be found at www.austindiocese.org (click on the link HOW TO REPORT ABUSE). Reports may be
made anonymously.
Cómo reportar un caso de abuso
La Diócesis de Austin está comprometida a la prevención del daño que
se cause a cualquier niño o adulto vulnerable. Si usted está enterado del
abuso sexual o físico y/o abandono de un niño o adulto vulnerable, la ley
estatal requiere que se reporte esa información a la policía local o el Departamento de Servicios Familiares y de Protección del Estado de Texas
al (800) 252-5400 o al sitio: www.dfps.state.tx.us y además, si la sospecha
de abuso es por parte del clero, empleado o voluntario de cualquier parroquia, escuela u organización de la diócesis, se debe enviar un Reporte
de Abuso y debe ser presentado a la Ocina de Ética e Integridad en el
Ministerio de la diócesis al (512) 949-2400. El Reporte de Abuso se encuentra en nuestra página de Internet diocesana: www.austindiocese.org
(Haga click en la liga COMO REPORTAR UN CASO DE ABUSO). Estos
reportes pueden ser hechos de manera anónima.
Myrna Martínez is originally
from Panama. She said the different cultural celebrations are all
united by one thing –– faith.
“It is Christ who brings us
together,” she said. “We may be
from different cultures, but we
are brought together by him.”
Lois Carter, who is originally
from Detroit, said seeing the different cultures at church make
her “proud to be Catholic.”
“It’s great the church is opening up and including us,” she said.
“For a while I was looking and
searching for what I used to feel
back home. Now I feel it again.”
Each cultural group hosted a
dinner after each Mass; therefore,
the different groups were able to
spend time in fellowship.
Father Romuald said that in
2011 the parishes did one activity
together. In 2012, the parishes
began planning for the nine-day
December event in July.
Aside from the Novena,
the cultural religious teachings
were incorporated into religious
education for youth and adult
education during Advent.
“Every day there is a theme,”
he said. For example, one day the
children in RE learned about the
lives of saints and about emulating the virtues of holiness.
“Everything is about leading us back to God,” Father
Romuald said. “We help people
anticipate the Second Coming
with faith.”
All the activities focused on
the Eucharist at Mass, which is
the ultimate truth, he said.
With so much focus on
“facts” about the church, Father
Romuald said people forget facts
can be deceiving.
“Facts are not always truth,”
he said. “It’s fact that the Eucharist is bread. But it’s not just
bread. It’s Christ. And that’s the
truth.”
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February 2013
IN OUR WORLD
11
Pope encourages prayer for unity, community
nd it more and more difcult
to believe, Pope Benedict XVI
told Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant leaders.
Christians must work to“Unity is in itself a privileged
gether to offer the faith they means –– almost a requirement
share to a world that seems to –– for proclaiming the faith in
BY CINDY WOODEN
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
POPE BENEDICT XVI led an ecumenical evening prayer
service at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls in
Rome Jan. 25. The service concluded the Week of Prayer
for Christian Unity. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)
an increasingly credible way to
those who do not yet know the
Savior or who, having received
the proclamation of the Gospel,
have almost forgotten this precious gift,” Pope Benedict said
Jan. 25.
Presiding over an evening
prayer service at the end of the
Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity, the pope said that, even
as divided Christians continue
their theological dialogues in the
search for full unity, “It is necessary to pursue concrete collaboration among the disciples
of Christ on behalf of the cause
of transmitting the faith to the
modern world.
“In today’s society, it seems
that the Christian message has a
diminishing impact on personal
and community life, and this
represents a challenge for all
churches and ecclesial communities,” Pope Benedict said in his
homily at Rome’s Basilica of St.
Paul Outside the Walls.
The key to meeting the challenge, the pope said, is for Christians to pray to God for the gift
of unity and step up their efforts
at “reconciliation, dialogue and
mutual understanding.”
“Communion in the same
faith is the basis for ecumenism,” he said.
During the Year of Faith,
which the pope established to
encourage Catholics to study
the basic tenets of their faith
and strengthen their religious
practice and witness, he said
Christians should recognize and
give thanks for their shared faith
in God, in Jesus as savior and in
the Holy Spirit, who sancties
and continues to give life to the
church.
“Without faith –– which
primarily is a gift of God, but is
also a response of man –– the
whole ecumenical movement
would be reduced to a form of
‘contract’ to which we adhere
out of our common interests,”
he said.
Instead, ecumenism itself is
an expression of faith in Jesus,
who prayed that his disciples
would be one, the pope said.
The theme –– “What does
God require of us?” –– and
reections for the 2013 week
of prayer were developed by
Christians in India, working with
the World Council of Churches
and the Pontical Council for
Promoting Christian Unity. The
material highlighted the believers’ biblical obligation “to do
justice, love goodness and walk
humbly with God.”
“True faith in God is inseparable from personal holiness,
just as it is inseparable from the
search for justice,” the pope
said.
He prayed for Christians
in India, “who sometimes are
called to witness to their faith
in difficult circumstances,”
and he said that while walking humbly with God means
trusting God completely, “it
also means walking beyond
the barriers, hatred, racism
and social and religious discrimination that divide and
damage the whole society.”
Pope Benedict offered
special greetings during the
prayer service to members of
the Joint International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic
Church and the Oriental Orthodox Churches, which include the Armenian Apostolic,
Coptic Orthodox, Ethiopian
Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian and Eritrean Orthodox
churches.
Meeting commission members earlier in the day, the pope
said many of the Oriental Orthodox faithful live in areas
“where Christians, as individuals
and communities, face painful
trials and difculties which are
a source of deep concern to
us all.”
The pope asked the Catholic
and Oriental Orthodox leaders to convey to their faithful
in the Middle East his prayers
that “this land, so important in
God’s plan of salvation, may
be led, through constructive
dialogue and cooperation, to
a future of justice and lasting
peace.”
Social networks need more logic, love, pope says
BY CAROL GLATZ
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Social media need to promote more logic, kindness and
Christian witness than bluster,
star-status and division, Pope
Benedict XVI said.
Given that the online world
exposes people to a wider range
of opinions and beliefs, people
need to accept the existence
of these other cultures, “be
enriched by it” and offer others what “they possess that is
good, true and beautiful,” the
pope said.
Christians are called to bring
truth and values to the whole
world –– online and off –– remembering that it’s ultimately
the power of God’s word that
touches hearts, not sheer human
effort, he said in his message for
World Communications Day.
The theme of the 2013 celebration –– marked in most
dioceses the Sunday before Pentecost, this year May 12 –– is
“Social Networks: Portals of
Truth and Faith; New Spaces
for Evangelization.” The papal
message was released on the
feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron of journalists, Jan. 24.
Social media “need the
commitment of all who are
conscious of the value of dialogue, reasoned debate and
logical argumentation,” the
pope said.
Social forums need to be
used wisely and well, which
means fostering balanced and
respectful dialogue and debate,
he said, and paying special attention to “privacy, responsibility
and truthfulness.”
Too often, popularity ––
garnered either from fame or
strategic powers of persuasion –– determines the “significance and effectiveness”
of online communication, not
“intrinsic importance or value,” he said.
Catholics can “show their
authenticity” by sharing their
hope and joy, and its source
in Jesus Christ. Catholics also
should give witness by the way
they live their lives and how
their “choices, preferences and
judgments” are fully consistent
with the Gospel, he added.
Msgr. Paul Tighe, secretary
of the Pontifical Council for
Social Communications, told
reporters during a brieng that
the pope is asking everyone to
take responsibility for creating
a more humane culture online
by being respectful, honest and
contributing to the growth and
wellbeing of individuals and
society through social networks.
Very often in new media
“the more provocative I am, the
more strident, the more extreme
I am in my views, the more attention I get,” he said. But, he
said, the pope “is calling for the
importance of the quiet voice
of reason; we need moderation,
reason and logic otherwise our
debates are going nowhere.”
Archbishop Claudio Celli,
the council’s president, said even
Catholic sites and forums can
be plagued by an aggressive and
divisive atmosphere.
“The problem isn’t so
much displaying straightforward fidelity to particular
dogmatic statements of the
faith,” he said; the problem
is how to best show God’s
mercy and love, which is often
more credibly and effectively
done with actions and not just
words.
“I knew my mother and
father loved me not because
they showered me with solemn
declarations, but because they
let me experience first-hand
what it means to be loved,” the
archbishop said.
The same needs to happen
in the realm of faith, because
what humanity needs more than
anything is to experience rsthand God’s love and mercy,
he said.
In his message, the pope
said, “Dialogue and debate can
also ourish and grow when we
converse with and take seriously
people whose ideas are different
from our own.”
Social networks are an important place for people of faith
to reach out to others “by patiently and respectfully engaging
their questions and their doubts
as they advance in their search
for the truth and the meaning
of human existence,” the pope
said.
If evangelizing is to bear
fruit, he said, people need to
remember that “it is always because of the power of the word
of God itself to touch hearts,
prior to any of our own efforts.”
The level of debate can be
toned down and sensationalism avoided when people begin to put more trust in the
power of God’s work “than any
condence we place in human
means,” he said.
“We need to trust in the
fact that the basic human desire
to love and to be loved, and to
find meaning and truth –– a
desire which God himself has
placed in the heart of every
man and woman –– keeps our
contemporaries ever open to ...
the ‘kindly light’ of faith,” Pope
Benedict said.
He also reminded people to
use online networks to invite
others into a faith community,
religious celebrations and pilgrimages: “elements which are
always important in the journey
of faith.”
IN OUR WORLD
Everyone has desire to know who God is, pope says
12
BY CAROL GLATZ
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
The desire to see and know
God is innate in everyone, even
nonbelievers, Pope Benedict
XVI said.
But it’s especially important people don’t just seek
God when they need him, but
make room for him throughout their busy lives, he said
during his weekly general audience in the Vatican’s Paul
VI hall Jan. 16.
At the end of the audience,
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
the pope also greeted U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta,
who was raised Catholic.
The brief encounter came
during the so-called “baciamano,” that is, the moment when
the pope offers a select group
of prelates and special guests
a brief handshake one-by-one
rather than a private audience.
The pope spoke at length
with the former CIA director,
who was smiling and gently
holding both of the pope’s
hands, and gave him one of the
medallions reserved for special
guests.
Panetta, who was stepping
down as Pentagon chief, was in
Rome as part of a Europe-wide
tour to meet with European
defense ministers to discuss the
conflicts in Afghanistan and
Mali.
During his catechesis dedicated to the Year of Faith, the
pope said, “The desire to really
know God, that is, to see the
face of God, exists in everyone,
even atheists.”
It can even be an unconscious desire to simply know
“who is he, what is he for us?”
the pope said.
That yearning nds fulllment in Christ, he said; as
Jesus told his disciples, “Whoever has seen me has seen the
Father.”
The pope said it was important to follow Christ “not
just those moments when we
need him,” but to “nd room
for him in our daily tasks” and
throughout one’s life.
“The splendor of the divine
countenance is the source of life,
it’s what lets one see reality” and
its light is a sure guide in life,
he said.
At the end of his catechesis,
the pope made an appeal for
people to join the observance of
the Week of Prayer for Christian
Unity Jan. 18-25. The theme for
this year’s week is “What does
God require of us?”
“I invite everyone to pray,
ceaselessly asking God for the
great gift of unity among the
disciples of the Lord. May
the inexhaustible power of
the Holy Spirit encourage us
in a sincere commitment to
the search for unity, so that
together we may all profess
that Jesus is the Savoir of the
world,” he said.
A new generation is inspired by works of C.S. Lewis
BY JONATHAN LUXMOORE
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
In a wooded suburb of
this fabled university city, a
battered typewriter sits on a
desk beside a bay window that
overlooks a tangled landscape
of oaks and beeches.
Nearby, ancient bookshelves
guard a leather armchair surrounded by wall maps and pictures depicting a fantasy world.
When Clive Staples Lewis
bought The Kilns, a former
brick factory, in 1930, he used
its remote calm to produce a
stream of Christian stories, the
best known of which, “The
Chronicles of Narnia,” has since
sold 100 million copies in more
than 45 languages.
But Lewis also gained renown for his Christian apologetics. His “Mere Christianity,”
published in 1952, was rated
“best religious book of the 20th
century” by the U.S. magazine
Christianity Today.
Until now, Lewis has been
largely ignored at Oxford University, where he taught for
three decades, until his death
in 1963. He has gained greater
recognition in the U.S., where
the Episcopal Church celebrates
a “Holy C.S. Lewis Day” each
November.
With interest growing, however, and three books of the
Narnia series now blockbuster
lms, things are changing.
“Lewis wasn’t a professional
theologian, but his sense of
the world Christianity portrays
was just as profound as the
best modern theologians’,” said
Judith Wolfe, an expert on the
author and a theology faculty
member of Oxford’s St. John’s
College.
“He realized Christian
literature wasn’t presenting
good characters who were
also interesting; the evil characters were always more compelling,” she said. “By portray-
ing Christ as the lion Aslan in
the Narnia stories, he hoped
to reveal the real-life attractiveness of the holy.”
A native of what is now
Northern Ireland, Lewis won
an Oxford scholarship in 1916,
graduating after ghting in the
trenches of World War I. He
became a fellow of Oxford’s
Magdalen College in 1925.
The city is full of landmarks
connected to Lewis. There’s
the Eagle and Child pub where
his literary group, The Inklings,
met; the walkways where he nur-
Lewis was raised in the Anglican Church of Ireland, but
abandoned his faith in school,
recalling in “Surprised by Joy:
The Shape of my Early Life”
how he had received Communion “in total disbelief, acting
a part, eating and drinking my
own condemnation.”
When Lewis returned to
the Anglican faith at Oxford
in 1931 –– thanks to the devoutly Catholic Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the
Rings” trilogy –– he described
himself as “the most dejected
alignment between the forces
of tradition and change,” MacCulloch told Catholic News Service. “This tension runs across
the theological categories and
can now unite a conservative
Catholic with a conservative
Protestant, something which
wouldn’t have happened half a
century ago.”
Other experts concur that
Lewis succeeded in capturing
the Christian imagination where
the theological abstractions of
churches often seemed too high
brow.
Although Lewis disappointed Tolkien by declining to become
a Catholic, he was sympathetic to the Catholic doctrines
of confession and prayers to the saints. His return to faith
released new powers of imagination and launched him on a
fresh career as an interpreter who popularized Christianity.
tured his fascination for Nordic, Celtic and Greek legends;
and the Anglican Holy Trinity
Church where he lies buried.
As a new generation is introduced to the world of Narnia,
Anglican Father Michael Ward,
a university chaplain, said he
thinks Lewis’ Christian vision is
gaining a new relevance.
Lewis’ work has appeared
on reading lists in both English
literature and systematic theology at Oxford. The C.S. Lewis
Society hosts weekly seminars
at the university’s Pusey House.
“Like his close friend, J.R.R.
Tolkien, Lewis expressed his
Christian faith through narrative
and imagination which seems to
be chiming in with contemporary needs,” explained Father
Ward, co-editor of the groundbreaking “The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis.”
“People are picking up intuitively again on the timeless
religious element in his books,
even if they’re not directly aware
of their fundamentally Christian
message,” the priest said.
and reluctant convert in all
England.”
Although Lewis disappointed Tolkien by declining to become a Catholic,
he was sympathetic to the
Catholic doctrines of confession and prayers to the saints.
His return to faith released
new powers of imagination
and launched him on a fresh
career as an interpreter who
popularized Christianity.
Lewis’ “Mere Christianity,” based on wartime broadcasts for the BBC, tackled
popular objections to Christianity, stripping it to its essentials with simple arguments
and observations.
Diarmaid MacCulloch,
professor of church history
at Oxford, said Lewis’ nondenominational approach to
Christianity explains his popularity in the U.S. and is giving
him renewed appeal today.
“Lewis has become a standard-bearer for conservative
Christians when religion seems
to be undergoing a great re-
In “The Screwtape Letters,” a series of imagined
exchanges between an older
and younger devil, Lewis satirized human weakness and
self-deception, showing how
Christian communities could
be corrupted with “uneasy
intensity and defensive selfrighteousness.”
In “The Great Divorce,”
he exposed the vulnerability of human self-awareness,
while in “Reections on the
Psalms” he explained why the
Old Testament’s contents,
however “terrible and contemptible,” were needed to
show humanity’s true colors.
Walter Hooper, an American Catholic who was living
with Lewis at the time of his
death, remembers the author as
affable and hard-drinking, but
also as a man who sincerely attempted, against difcult odds,
to live a Christian life.
Now 81 and a trustee of
Lewis’ estate, Hooper has edited
Lewis’ letters and diaries, some
of which were rescued from a
bonre two months after the
writer’s death.
He agreed that interest in
Lewis also is growing among
Catholics.
During a 1988 Cambridge
University lecture, then-Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger praised Lewis’
rejection of “destructive relativism.”
Hooper recalled how
Blessed John Paul II also revealed a knowledge of Lewis’
works when the two met during
a 1988 general audience in Rome
and the late pope lauded his
1960 work, “The Four Loves,”
as well as Lewis’ devotion to a
practical apostolate.
“Lewis owed it to his fans
to avoid complexities and set
Christianity’s core beliefs in
place,” Hooper told CNS.
“But he was adamant those
core beliefs, the deposit of faith,
must always remain, no matter
how things change. If you get
rid of Christianity’s sense and
meaning, you’ll have nothing to
come back to,” he said.
Lewis has been criticized by
atheists in Britain and the U.S.,
while many professional theologians still maintain a haughty
disdain for him.
But Hooper predicted Lewis’ contribution to popularizing
Christianity will gain ever greater acknowledgment, especially
when the Christian faith appears
in danger of being ignored.
“Lewis believed he had a
responsibility to spread the Gospel through his writings and
showed how Christianity could
be presented in almost any
form, from science ction to
children’s fables,” Hooper said.
“Because the academics
wouldn’t touch him, it’s taken
a long time for his creativity to
be taken seriously. But Lewis
couldn’t deal with anything
without illuminating it; and I
think many people are now
appreciating the inspirational
power which runs through his
work,” he said.
IN OUR WORLD
February 2013
13
March for Life crowds strong despite cold temps
BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
The tens of thousands of participants at the annual March for
Life in Washington Jan. 25 demonstrated just how determined
they are not only by showing up
in such large numbers on a bitter
cold day but by continuing a 40year tradition of protesting the
U.S. Supreme Court’s decision
legalizing abortion.
“Forty years ago, people
thought opposition” to the Supreme Court’s decision “would
eventually disappear,” Boston
Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley told
the crowd assembled on the
National Mall for a rally prior
to the march along Constitution
Avenue to the front of the U.S.
Supreme Court.
He noted that Nellie Gray,
founder of the annual march who
died last year, “was not going to
allow that to happen” nor was
the pro-life movement.
“The march grows stronger
every year,” said the cardinal,
chairman of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops Committee
on Pro-Life Activities.
Many speakers praised the
resiliency of the crowd, braving a
cloudy 20-degree day and stand-
ing on snow dusted ground, but
they also spoke of the pro-life
movement getting re-energized by
young people who are becoming
the movement’s new torchbearers.
Hundreds of high school and
college groups were scattered in the
rally crowd of more than 500,000
people. They were texting, taking
pictures and creatively protesting
by wearing pro-life stickers on their
faces and carrying placards in the
backs of their jackets.
Their placards did not have
jarring images or messages but
predominantly took a gentler
tone such as: “Abolish Abortion
Courageously” or “I am the prolife generation.”
Jeanne Monahan, new president of the March for Life Education & Defense Fund, is 40
–– just as old as the movement
protesting the 1973 Supreme
Court decision.
Monahan praised Gray for
her long dedication to the cause
and several speakers also credited her for getting the pro-life
movement on its feet with the
rst march and leading each one
until her death. During the rally,
a video tribute to her was shown
on the giant Jumbotron.
This year’s rally did not include speeches by dozens of
politicians. Nine legislators were
announced and only a handful
spoke.
U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, RN.J., co-chairman of the House
Pro-Life Caucus, told the crowd:
“Know this, the pro-life movement is comprised of noble,
caring, smart and seless people.
It is an extraordinarily powerful,
non-violent, faith-lled human
rights struggle that is growing in
public support, intensity, commitment and hope.”
Another new aspect at this
year’s rally was more use of social
media technology, with speakers
prior to the rally’s start urging
participants to tweet about the
rally and follow March for Life
on Facebook.
One tweet read to the crowd,
which drew a lot of cheers, was
from Pope Benedict XVI, which
said: “I join all those marching
for life from afar, and pray that
political leaders will protect the
unborn and promote a culture
of life.”
Rueben Verastigui, youth
activist, had a message for the
crowd’s youths.
“You can’t just sit around
waiting for change to happen have
to get up and make it happen.” He
told them to be involved in prolife work in their schools and that
even if they feel they are alone they
should remember this experience.
“Look around, we are not alone.
We are not the future of the prolife movement; we are the pro-life
movement.”
YOUNG PEOPLE walk with a banner past the U.S. Capitol during the annual March for Life
in Washington Jan. 25. The pro-life demonstration marks the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion across the nation. (CNS photo by Bob Roller)
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IN OUR WORLD
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
New app lets users follow papal events live
BY CAROL GLATZ
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
The Vatican launched a new
“Pope App” on the eve of the
release of the pope’s World
Communications Day message,
which is dedicated to social networks as important spaces for
evangelization.
The new app provides live
streaming of papal events and
video feeds from the Vatican’s
six webcams. It sends out
alerts and links to top stories
coming out of the Vatican’s
many news outlets, and carries words and images of Pope
Benedict XVI.
“The Pope App” went live
Jan. 23 for iPhone and iPad,
while an Android version is
expected to be ready at the end
of February. It’s currently available in English, Spanish, French,
Portuguese and Italian.
The Vatican has been stepping up its digital presence in recent years –– the latest example
being the papal Twitter feed @
Pontifex, which has attracted
more than 2 million followers
in nine languages since its debut
Dec. 12.
The new app will also allow
people to follow live broadcasts
of papal events –– such as the
Sunday Angelus and Wednesday
general audience –– from any
mobile device or smartphone.
Users will receive an alert when
an event is about to begin.
The app also shows views
from any one of the Vatican’s
six live webcams. Two webcams
are located on the dome of St.
Peter’s Basilica: one pointed at
St. Peter’s Square and the other
at the Vatican governor’s ofce.
Others are located high on the
colonnade around St. Peter’s
Square, taking in the basilica and
papal apartments; directed at
Blessed John Paul II’s tomb in
St. Peter’s Basilica; high on the
Vatican hill, pointing toward the
dome of the basilica; and aimed
at the gardens of the papal summer villa in Castel Gandolfo.
“The Pope App” was
launched the day before the
feast of St. Francis de Sales,
patron of journalists, when the
Vatican traditionally releases the
pope’s message for World Communications Day.
The theme of this year’s
message, “Social Networks: Portals of Truth and Faith; New
Spaces for Evangelization,” is
linked to the Year of Faith and
Pope Benedict’s latest calls for a
new evangelization.
THIS IS A SCREEN capture of “The Pope App,” launched by the Vatican Jan. 23, the eve
of Pope Benedict XVI’s World Communications Day message. The app for the iPhone
and iPad provides live streaming of papal events and video feeds from the Vatican’s six
webcams. An Android version is expected in February. (CNS/Vatican) (Jan. 23, 2013)
PASTORAL REPORT
February 2013
15
Your generosity helps us
share the faith with others
Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
2012
REPORT ON PASTORAL SERVICES
FINANCIAL
Diocese of Austin
M ISSION S TATEMENT
OF THE A USTIN D IOCESE
WE, THE DIOCESE OF AUSTIN,
WORD AND EUCHARIST,
PRAYER, FORMATION, EDUCATION,
SOCIAL MINISTRIES AND ADVOCACY, EMBRACE
THROUGH THE
DIVERSE CULTURES THROUGHOUT THE DIOCESE;
Every day that I serve as Bishop of the
Diocese of Austin I have found in our
parishes a deep love for Jesus Christ
and the church that he founded. My
heart is lled with gratitude for the
extraordinary generosity of our people
who come together as a family of faith
year after year to answer the Lord’s
call to serve one another. Thank you
for your witness of charity to the many
good works we do each year in our
diocese.
I am pleased to present the annual
accountability report for the Diocese
of Austin, which covers the scal year
ending June 30, 2012. This year’s report
includes nancial information for the
Central Administrative Ofces (CAO)
of the diocese, summaries of parish
nances, special collections, and the challenges we continue to face.
Catholic Spirit photo
As this report shows, many good works have been accomplished through your
generosity, including the success of the Our Faith ~ Our Legacy Capital Campaign
and the annual Catholic Services Appeal. Both have provided great nancial support to the many programs and ministries in our parishes and schools throughout
the diocese, for which I am very grateful.
Beginning in October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI has declared a Year of Faith, which
invites us as followers of Christ to “rediscover the joy of believing and the enthusiasm for communicating the faith.” For our local diocese, this remains a lifelong
calling and an essential part of our mission to teach and preach the Gospel.
During this special time for all Catholics, the Holy Father is calling upon us “to rediscover the journey of faith so as to shed ever clearer light on the renewed enthusiasm of the encounter with Christ.” He also reminds us, “The church is alive because Christ is alive.” Indeed, the church is very much alive and we work together
to build up the Body of Christ in Central Texas.
Your faith is a precious gift. Through your involvement in the ministries of the
Diocese of Austin, you can help carry out the goals of the Year of Faith: to deepen
our faith, to give witness to the Gospel, to welcome back our brothers and sisters
who have left the church, and to hand on the gift of faith to those who are open to
receiving it for the rst time.
I fully realize that you may not know or ever meet those people in our parishes and
communities who will benet directly from your generosity, but I want to assure
you that every gift makes a difference.
I pray that you will draw inspiration from these words of Pope Benedict XVI, “The
‘door of faith’ is always open for us, ushering us into the life of communion with
God and offering entry into His Church. To enter through that door is to set out
on a journey that lasts a lifetime.”
Please continue to pray for my ministry and the thousands of people we serve each
year, knowing that I will do the same for you. May God bestow his blessings upon
you and all those who are dear to you.
Sincerely,
SO TOGETHER, AS THE
CATHOLIC CHURCH,
WE MAY CONTINUE THE MISSION OF CHRIST
IN THE WORLD TODAY.
Most Reverend Joe S. Vásquez
Bishop of Austin
PASTORAL REPORT
16
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Diocese is blessed by the generosity of many
BY MARY BETH KOENIG
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER
The scal year ending June 30, 2012,
was marked by ongoing uncertainty in
global economies and nancial markets
and continued high rates of unemployment in the U.S. In the Diocese of Austin, despite these factors, we continue to
be blessed with increasing contributions
to meet the needs of our growing Catholic population.
The accompanying nancial statements are those of the Central Administrative Ofce (CAO) of the Diocese of Austin. The CAO provides
programs and services to parishes,
schools and other Catholic organizations in Central Texas. The accompanying nancial statements have been
extracted from the audited financial
statements of the CAO. The nancial
statements do not include the parishes,
missions, schools and activities of The
Catholic Foundation – Diocese of
Austin. The financial statements of
the parishes can be found on page 18
of this insert.
The activities of the CAO include
general operations for the support
of parish and diocesan programs, a
centralized insurance program for
property/liability/workers’ compensation and health insurance for all parish
and school facilities and employees, a
centralized diocesan investment and
loan program (DIAL) for parishes and
schools and management of diocesan
investments.
The CAO generally operates on a
break-even basis. For the scal years
ended June 30, 2012, and 2011, revenues were greater than expenses and
net assets increased by approximately
$709,000 and $1.7 million, respectively.
Total revenues decreased by $819,000
in 2012, primarily due to a $1.9 million
decrease in investment income. While
investment income was positive in 2012,
the nancial markets were volatile and
overall returns (realized and unrealized)
were lower than in 2011. The decrease in
investment income was offset by higher
contributions from the Catholic Services
Appeal, higher contributions and bequests and higher insurance premiums
in the health insurance and property/liability/workers’ compensation programs.
Total expenses were relatively at with
an increase of approximately $187,000
or less than 1 percent. We have worked
hard to manage expenses and be good
stewards of the assets with which we
have been entrusted.
In the Diocese of Austin, we continue to be blessed with increasing levels of
giving at the parishes and to the annual
Catholic Services Appeal. Despite very
volatile nancial markets, high unemployment and the worst recession since
the Great Depression, Sunday and Holy
Day collections at parishes in our diocese
have increased (see chart on next page).
Over the last decade, parish collections
continue to increase from $35.5 million
to $53.2 million, an average increase of
5 percent per year. The strong and steady
commitment to stewardship and generosity of Catholics in our diocese are truly
remarkable.
We have also seen an increase in
See CFO on next page
Statements of Financial Position*
June 30, 2012 and 2011
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents, primarily interest-bearing
Pledges receivable
Receivables from parishes and schools
Other receivables
Prepaid expenses
Unrestricted investments
Investments restricted by bond covenants
Interest in remainder trust
DIAL notes receivable
Land, buildings, and equipment, net
Bond issuance costs, net
Total Assets
Liabilities and Net Assets
Accounts payable and accrued expenses
Collections held for transmittal
Pledges Payable
Interest Payable
DIAL deposits
Self insurance reserve
Line of credit payable
Notes payable
Bonds payable
Current portion
Long term portion
Discount on bonds payable
2012
$
7,253,619
1,752,093
615,385
285,455
304,950
33,132,702
6,335,645
216,270
84,943,876
18,781,795
3,218,651
2011
$
6,833,762
1,728,899
856,394
223,198
602,017
31,747,529
6,106,567
495,395
87,963,159
18,290,358
3,377,724
$156,840,441
$158,225,002
$
$
1,922,262
1,086,335
347,306
1,213,114
15,142,286
1,930,328
1,000,000
250,000
2,192,069
961,735
604,718
1,224,064
16,607,602
2,045,648
-250,000
1,130,000
81,175,000
(1,253,626)
1,095,000
82,305,000
(1,249,065)
Total Liabilities
103,943,005
106,036,771
Net assets:
Unrestricted
Temporarily restricted
Permanently restricted
47,517,392
5,379,874
170
44,864,740
7,322,991
500
Total net assets
52,897,436
52,188,231
$156,840,441
$158,225,002
Total Liabilities and Net Assets
*The Statements of Financial Position were extracted from the audited nancial statements of the Central Administrative Ofce of the Diocese of
Austin. The entire document is available at www.austindiocese.org.
February 2013
PASTORAL REPORT
17
Statements of Activities*
Years ending June 30, 2012 and 2011
2012
Revenues, gains and other support:
Catholic Services Appeal
Cathedraticum assessments
Contributions and bequests
Special collections
Interest income from DIAL notes
Investment income
Insurance premiums
Program service fees
Catholic Spirit
Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center
Other
$ 4,755,123
5,835,360
2,836,411
562,444
4,350,203
1,913,678
11,657,296
1,255,152
436,709
358,489
890,586
$ 4,330,933
5,838,047
2,481,385
554,671
4,369,795
3,856,837
11,117,739
1,674,981
465,136
379,666
601,221
34,851,451
35,670,411
3,332,890
3,269,481
862,578
476,565
1,458,953
538,409
719,451
96,205
10,043,769
1,411,298
2,526,757
1,290,292
11,720
5,103,878
3,000,000
3,989,907
3,029,511
1,148,684
628,393
1,415,670
544,229
751,211
109,489
9,124,826
1,445,816
2,137,820
1,236,558
50,139
5,214,591
3,128,214
34,142,246
33,955,058
709,205
$ 1,715,353
Total revenues, gains and other support
Expenses and losses:
Pastoral services
Formation and religious education
Catholic schools
Social services
Religious personnel care and development
Catholic Charities
Communications and Catholic Spirit
DIAL deposit interest
Insurance program
Administration
Facilities and information technology
Fundraising
Distribution to Foundation
Interest on debt
OFOL Distributions and other
Total expenses and losses
Change in net assets
2011
$
* The Statements of Activities were extracted from the audited nancial statements of the Central Administrative Ofce of the Diocese of Austin.
The entire document is available at www.austindiocese.org.
crease of 60 percent. Additionally,
during this timeframe, approximately
$58.8 million was collected through
Continued from Page 16
the Our Faith ~ Our Legacy Capital
annual giving to the diocese through Campaign through June 30, 2012.
the annual Catholic Services Appeal
As we look to the future, we will
over the last 10 years. Last year, nearly be challenged by increasing health care
$4.8 was donated to the CSA, com- costs. The nancial effect of proposed
pared to $3 million in 2002, an in- new health care legislation is unknown.
We will strive
to continue to
provide quality health care
to parish and
school employees that is
in accord with
the teachings
of the church
while minimizing cost increases. Additionally,
we continue to
There has been a steady increase in parish Sunday and Holy
work with a few
Day collections over the last decade. (Chart courtesy Diocese
financially chalof Austin Finance Ofce)
CFO
lenged parishes and schools that have
signicant debt, deferred maintenance
or operating costs. We assist them by
working on long-range nancial plans to
balance their budgets over time.
On the positive side, we are thankful for the newly established endowment funds created with your gifts
to the OFOL campaign. The endowments will serve as a strong nancial
foundation for our diocese. Distributions from endowments in the Foundation have and will continue to assist
in serving the increasing needs of
seminarians, retired priests, Catholic
Charities, Catholic schools and diaconate and campus ministry for many
years to come.
This annual report is one way the
diocese reports on the nancial results
of its activities and ministries. Accountability is an important part of
our stewardship responsibilities. Each
year, the diocese subjects itself to
the scrutiny of an independent audit,
which is published at www.austindiocese.org. Diocesan leadership also
regularly confers with the Diocesan
Finance Council, whose existence is
required by canon law and focuses on
nancial policies, procedures and activities of our local church.
We remain thankful for our many
blessings and for your generous financial support. The last fiscal year
marked continued growth and improvement in the nances of our parishes and schools. We depend on your
ongoing and consistent nancial support to meet the needs of our growing population, ministries, education
of our seminarians and care of our
retired priests. May God bless you for
the sacrices you make to strengthen
the faith of Catholics in Central Texas.
Mary Beth Koenig has served as the
Chief Financial Ofcer of the Austin
Diocese since 2002. She and her husband
have three children and they are parishioners of St. Theresa Parish in Austin.
PASTORAL REPORT
18
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Parish nancial information*
(Unaudited)
Years ending June 30, 2012 and 2011
2012
Assets
Cash and cash equivalents
DIAL Deposits
Investments (includes building funds)
Plant assets
Other
Total Assets
Liabilities
Accounts payable to Central Administrative Ofce
Other accounts payable
Funds held in trust
Notes payable
Bonds payable
Other liabilities
Total Liabilities
Net Assets
Revenues
Sunday, Holy Day and Other Collections
Building Funds
Gifts, Bequests and Grants
Fundraising (net of related expenses)
Program fees
Investment income
Our Faith ~ Our Legacy Collections (Parish Share)
Other Income
Total Revenues
Expenses
Pastoral services
Religious development
Social services
School subsidies
Plant operating and maintenance
Diocesan assessment
Interest expense
General and administrative
Other expenses
Total Expenses
Revenue Over Expenses
$ 11,945,434
13,729,835
18,588,970
431,919,513
9,032,144
2011
$
9,837,220
16,607,602
15,429,659
418,518,850
8,773,062
485,215,896
469,166,393
258,128
794,230
10,059,746
71,169,105
4,821,667
2,846,522
105,924
1,223,987
9,847,296
73,916,472
4,850,000
743,593
89,949,398
90,687,272
$ 395,266,498
$ 378,479,121
$ 53,226,292
9,396,992
4,604,761
4,614,722
1,976,849
1,426,003
2,044,663
5,757,085
$ 51,448,935
7,590,128
4,633,004
4,304,200
1,700,556
1,291,932
3,488,540
6,531,366
83,047,367
80,988,661
10,523,178
6,503,314
1,716,444
2,918,316
15,106,121
5,317,389
3,809,196
16,664,876
4,119,200
10,380,638
5,654,282
1,764,044
3,512,096
14,902,969
5,197,256
4,116,496
16,035,888
4,173,945
66,678,034
65,737,614
$ 16,369,333
$ 15,251,047
*This unaudited
summarized nancial information
includes the consolidated balances and activities
of all 127 parishes
and missions in
the Diocese of
Austin.
Special collection totals
Special collections are a vehicle by which Catholics can reach beyond their own immediate needs and assist the work of the Catholic Church
at the diocesan, national and international levels. The following collections were taken up in diocesan parishes in the 2011-2012 scal year.
Propagation of Faith.............................................................................$160,464
Taken up Oct. 22-23, 2011, this collection helps the Society of the
Propagation of Faith bring the Gospel to developing countries.
Catholic Campaign for Human Development ...................................$155,698
Taken up Nov. 19-20, 2011, this collection supports the Catholic
Campaign for Human Development, which empowers the poor to
claim their economic rights and reclaim their dignity.
Clergy and Religious Retirement Fund .............................................$239,643
Taken up Dec. 10-11, 2011, this collection helps retired priests,
brothers and sisters with their medical expenses.
Feast of the Holy Family ......................................................................$147,306
Taken up Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 2012, this collection supports Pro-Life
Activities, Annunciation Maternity Shelter and Our Lady of Angels
Maternity Shelter.
Catholic Higher Education ..................................................................$133,444
Taken up Feb. 11-12, 2012, this collection helps support Catholic
higher education and campus ministries in our diocese.
World and Home Missions ..................................................................$194,480
Taken up Feb. 22, 2012, this is a combined collection for the
church in Latin America, the African American and Native American home missions, Catholic home missions and Eastern Europe.
Catholic Relief Services .......................................................................$194,184
Taken up March 17-18, 2012, this collection supports the Holy
Father’s Relief Fund, Migration and Refugee Services, and the
Department of Social Development and World Peace.
Holy Land...............................................................................................$135,644
Taken up April 6, 2012, this collection supports the shrines and
the people of the Holy Land.
Seminarians and Priests......................................................................$186,213
Taken up April 14-15, 2012, this collection supports the
education and formation of diocesan seminarians and priests.
Peter’s Pence ........................................................................................$191,942
Taken up June 23-24, 2012, this collection helps the Holy
Father respond to requests for emergency funds from the most
disadvantaged throughout the world.
Total special collections ...................................................................$1,739,018
February 2013
IN OUR WORLD
19
Haiti struggles to recover from devastating quake
BY DENNIS SADOWSKI
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Soon after a monstrous
earthquake devastated much of
Haiti three years ago, the mantra
among Haitian government leaders and a good share of relief and
development agencies was “build
back Haiti better.”
The mantra demonstrated
the resiliency of a country battered all too often by Mother
Nature. However, as the Jan. 12
anniversary of the quake came
and went, the “build back” slogan
has faded from most discussions,
but the work of rebuilding –– in
reality building –– a country has
moved ahead even if progress
has been slow and difcult to
measure.
More troublesome is the
continuing sense of frustration
among Haitians –– especially
among the 360,000 who remain
in tent camps, according to the
International Organization for
Migration –– who see little visible change in their lives or their
surroundings.
“Haiti is not going to become a middle-income country
overnight,” acknowledged Eileen
Wickstrom Smith, deputy coordinator for assistance in the Ofce
of the Haiti Special Coordinator
at the U.S. State Department, in
a teleconference with reporters
Jan. 9.
Given that reality, the emphasis on development has turned to
sustainability and building the capacity of Haitians from all walks
of life to overcome the devastating poverty that has strangled the
Caribbean nation for much of its
200-year history.
Haiti’s needs were overwhelming before the earthquake
shook the Haitian landscape
and claimed 316,000 lives while
displacing an estimated 1.5 million people. The catastrophe
amplied the problems: lack of
infrastructure, especially water
and sanitation; a shortage of safe
and affordable housing; little
access to health care; and poor
coordination across the education sector.
Matters became more complicated nine months after the
earthquake when a cholera epidemic erupted when the waterborne disease was introduced by
Nepalese troops who are part
of the U.N. stabilization forces,
MINUSTAH, in the country.
Through Jan. 6, cholera had
claimed 7,939 lives and aficted
more than 638,000 people, according to the Haitian Ministry
of Health and Population.
Throw in hurricanes Isaac
and Sandy, which devastated a
large part of Haiti’s agricultural
lands in 2012 and it seems like
Haitians can’t catch a break.
In developing responses to
these calamities, Catholic organizations, such as Catholic
Relief Services (CRS), Jesuit
Refugee Service (JRS) and the
U.S. Conference of Catholic
Bishops, along with the U.S.
government and the United Nations now speak in similar terms.
They stress that the answers to
Haiti’s future lie with Haitians
themselves.
“We want to build things
with Haitians for Haitians, and
it takes a little longer,” Darren
Hercyk, country representative in Haiti for CRS, explained
in an interview from Port-auPrince, the Haitian capital. “In
the end I have not found a
problem where all parties have
not bought into it.”
Hercyk said the earthquake
changed the way CRS approaches its work from being primarily
in rural areas to one with a major
presence in urban programming.
For example, CRS is tackling
the rebuilding of St. Francis de
Sales Hospital, which was destroyed in the earthquake, into
a 200-bed state-of-the-art teaching facility. The U.S. bishops’
overseas relief and development
agency has partnered with the
Haitian Ministry of Health and
the Catholic Health Association
to carry out the project.
The goal, Hercyk said, is to
network the rebuilt hospital with
others across the country for the
delivery of care and the training
of future doctors and nurses.
Other key partnerships identied by Hercyk include a Catholic education program and the
development of affordable and
safe housing to move people still
living in squalid tent camps scattered across the country.
Thanks to a recently completed nationwide assessment
of 2,315 Catholic schools that
enroll more than 600,000 children, about 20 percent of Haiti’s
school-age population, CRS and
the University of Notre Dame
will be able to develop schoolspecic programs, Hercyk said.
Meanwhile, at the USCCB,
the focus is on building the
capacity of clergy, bishops included, to identify leaders in
their faith communities and
manage ministries with an eye
toward the future.
Father Juan Molina, director
of the U.S. bishops’ Ofce for
the Church in Latin America,
told Catholic News Service that
some Haitian bishops have visited U.S. dioceses at the invitation of the USCCB to see
how ministries are carried out,
parishes are managed and vital
fundraising is conducted.
“I think Haiti has a lot of
human and other resources that
are untapped, but because of
the present situation there is no
coordination,” Father Molina
said. “If we can garner especially
the human resources and an image that can help everyone go
beyond the present desperation
and see a Haiti that can work, I
think we’ve done our job of supporting our brothers and sisters
in Haiti.”
The State Department’s
Smith admitted huge challenges
remain for Haiti.
At a U.N.-sponsored meeting
of donor nations two months
after the earthquake governments
pledged $5.3 billion through 2011
and a total of $9.9 billion through
2014 for Haiti’s rebuilding. Less
than half those amounts have
come through. Smith acknowledged that there has been a
“slowness of donors to make
good on pledges.”
“Much work remains to be
done,” she said.
IN OUR WORLD
Bishop Cantu of San Antonio named to Las Cruces, NM
20
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
BY CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
Pope Benedict XVI has
accepted the resignation of
Bishop Ricardo Ramirez of
Las Cruces, N.M., and named
as his successor Auxiliary
Bishop Oscar Cantu of San
Antonio.
The changes were announced in Washington Jan.
10 by Archbishop Carlo Maria
Vigano, apostolic nuncio to
the U.S.
The Diocese of Las Cruces was established in 1982
and Bishop Ramirez, now 76,
was named its first bishop.
Canon law requires bishops
to submit their resignations
when they turn 75.
Bishop Cantu, 46, has
been an auxiliary bishop in
San Antonio since 2008.
The man he succeeds
in Las Cruces had likewise
been a San Antonio auxiliary
bishop in his rst episcopal
assignment before being appointed to head the Las Cruces Diocese. The date for
his installation has not been
determined.
“I am humbled that the
Holy Father would appoint
me to lead a beautiful diocese
in a state that I am not terribly
familiar with,” Bishop Cantu
said in a statement. “There is
a deep sense of ‘being sent’
–– sent, as the apostles were
by Christ, to announce the
good news of the Gospel to
the four corners of the earth.”
“To be following a great
man in the person” of Bishop
Ramirez was also humbling,
he added.
Born Dec. 5, 1966, in
Houston, Bishop Cantu received his bachelor’s degree
in English from the University of Dallas and two
master’s degrees from the
University of St. Thomas in
Houston. He was ordained
a priest of the Diocese of
Galveston-Houston in 1994.
Ten years later, the diocese
was made an archdiocese.
He did graduate studies in
theology at the Pontifical
North American College in
Rome 1998-2002.
He was administrator of
the Archdiocese of San Antonio between the departure of
Archbishop Jose H. Gomez
to the Archdiocese of Los
Angeles and the installation of
Archbishop Gustavo GarciaSiller.
Archbishop Garcia-Siller
in a statement expressed
“heartfelt joy” over his auxiliary’s appointment but said he
will miss “his constant presence, valued friendship and
the tireless collaboration we
shared in our ministry.”
Bishop Ramirez was born
in Bay City, Texas, Sept. 12,
1936. Both his parents and
their families were migrant
workers in southern Texas.
He attended public schools
in Bay City and graduated in
1959 from the University of
St. Thomas in Houston. He
was ordained to the priesthood as a member of the
Basilian Fathers in 1966.
He served in parishes in
Canada, Detroit and Mexico.
He was on the staff of the
Mexican-American Cultural
Center (now the Mexican
American Catholic College)
in San Antonio when in 1981
he was appointed auxiliary
bishop of San Antonio. A year
later, he was named founding
bishop of Las Cruces.
POPE BENEDICT XVI has named Auxiliary Bishop Oscar Cantu (left) of San Antonio
bishop of Las Cruces, N.M., and accepted the resignation of Bishop Ricardo Ramirez, 76.
Both bishops are pictured during their 2012 “ad limina” visits to the Vatican. (CNS photo
by Paul Haring)
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GOOD NEWS
21
Experiencing God’s love, mercy in confession
BISHOP JOE S.
VÁSQUEZ is the fth
bishop of the Austin
Diocese. He shepherds more than
500,000 Catholics in 25 Central
Texas counties.
Editor: Bishop, Lent will begin
soon with Ash Wednesday on Feb.
13. How can we prepare ourselves
for Lent this year?
Bishop Vásquez: Lent is a gracelled time for all of us as Catholics to
renew ourselves and to be converted and
changed. The whole experience of Lent
is two-fold. First of all, it is for those
who are in the RCIA (Rite of Christian
Initiation) process and are preparing
to receive the sacraments. They have
been in formation, and they have been
discerning and asking God if it is his will
that they become Catholic. Then for us
who have already been Catholic for all
of our lives or for a long period of time,
Lent is a time for us to renew our Catholic commitment to Christ.
The Lenten season is founded
upon three pillars, which we will hear
about in Matthew’s Gospel on Ash
Wednesday: fasting, prayer and almsgiving. Those three foundational pillars
are what structure our season of Lent.
Lent is a time when we pray a little bit
more, when we fast or give up certain
things and when we practice works of
mercy and compassion for our sisters
and brothers in need. Lent is a very
intense time and it is a spiritual time of
renewal for the whole church.
Editor: The pope has called for
us to take advantage of the sacrament of penance more in the Year
of Faith and more often in general.
Lent is a good time to do so, correct?
Bishop Vásquez: Yes, Lent is an
opportunity to experience the sacrament of penance or as some know it
confession or reconciliation. We may
call it several different names, but it’s
all about encountering Christ, who is
loving and merciful. He is always ready
to forgive us our sins.
Our Holy Father has asked us to
take this sacrament more seriously
during this Year of Faith. I make that
same appeal to the people of the Diocese of Austin, and I invite all Catholics to participate in the sacrament
more regularly. All of us love to go to
Holy Communion. We nd the Lord
there, and when we go to confession, I
think we should expect the same. Our
Lord is there to meet us in the sacrament of confession –– as the priest
absolves us from our sins, the Lord is
saying to us, “I forgive you.”
The sacrament of confession is one
of the greatest experiences of Catholics. When we go to confession and
perhaps we confess serious sins or sins
that have been nagging at us for years
or days, and we are able to admit them
and then hear the words of absolution
from the priest, immediately we feel
a big burden has been taken off us.
We feel cleansed, we feel puried, we
feel reconnected with people that we
might have hurt or who have hurt us,
we feel connected with God and we
feel the presence of God in our lives.
We begin to experience life that comes
from God.
Editor: What is the importance
of going to confession regularly?
Bishop Vásquez: The sacrament
of confession should be practiced
regularly by us as Catholics because it
indicates to us the areas of our lives
that need to be healed and forgiven.
There are areas of our lives that are
broken in each one of us. For some it
may be a particular attitude. For some
it might be a particular habit that they
haven’t changed and that they want to
change. For others it may be a way of
thinking or a way of judging others.
Our reasons for needing the sacrament
may be very different for each one of
us, but the sacrament’s healing and
mercy are present for all of us. The
grace of this sacrament begins to heal
the person who avails themselves to
the grace of God. Therefore, whoever
opens up their lives to that wonderful,
compassionate, loving Christ will begin
to experience healing.
Throughout Scripture we hear how
Christ healed people who were broken.
It might have been physical healing,
it might have been spiritual healing,
it might have been brokenness of
relationships but when he was allowed
to touch that brokenness in the lives of
people then they were reconnected and
they found and experienced wholeness.
That is what the sacrament of confession is all about. Our brokenness,
Christ takes and he lovingly, through
his grace, reconnects, reforms us,
reshapes us and helps us feel complete
again. That is why it is important for
us to regularly seek the sacrament of
confession.
Editor: How does one make a
good confession?
Bishop Vásquez: The marvelous
thing about the sacrament is that no
one is forced and we have to be willing
to accept God’s forgiveness, which
may be a struggle for many people.
There are many reasons people do
not want to go to confession. Some
think it will take too long but in reality
most confessions are not lengthy. The
payback for taking just a few minutes
to make a good confession is far more
immense –– the experience of feeling
so alive afterward is worth the time it
takes. Many hesitate to go to confession because it has been a long time
since they have gone. However, I want
people to know that it doesn’t matter
how long it has been! Christ rejoices
every time a sinner turns away from sin
and back to God. Others might feel
their sins are unforgivable. That is not
true. All sin can be forgiven if we are
willing to admit it, confess it and then
ask for God’s forgiveness. There is no
sin that cannot be forgiven.
Confession involves a good examination of conscience. We should
take time before we go to confession
to pull back and look at the areas of
our lives where we need God’s healing.
How long has it been? What sins have
I committed? We should examine our
family life, our professional life, our
spiritual life and nd the areas where
we need forgiveness and healing. We
must then have the desire to really
want to change. We must be sorry
for our sins and have a willingness to
change and to avail ourselves to Christ.
As a priest, I have met many
people who say they often nd themselves confessing the same sins. There
are many people who experience this,
but this is not a reason to stop going to
confession! We still need the sacrament. God still forgives us as long as
we are willing to make a sincere effort
to overcome the sin. If we are sorry
for what we have done, God’s grace
is there for us. God never gives up on
us; all we have to do is seek God’s love
and mercy.
Editor: As we begin Lent, what
is your prayer for us?
Bishop Vásquez: My prayer for us
is that we will experience during these
40 days a renewal and a conversion in
our hearts. I pray that we will see our
weaknesses, our faults, our failures and
sinfulness and willingly admit them to
God. God will take that brokenness
and transform us. I pray that we will
experience God’s profound grace in
our lives during Lent, so that when
Easter comes we will truly experience
the joy of the Resurrection.
CNS photo
Pastoral exhortation on the sacrament of
penance and reconciliation
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
“Peace be with you!” With these words, the Risen Lord greeted his frightened apostles in the Upper Room on the day of his Resurrection. They were
troubled, anxious and fearful — much like each one of us at some point in our
lives. Christ repeated the words, “Peace be with you.” But then he added, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them” (Jn 20:19-23).
What an extraordinary gift! The Risen Lord was proclaiming that all the suffering he had just endured was in order to make available the gifts of salvation
and forgiveness. He wanted the apostles to receive these gifts. He wanted
them to become apostles of this forgiveness to others.
In the sacrament of penance and reconciliation, also called confession, we
meet the Lord, who wants to grant forgiveness and the grace to live a renewed
life in him. In this sacrament, he prepares us to receive him free from serious
sin, with a lively faith, earnest hope and sacricial love in the Eucharist. The
church sees confession as so important that she requires that every Catholic
go at least once a year. The church also encourages frequent confession in
order to grow closer to Christ Jesus and his Body, the church. By the grace of
the Holy Spirit, we seek forgiveness and repentance, let go of patterns of sin,
grow in the life of virtue, and witness to a joyful conversion. Since the graces
of the sacrament are so similar to the purpose of the new evangelization, Pope
Benedict XVI has said, “The new evangelization . . . begins in the confessional!”
We bishops and priests are eager to help you if you experience difculty,
hesitation, or uncertainty about approaching the Lord in this sacrament. If
you have not received this healing sacrament in a long time, we are ready to
welcome you. We, whom Christ has ordained to minister this forgiveness in
his name, are also approaching this sacrament, as both penitents and ministers, throughout our lives and at this special moment of grace during Lent.
We want to offer ourselves to you as forgiven sinners seeking to serve in the
Lord’s name.
During Lent — in addition to the various penitential services during which
individual confession takes place — we bishops and priests will be making
ourselves available often for the individual celebration of this sacrament. We
pray that through the work of the Holy Spirit, all Catholics — clergy and laity
— will respond to the call of the new evangelization to encounter Christ in the
sacrament of penance and reconciliation. Come to the Lord and experience
the extraordinary grace of his forgiveness!
–– U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
GOOD NEWS
22
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Our rights and responsibilities as Catholic citizens
and employment. Corresponding to
these rights are duties and responsibilities –– to one another, to our families,
and to the larger society, to respect the
rights of others and to work for the
common good.” (A Century of Social
Teaching)
What this means for American
Catholics is that we bring an important balance to our civic conversation
around rights. We call people to responsibility and we balance individual
rights with the needs of all –– the
common good. Catholic teaching says
that people have the right to life and
to all that is necessary for life –– food,
clothing, shelter, education, health
care and work. Each person also has
the responsibility to utilize their gifts,
talents and energy to work to provide
for themselves and their families. As
sisters and brothers in Christ, we are
also called to share those gifts for the
common good and to assist those who
cannot provide what is needed for
themselves.
In his encyclical On Social Concern
(Sollicitudo Rei Socialis) from 1987,
Pope John Paul II wrote that “Those
who are more inuential, because they
have a greater share of goods and common services, should feel responsible
for the weaker and be ready to share
BY BARBARA BUDDE
COLUMNIST
Our nation was born during the
historical period known as the Enlightenment. This era was one that focused
attention on the importance of every
individual human person and on their
individual rights. Our Declaration of
Independence, which proclaims the
right to “life liberty and the pursuit of
happiness,” and the Bill of Rights in
our Constitution are clear examples of
the Enlightenment values held by our
founding fathers. It is no wonder then
that so much of our public conversation and debate center around individual rights.
Our Catholic tradition is centuries
older than the Enlightenment. Our
faith promotes and upholds the dignity
of every human person and their basic
human rights; however, our tradition
always ties rights with corresponding responsibilities. In 1991 the U.S.
Bishops wrote: “Flowing from our
God-given dignity, each person has
basic rights and responsibilities …
People have a fundamental right to life
and to those things that make life truly
human: food, clothing, housing, health
care, education, security, social services
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with them all they possess. Those who
are weaker, for their part … should not
adopt a purely passive attitude or one
that is destructive of the social fabric,
but, while claiming their legitimate
rights, should do what they can for the
good of all. The intermediate groups,
in their turn, should not selshly insist
on their particular interests, but respect
the interests of others” (39).
The Gospel of Jesus and the teaching of our church call us to a way of
living and thinking that is different
from the consumerism and individualism prevalent in our American culture.
Our faith calls us to bring these values
to our public and political debate. Our
Texas Legislature is back is session.
Over the next few months elected ofcials will be visited by many interest
groups who care about very specic issues. Sometimes the interests of those
groups are the same as our Catholic
values and sometimes they are not. As
a diocese we are partnering with the
Texas Catholic Conference to promote
the agenda of issues identied by our
Texas bishops. This is a very broad
agenda that cuts across many ideologies but represents our understanding
of protecting human rights and calling
all to accept responsibility for the common good.
All Catholics in the diocese are
invited to learn more about the Texas
Catholic Conference agenda by visiting
www.txcatholic.org. For information
on ways to support the advocacy efforts of the bishops, contact the diocesan Ofce of Social Concerns at (512)
949-2471 or [email protected] or the diocesan Ofce of
Pro-life Activities and Chaste Living
at (512) 949-2486 or marie-seale@
austindiocese.org.
Our nation is founded on rights
and freedom. Our faith invites us to
embrace both our rights and responsibilities in ways that foster the common
good –– not just an individual good.
As we move through this legislative
season, we can bring the vision of
the common good, the concepts of
rights and responsibilities to our public
discussion so that our state can be
strengthened by the wisdom of our
faith.
BARBARA BUDDE
is the diocesan
director of social
concerns. She
can be reached at
(512) 949-2471 or
barbara-budde@
austindiocese.org.
February 2013
GOOD NEWS
23
Tips on helping children cope with violence, tragedy
BY DR. JOSEPH D. WHITE
GUEST COLUMNIST
The news of the school shooting
in Connecticut shocked and saddened
our nation. Such a horric event
raises difcult questions for everyone,
but children watching news of the
disaster may have particular difculty
understanding why and how this
could happen. Children come to us
because we usually have the answers
when they are stuck or confused.
But how do we help them process a
tragedy like this, particularly when we
ourselves struggle with comprehending it? Here are some recommendations for helping children of various
ages cope:
Ages 6 and younger: Children
this age have limited ability to imagine something happening far away,
and they also tend to relate what they
see and hear back to themselves. If
they have too much detail about the
tragedy, they may fear it will happen to
them. Limit exposure to the news, and
try not to discuss the disaster within
earshot. If they have heard about the
shooting already, reassure them that
you will do everything you can to keep
them safe and you trust their teachers to do the same. Tell them that this
shooter will never harm anyone again.
Include the victims and their families
in family prayers.
Ages 7 to 12: Children this age
are somewhat better able to process
news of the event, but they also need
to be protected from the indepth
coverage that can sometimes follow
such a profound disaster. They will
especially be upset by news of children their age (or their sibling’s age)
who were involved. Some children
this age may also fear that something
like this will happen at their school.
We cannot promise that it won’t, but
we can reassure them that such occurrences are rare and remind them
that their school has procedures to
keep them safe. If your child’s school
is one of many that require guests
to be “buzzed in” before the door is
unlocked, it might be helpful to point
this out as well.
Ages 13-18: Teens will have much
more ability to understand and process
news reports of the tragedy, and may
pose difcult questions about why
God would allow such suffering. These
are not questions anyone can answer
perfectly, but consider the words of
Blessed John Paul II, who said, “God
is always on the side of the suffering.”
While we don’t perfectly understand
why tragedies like this occur, we know
that God was with the children at
Sandy Hook Elementary, sitting by
their side, holding them in his embrace,
and crying with them. You may also
encourage your son or daughter to do
what he or she can to help by supporting local causes to end violence and
especially by praying for the people of
Newtown –– that those who are suffering will be comforted and will know
God is with them, and that those who
have died will be welcomed into God’s
kingdom.
As families, let us all remember that
God is with us. Now is the time to be
vigilant in working together with God
to build a culture of life, a civilization
of love where every life is respected,
nourished and protected, remembering
that one day all sadness and all violence will disappear in the perfect light
of Christ.
DR. JOSEPH WHITE is a writer, editor and consultant to Our Sunday
Visitor, a Catholic publisher. He is in
part-time practice as a clinical child
psychologist. Visit his website at
www.sharingcatholicfaith.com.
French saint endured much torment from her family
BY MARY LOU GIBSON
COLUMNIST
She was the daughter of a king and
the wife of another, but her noble birth
did not bring her love and happiness.
For most of her life, St. Jeanne de
Valois (Joan of France) was ignored,
humiliated and rejected by her family
and later, her husband. She was born
in 1464, the fourth child of Louis XI
and his second wife, Queen Charlotte
of Savoy. King Louis was desperate
for a male heir. Two sons had died in
infancy. Instead, he got Jeanne who
was born sickly and deformed.
Biographers write that the king
hated Jeanne from her birth because
of her sex and her physical handicap.
Kathleen Jones writes in “Women
Saints – Lives of Faith and Courage”
that Jeanne had a hump on her back
and walked with a limp suggesting that
she had curvature of the spine.
When she was only 26 days old, the
king betrothed her to Louis, son of the
duke of Orléans, who was next in line
to the throne. Jeanne was sent away
from her family and from the court
when she was 5 and was brought up
by an elderly couple in a lonely country
chateau. She had a bleak childhood,
mostly forgotten and ignored by her
family and the French people. Jones
writes that it was a time when people
had no pity for such conditions.
She turned to God for consolation
and developed very early a tender and
practical devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Mary. This contemplation and prayer
life sustained her through years of
emotional turmoil and public humiliation. Her father brought Jeanne back
to court for political purposes when
she was 12 and compelled her to marry
the 13-year old duke. The marriage
required a double dispensation because
the king and the duke were second
cousins and the king was his godfather.
Later, these impediments were used by
the duke when he petitioned Rome for
an annulment.
Life did not get better for Jeanne
after the marriage. An account in the
Catholic Encyclopedia reports that the
duke hated the wife he was forced to
wed and publicly insulted her in every
possible way. The young couple never
lived together. Jeanne was sent back to
Linières for the next seven years. Sarah
Gallick writes in “The Big Book of
Women Saints” that the king insisted
that Louis validate the marriage contract and visit Jeanne four times a year.
During these visits the Duke dined and
feasted with friends and ignored his
wife. Biographers write that for many
years, Jeanne continued to believe in
the sanctity of her marriage and tried
to reach out to her husband, but she
was always rebuffed.
In 1483, King Louis XI died and
Jeanne’s young brother became King
Charles VIII. Her elder sister, Anne,
acted as regent. This change made
Jeanne’s husband, Louis of Orléans,
heir to the throne. Years later, in 1495,
Charles VIII died and Louis of Orléans
became King Louis XII, but Jeanne
did not become queen. Jones reports
that she was not even invited to his
coronation at Reims. Even though
Jeanne still believed in the validity of
her marriage, the king was moving
ahead with his plans to terminate the
marriage. The reigning pope, Alexander Borgia, granted his request and
issued the edit of nullity citing that
the marriage was invalid, from lack
of consent and that it had never been
consummated. Jeanne had to appear
before the court in person and hear the
charges against the marriage that Louis
brought. At one point, Jones writes,
the king’s counsel demanded that she
undergo a physical examination to determine whether she was still a virgin.
She refused and at this point, her case
was lost. Jeanne’s humiliations were
now complete.
When the king had his freedom,
he decided to be generous to Jeanne.
He created her Duchess of Berry and
gave her that province to govern. She
retired to the duchy of Berry where she
lived in the capital of Bourges. Jones
writes that Jeanne chose wise ministers
and advisers that helped her care for
her people. She visited the sick, cared
for prostitutes and opened a school for
poor boys.
She began to make plans for a contemplative order of nuns honoring the
Virgin Mary. The community was to
be a religious congregation of Franciscan contemplatives called the Order of
the Annonciades in commemoration
of the Annunciation. Together with
her confessor, Father Gilbert Nicholas,
she devised the daily routine and the
rule, which was to imitate the virtues
of Mary. The rule was based on the 10
perfections of Mary: prudence, purity,
humility, faith, prayerfulness, obedience, poverty, patience, charity and
compassion. The rule was formally
approved by the Holy See in 1502
and Jeanne became the rst professed
nun. She gave up her wedding ring and
wore the habit under her clothes. Her
elaborate court dresses were made into
vestments for the clergy.
Only two months after the order was enclosed, Jeanne became ill
and died on Feb. 4, 1505. Up until
her death, biographers write that she
prayed incessantly for her husband,
and left as a legacy to her order the
duty of constant payer for his soul as
well as her father’s and brother’s.
Gallick writes that Louis insisted
on giving her a royal funeral. It is said
that he knelt before her cofn, and
begged her pardon for the wrongs he
had done her.
Her order has houses in Albi, Bruges and Rodez. Jeanne was beatied
in 1742. Her canonization process was
stopped during the French Revolution
when all the documents were destroyed. She was formally canonized by
Pope Pius XII in 1950 and is popularly
regarded as a saint in France.
St. Joan of France (CNS photo)
MARY LOU GIBSON is
a member of St. Austin Parish in Austin.
She is a retired state
employee.
24
GOOD NEWS
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Health care does not come in the form of a little pill
BY REV. TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK, PH.D.
COLUMNIST
Physicians will sometimes prescribe
a hormonal regimen (in the form of a
hormonal contraceptive like the birth
control pill) to treat certain gynecological
problems like heavy menstrual bleeding,
dysmenorrhea (painful periods), PMS
(pre-menstrual syndrome), endometriosis, or other conditions like severe
acne. In these cases, the pill is used not
as a contraceptive, but as a therapy for a
medical condition.
This can be morally permissible
under the principle of double effect,
which allows for the treatment of a
serious medical problem (the good
effect), while tolerating its unintended
consequences, when other less harmful treatments are not available. In this
case, the unintended consequences
would be the impeding of one’s fertility
and the potential health risks and side
effects of the pill (the evil effect).
Married couples may sometimes
struggle with the question of whether a
pathology is serious enough to warrant
the therapeutic use of the pill. The wife
of one couple I worked with reected
on the matter and concluded, “Yes, the
bleeding is intense, and I’m basically
wiped out for at least two or three days
each month, but it’s not so debilitating
that my husband and I can’t manage,
and we’d really prefer, morally and medically speaking, not to get mixed up with
a powerful pharmaceutical like the pill.”
Treatments other than the pill may
at times be available to remedy these
medical conditions without having to
impede fertility. Some young women,
though, may be content to opt for a
treatment that also offers more latitude
for sexual activity. Approaching the
medical use of the pill in this way
can raise concerns about ambiguous
intentions. A friend of mine who dated
several young women who were on the
pill for a medical condition described
his own experiences and struggles this
way:
“Those I know who have done
this also tended to be the ones who
were sexually active … I believe it
does have an effect on one’s psyche
and soul. In fact, in the past I’ve
dated two women who were doing
this and it made it really, really hard
at times to be chaste. When I brought
up alternative ways to treat something
that doesn’t involve the pill, they got
very defensive. So I think it denitely
blurs a line even in the minds of the
most faithful Catholics who rationalize that this is what the doctor
ordered,” he said.
Lines can blur not only in the
minds of those who may be dating, but
also in the minds of medical students,
who may be taught to prescribe the pill
almost reexively for various gynecological issues rather than addressing the
root cause of the problem. As Dr. Lili
Cote de Bejarano has noted, “For most
of these conditions, the pill is only
treating the woman’s symptoms, while
her underlying medical problem — the
cause of the symptoms — remains
unaddressed and undiagnosed.”
Lines become further blurred when
medical professionals start to insist
that the pill, taken purely to avoid
pregnancy, is “health care.” It is not, in
fact, health care, but a lifestyle decision.
This lifestyle decision is frequently
made in the midst of a cultural backdrop that encourages “neutered” sex in
an endless array of forms, and sanctions the misguided view that “health”
means we have the right to practice
consensual indiscriminate sex without
consequences.
The pill, when chosen strictly for
these contraceptive purposes, fails
the test of being health care because
it does not heal or restore any broken
system of the human body. On the
contrary, it actually breaks a smoothly
working system — the reproductive
system — by disrupting the delicate
balance of hormonal cycles regulating
a woman’s reproductive well-being and
fecundity.
When taken for lifestyle purposes,
the pill is quite the opposite of health
care — being, in fact, detrimental
to women’s health — in light of its
frequent side effects of weight gain,
headaches and depression, as well as
its heightened and well-documented
risk of thrombotic stroke, myocardial
infarction (heart attack) and breast
cancer. The International Agency for
Research on Cancer, an arm of the
World Health Organization, classies
hormonal contraception as a Group 1
carcinogen.
When a married couple has a
proportionately serious reason not
to become pregnant — for example,
when pregnancy itself would seriously
threaten the woman’s life or health —
they can opt for periodic abstinence
during part of her cycle by assessing
various indicators of fertility. This
is sometimes referred to under the
general heading of “Fertility Awareness Methods,” and offers a morally
acceptable, safe and effective approach
to spacing children.
To sum up, then, the use of the pill
for medical (non-contraceptive) purposes requires a disciplined approach to
the matter. Alternative medical therapies should be seriously considered,
the great good of fertility should be
respected, and unspoken sexual agendas should not be allowed to trump the
duty to exercise moral responsibility
and sound medical judgment.
FATHER TADEUSZ PACHOLCZYK,
PH.D. earned his
doctorate in neuroscience from Yale.
He is a priest of
the Diocese of Fall
River, Mass., and
serves as the Director of Education
at The National
Catholic Bioethics Center in Philadelphia. For more information, visit
www.ncbcenter.org.
Love is a decision rather than a feeling
BY MATTHEW E. WEILERT
GUEST COLUMNIST
What better month than February to talk about love? Before the tech
and nance men go apoplectic, we are
talking about the practical reality that
love is a decision, not a feeling. Love is
deciding to choose the good available
to us. In his rst encyclical “Deus Caritas Est,” Pope Benedict XVI discusses
three words: eros, philia and agape.
These are three distinct expressions of
feeling and action that we, in English,
translate as the single word love.
Reading further, the pope opens
our eyes to messages in the Song of
Songs. The Hebrew “dodim” is an
insecure, searching love, while the mature couple radiates “ahabà,” which we
translate in Greek as the more familiar
agape, a self-sacricial love that cares
more for the well-being and long-term
good of the other than for self.
In marriage
Blessed John Paul II’s Theology of the Body teaches us we are a
unied mind-body-spirit and helps
us understand the dignity and purity
of the original design of man and
woman. In faithful, exclusive and
permanent communion, God inspires
man and woman to speak the language of forever-ness, to conceive
and bear children who are the image
and likeness of the Divine.
When a man and woman commit
themselves to each other and God in
the sacrament of marriage, we are also
asked to be radically open to life and to
allow ourselves to give and receive that
agape love. As vessels of grace outpoured, our self-giving agape love puts
the spouse rst. It trusts, treasures and
creates conditions for our spouse and
our family to ourish in every dimension. Agape is the physical reality of
God’s eternal goodness, disciplined in
the sacrament of marriage, constituted
for the mutual satisfaction of spouses
and the healthy raising of children in
the faith.
When couples are authentically
prepared for marriage: spiritually, nancially, mentally and psychologically,
they have the foundation of agape
love, to “give-up” their own self-interest for the good of the other. Through
the gifts of marriage and children, we
learn to love others as God loves us.
With children
My young son, Stephen, teaches
me and my parents, his grandparents,
more about agape love in every move
that he makes. With his shrieks of
delight and his intense study of every
new encounter of a leaf, a limestone
wall or a wood lattice, we love him
and he teaches us to love more.
Every child is a living piece of
heaven. They are a glimpse of the
Divine. My son animated a night-time
drudgery into a sublime sacrice as I
got up two or three times a night to
feed this little guy, watching him after
he’d nished with his bottle almost
took my breath away. As infants they
are pure innocence, yet their lives are
a breath-taking promise of the future.
To experience the wonder of a
child is to know more deeply, more
intimately what life is for and why
we’re here on this planet. We’re not
just here whirling through space on
a big rock with water sloshing in an
innite-edge pool.
We’re here to nurture each other;
we are here to give and to receive
love. Nowhere does that truth shine
more clearly than through the eyes of
a child.
The Central Texas Fellowship
of Catholic Men will host its rst
Men’s Conference Feb. 16 beginning
at 9 a.m. at St. William Parish in Round
Rock. Matthew Kelly, a well-known
Catholic speaker, will be the presenter.
This workshop is for men who want
a thorough look at where they are in
their lives, personally and spiritually
and enables them to better love, live
and share the Catholic faith in a more
dynamic way than ever before. For
more information, call (512) 560-2048
or visit www.dynamiccatholic.com.
MATTHEW WEILERT writes on behalf
of the Central Texas Fellowship of
Catholic Men (www.ctfcatholicmen.
org). He considers Ascension Parish
in Bastrop his home parish and currently is a member of St. Louis Parish
in Austin. He has one son.
February 2013
BULLETIN BOARD
NFP classes....................
25
For Your
Information
Catholic Scripture Study of Austin
meets on Wednesdays at 9:30 a.m. at St.
Louis Parish in Austin and Wednesdays
at 6:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 9:30 a.m.
at St. Margaret Mary Parish in Cedar
Park. The weekly two-hour Bible study
consists of prayer and discussion, and
is open to everyone. For information
about the Austin class, contact Rosemary Howard at (512) 345-3687. For
more information about the Cedar Park
classes, contact Bob Gorski at (512) 6362927 or [email protected].
Sarah’s Hope is a free spiritual support program for couples struggling to
conceive or with pregnancy loss. Monthly
women’s support groups are held on the
rst Wednesday of the month (rosary
at 6:45 p.m., discussion at 7 p.m.) at the
Vitae Clinic in Austin, located at 1600 W.
38th St., suite 115. Upcoming meetings
are Feb. 6 and March 6. Save the date
of April 27 for the next couples’ healing
retreat. E-mail SarahsHopeAustin@gmail.
com or call (512) 736-7334 for more information. Sarah’s Hope is not a ministry
of the Austin Diocese.
A Discernment Dinner for high
school-age Catholic men will be held
Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. at St. William Parish Rectory in Round Rock. Men with an openness to encountering Christ, discovering
their identity and their mission are invited
to join others for dinner, evening prayer,
a presentation and discussion. For more
information, contact Father Jonathan
Raia at (512) 600-8154 or frjonathan@
saintwilliams.org.
The Knights of Columbus will
host a clergy appreciation banquet for
all priests, brothers, sisters, deacons and
seminarians Feb. 7 from 5:30 to 8:30
p.m. at St. Helen Parish in Georgetown.
To RSVP, contact Carlos Estringel at
[email protected].
Project Andrew will be held Feb.
9 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary
Cathedral in Austin. Catholic men between the ages of 16 and 45 interested
in learning more about discernment, the
priesthood and seminary life are invited
to attend. There will be time for prayer,
testimonials by priests and seminarians
as well as Mass and lunch with Bishop
Joe Vásquez. For more information, visit
www.austinvocations.com.
The Catholic Physician’s Guild of
Central Texas invites clinicians, health
care providers, administrators and other
interested parties to attend the 12th Annual White Mass on Feb. 11 at 6 p.m. at
St. Mary Cathedral in Austin. Bishop Joe
Vásquez will celebrate the Mass. Please
RSVP to [email protected].
A Discernment Dinner for single,
Catholic men (ages 18 and older) with an
openness to a priestly vocation and discernment will be held Feb. 13 from 7 to
8:30 p.m. at the Borromeo House in Austin. The evening includes dinner, prayer,
and a presentation. For more informa-
tion, contact Father Brian McMaster at
(512) 949-2430 or fr-brian-mcmaster@
austindiocese.org.
Ash Wednesday is Feb. 13.
The Central Texas Fellowship of
Catholic Men will host its rst Men’s
Conference Feb. 16 beginning at 9 a.m.
at St. William Parish in Round Rock. Matthew Kelly, a well-known Catholic speaker, will be the presenter. This workshop
is for men who want a thorough look at
where they are in their lives, personally
and spiritually and enables them to better
love, live and share the Catholic faith in a
more dynamic way than ever before. For
more information, call (512) 560-2048 or
visit www.dynamiccatholic.com.
Project Miriam will be held Feb. 16
from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at St. Mary Cathedral in Austin. Single, Catholic women
between the ages of 16 and 45 are invited
to attend. The morning includes testimonials and prayer with religious sisters
serving in the diocese, as well as Mass
and lunch with Bishop Joe Vásquez. For
more information, contact the Vocation
Ofce at (512) 949-2430 or vocations@
austindiocese.org.
The Rite of Election will be held
Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. at St. Thomas Aquinas
Parish in College Station and at 5:30 p.m.
and 7:30 p.m. at St. John Vianney Parish
in Round Rock.
The English Cursillo Community of the Diocese of Austin invites all
women to a women’s weekend Feb. 21-24
at the Cursillo Center in Jarrell. All cursillistas are invited to the Closura on Feb. 24
at 5 p.m. Visit www.austinenglishcursillo.
webs.com for activities, events, contact
information and forms as well as prayer
requests. De Colores! For more information, contact Robin Spencer at (254) 5183609 or [email protected].
A Mass celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Gabriel Project in the
Austin Diocese will be held Feb. 23 at 10
a.m. in the chapel at St. William Parish
in Round Rock. A reception will follow.
The Ofce of Black Catholics of
the Diocese of Austin is sponsoring a
Black History Month and Motherland
Mass at Holy Cross Parish in Austin Feb.
24 at 10 a.m. All are invited to attend.
A workshop for those who prepare
couples for marriage will be held March
9 at the diocesan Pastoral Center in Austin. The training will prepare participants
to give the PREPARE premarital inventory to couples preparing for marriage
and to discuss the results in a manner
that has been shown to effectively reduce
later marital conict. To register or for
more information, contact the diocesan
Ofce of Family Counseling and Family
Life at (512) 949-2495 or rick-bologna@
austindiocese.org.
The annual Chrism Mass will be
held March 26 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Austin. Bishop Joe
Vásquez will celebrate the Mass.
An introductory class on the
Creighton Model of natural family
planning will be held Feb. 18 from 6:30
to 9 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Center
in College Station. Couples will receive
credit for premarriage preparation. The
cost to attend is $20. Register online at
www.aggiecatholic.org/fccsm or contact
(979) 846-5717 or [email protected].
A series of classes on the Billings
Ovulation Method of natural family
planning will begin Feb. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
at St. John Neumann Parish in Austin.
The course consists of three classes over
a six-week period. For more information, contact Amanda and Ryan Ransom
at [email protected].
A series of classes on the Billings
Ovulation Method of natural family
planning will begin Feb. 27 at 7:30 p.m.
at St. Thomas More Parish in Austin.
The course consists of three classes over
a six-week period. For more information, contact Amanda and Ryan Ransom
at [email protected].
An introductory class on the
Creighton Model of natural family
planning will be held March 11 from 6:30
to 9 p.m. at St. Mary Catholic Center in
College Station. Couples will receive credit
for premarriage preparation. The cost to
attend is $20. Register online at www.
aggiecatholic.org/fccsm or contact (979)
846-5717 or [email protected].
Retreats.........................
An Ash Wednesday Day of Reection will be presented Feb. 13 from
9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Belton. For more
information or to register, contact Cedarbrake at (254) 780-2436 or [email protected].
A Retrouvaille weekend can
help married couples who feel alone,
who are frustrated or angry with each
other, who argue or who have just
stopped talking to each other. Retrouvaille (pronounced retro-vi with
a long i) helps couples through difficult times in their marriages. The
next program begins with a weekend
Feb. 22-24. For local assistance, call
800-470-2230, or visit the web site at
www.HelpOurMarriage.com.
A Boy Scout Retreat will be held
March 2 at a location to be announced.
This retreat satises the Ad Altare Dei
and Pope Pius retreat/day of reection
requirement. For more information,
contact Kathleen Lossau at klossau@
austin.rr.com.
A Lenten Retreat will be presented
March 8-10 at Cedarbrake Catholic
Retreat Center in Belton. For more information or to register, contact Cedarbrake at (254) 780-2436 or cedarbrake@
austindiocese.org.
Project Rachel is a compassionate and condential ministry that helps
women and men suffering emotionally
and spiritually from the trauma of abortion. Weekend retreats are available
throughout the year at private locations.
They are led by a priest and the Project
Rachel team. The next retreat is March
15-17. To condentially register for this
retreat call (877) We-Care-2 (1-877-9322732).
“Together in God’s Love,” a marriage preparation retreat, will be held
March 15-17 at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Belton. Couples preparing for marriage are encouraged to register as soon as possible, as these retreats
ll quickly. The weekend includes talks
on faith, communication, sexuality and
stewardship in the context of Catholic
marriage. For registration information,
contact your parish or the Catholic Family Life and Family Counseling Ofce
at (512) 949-2495 or rick-bologna@
austindiocese.org.
A Year of the Faith Retreat in
Spanish will be held March 16 at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat Center in Belton.
For more information or to register,
contact Cedarbrake at (254) 780-2436 or
[email protected].
Married couples who are looking
for a getaway and time to reconnect
with one another are invited to a Worldwide Marriage Encounter March 22-24
at the Wingate Hotel in Round Rock.
This is an opportunity for husbands and
wives to escape the daily distractions
of life and focus on each other. For
more information or to apply to attend,
contact Anh and Greg Thomas at (512)
677-WWME (9963) or wwmeaustin@
gmail.com.
Reections on Holy Week will
be held March 23 from 9 a.m. to 2:30
p.m. at Cedarbrake Catholic Retreat
Center in Belton. For more information or to register, contact Cedarbrake
at (254) 780-2436 or cedarbrake@
austindiocese.org.
Send in your items!
CATHOLIC SPIRIT offers this page, “For Your
Information,” as a “community bulletin board.”
Items of general interest of upcoming parish and
diocesan events, including parish social events,
will be printed at no charge at the discretion of
the editor. The deadline for material is the 10th
of the month, with publication occurring the
rst week of the following month. Material may
be e-mailed to catholic-spirit@austindiocese.
org or faxed to (512) 949-2523.
BULLETIN BOARD
Parish and community events................................
26
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
“Together in God’s Love,” a marriage preparation class, will begin Feb.
5 from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at the diocesan
Pastoral Center in Austin. Subsequent
classes will be held Feb. 12, 19, and 26.
The classes include talks on faith, communication, sexuality and stewardship
in the context of Catholic marriage. For
registration information, contact your
parish or the diocesan Catholic Family Life and Family Counseling Ofce
at (512) 949-2495 or rick-bologna@
austindiocese.org.
St. William Parish in Round Rock
will host a Sweetheart Dinner and Dance
Feb. 8 at the St. William Parish Hall.
Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. with din-
Burse
The Diocesan Council of Catholic
Women has completed a burse for
the Clerical Endowment Fund (CEF)
in memory of Father Peter Higgins.
The totals for the burse as of Dec.
31, 2012, are listed below by council.
Austin Council
$974.00
Brazos Valley Council
$523.00
Central Council
$356.00
Eastern Council
$581.00
Northern Council
$1,131.40
Southern Council
$378.00
Temple Council
$1,848.00
Previous Balance
$4,928.81
Total
$11,370.21
The Clerical Endowment Fund provides low-cost loans to parishes. Interest
from the loans is used to educate diocesan
seminarians. For information, contact either Father Ed Karasek at (254) 826-3705
or Mary Ann Till at (512) 353-4943.
ner from 7 to 8:30 p.m.; the dance will
follow until midnight. Music will be
provided by Ram Herrera and the Outlaw Band. Advance tickets are $30 per
person, which includes dinner. Tickets
will be $35 per person at the door. For
ticket information, call Julio Campos at
(512) 635-4707 or Gloria Vallejo at (512)
968-2197.
The Ladies of Charity of Austin
meet on the second Saturday of every
month at the Pastoral Center, 6225
Highway 290 East, Austin. The next
meeting is Feb. 9 and will begin with
Mass at 9:30 a.m. followed by the business meeting. For more information,
contact Anna LaFuente at (512) 5075091 or [email protected].
All married couples are invited to
attend the annual World Marriage Day
Event at St. John Neumann Parish in
Austin Feb. 9 from 2 to 8:30 p.m. Charlie and Beth Balsam will lead a half-day
retreat followed by Mass and a romantic
dinner. Pre-registration is required. The
cost is $55 per couple. Babysitting is
available for $15 per child. More information and registration are available at
http://wmd2013.eventbrite.com.
The 2013 Pro-Life Benet Gala will
be Feb. 9 at the Renaissance Austin Hotel
and will feature Bishop Joe Vásquez and
Most Reverend Joseph A. Fiorenza, Archbishop Emeritus of Galveston-Houston.
Dinner and a silent auction are included.
Sponsorships and tickets are available
now. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.centraltexasprolife.org or call (512) 949-2486.
St. Martin de Porres Parish in
Dripping Springs will host its second
annual Mardi Gras Night and Auction
Feb. 9 from 6 to 10 p.m. at Pecan Grove
in Driftwood. Everyone is invited to this
Texas-sized Mardi Gras bash that will
include gumbo and seafood jambalaya.
For more information or to purchase
tickets, call the parish at (512) 858-5667.
Father Nathan Cromley, prior of
the Community of St. John in Laredo,
will lead a series of monthly lectures
entitled “Secularism in the Family” at St.
Mary Cathedral. The next lecture will be
held Feb. 10. Mass will be celebrated at
5:30 p.m. and the presentation will be at
6:30 p.m. in the school library. Subsequent lectures are set for March 10, April
14 and May 19. For more information,
contact Celia Martinez at cikon15@
yahoo.com or (512) 441-9914.
“Totus Tuus: A Consecration to
Jesus through Mary with Blessed
John Paul II,” a book by Father Brian
McMaster, is available in bookstores and
online. St. William Parish in Round Rock
will host a free presentation by Father
McMaster on Marian consecration on
Feb. 11 at 7 p.m. in the parish’s Sacred
Heart Chapel. Afterwards, he will sign
copies of his book, which will be available for purchase.
Dolores Parish in Austin will hold
its annual Ash Wednesday Fish Fry on
Feb. 13 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. in the
parish Family Center. Plates will consist
of sh, fries, beans, salad and all the
trimmings. Capirotada (bread pudding)
and cakes will also be on sale.
The Caldwell Knights of Columbus will serve Fried Fish Dinners on
Feb. 15 and 22, March 8, 15 and 22 from
4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at St. Mary Parish gym
in Caldwell. Plates are $8 each and are
available to go only.
“Mary’s Obedience of Faith,” the
eighth annual Lenten conference for
women, will be held Feb. 16 from 8 a.m.
to 3 p.m. at San José Parish in Austin.
The conference is sponsored by the San
José Council of Catholic Women and
will offer time for reection, prayer and
sharing on the many aspects of obedience, patience and healing. Father John
Boiko, associate pastor at San José, will
share his love and devotion to Mary as
the keynote speaker. For more information, contact Ester Terrazas at (512) 6930187 or Lydia Ruiz at (512) 964-6551.
The fourth annual St. Dominic
Savio Catholic High School Bookfair
will be held Feb. 16 from 1 to 4 p.m. at the
Barnes and Noble Bookstore at Lakeline
in Austin. Students will demonstrate their
robotics project, recite poetry, and give
choir and band performances. A percentage of the purchases will benet the Savio
library when “Bookfair ID #11020807”
is submitted at checkout from Feb. 1618 and online at www.bncom/bookfairs
from Feb. 16-23.
The Paschal Mystery: The most
compelling interpretation of human
existence, a Lenten parish mission, will
be presented Feb. 19-20 at St. John Vianney Parish in Round Rock. Father Gary
Caster will be the presenter. The mission
will be held each day from 9 to 10:30
a.m. and from 7 to 8:30 p.m. For more
information, contact the parish at (512)
218-1183 or [email protected].
The Caldwell Knights of Columbus will present the 2013 Homecoming
Festival March 3 beginning at 10:30 a.m.
at the SPJST Hall on Hwy. 36 South in
Caldwell. Activities include an auction
and barbecue brisket plates for $8 each.
Trips to Scotland, France, Ireland, Shrines of Europe and much more...
ranging from $3,599—$4,699 for 2013.
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National Parks Tour
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Holy Land: Apr. 1-11, Apr. 8018, Apr. 15-25, Apr. 22-May 2, Apr. 29-May 9, May 6-16...
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February 2013
ESPAÑOL
27
Experimentando el amor de Dios en la confesión
E L O BISPO J OE S.
VÁSQUEZ es el quinto
obispo de la Diócesis
de Austin. Es pastor
para casi 500,000
católicos en 25
condados en el
Centro de Texas.
Editora: Señor Obispo, la Cuaresma comenzará en breve, con el
Miércoles de Ceniza el 13 de febrero. ¿Cómo podemos prepararnos
para la Cuaresma de este año?
Obispo Vásquez: La Cuaresma
es un tiempo de gracia para todos
nosotros, como católicos, para renovarnos y para ser convertidos y cambiar.
Toda la experiencia de la Cuaresma
tiene dos aspectos. En primer lugar,
es para los que están en el proceso de
RICA (Rito de Iniciación Cristiana
para adultos) y se están preparando
para recibir los sacramentos. Ellos han
estado en formación, discerniendo y
pidiéndole a Dios si es su voluntad que
se conviertan al catolicismo. Entonces,
para nosotros, que hemos sido católicos
por toda la vida o por un periodo largo
de tiempo, la Cuaresma es un tiempo
para renovar nuestro compromiso
católico con Cristo.
El tiempo de Cuaresma se basa en
tres pilares, de los que vamos a oír hablar
en el Evangelio de Mateo el Miércoles
de Ceniza: el ayuno, la oración y la limosna. Estos tres pilares fundamentales
son los que estructuran nuestra estación
de Cuaresma. La Cuaresma es un tiempo
cuando oramos un poco más, cuando
ayunamos o renunciamos a ciertas cosas
y cuando practicamos obras de misericordia y la compasión por nuestros
hermanos y hermanas en necesidad. La
Cuaresma es un tiempo muy intenso y es
un tiempo de renovación espiritual para
toda la Iglesia.
Editora: El Papa ha hecho un
llamado para que podamos aprovechar más el sacramento de la
penitencia en el Año de la fe y con
más frecuencia en general. La Cuaresma es un buen momento para
hacerlo, ¿verdad?
Obispo Vásquez: Sí, la Cuaresma
es una oportunidad para experimentar
el sacramento de la penitencia o como
algunos lo conocen, la confesión o reconciliación. Podemos llamarle con nombres
diferentes, pero igualmente se trata del
encuentro con Cristo, que es amoroso y
misericordioso. Él está siempre dispuesto
a perdonar nuestros pecados.
Nuestro Santo Padre nos ha
pedido que tomemos más en serio
este sacramento durante este Año de
la fe. Yo hago esa misma apelación
al pueblo de la Diócesis de Austin, e
invito a todos los católicos a participar
en el sacramento con más regularidad.
A todos nosotros nos encanta ir a la
Sagrada Comunión. Nos encontramos
con el Señor allí, y cuando vamos a la
confesión, creo que deberíamos esperar
lo mismo. Nuestro Señor está allí para
reunirse con nosotros en el sacramento
de la confesión — al absolvernos el
sacerdote de nuestros pecados, el Señor
nos está diciendo: “Yo te perdono”.
El sacramento de la confesión es
una de las mejores experiencias de los
católicos. Cuando vamos a la confesión
y quizá a confesar los pecados graves
o pecados que han sido persistentes en
nosotros durante años o días y somos
capaces de aceptarlos y luego escuchar
las palabras de la absolución del sacerdote, inmediatamente sentimos que una
gran carga ha sido tomada de nosotros.
Nos sentimos limpios, nos sentimos
puricados, nos sentimos conectados
con la gente que podríamos haber
herido o que nos ha herido, nos sentimos conectados con Dios y sentimos
la presencia de Dios en nuestras vidas.
Empezamos a experimentar la vida que
viene de Dios.
Editora: ¿Cuál es la importancia
de ir a la confesión con regularidad?
Obispo Vásquez: El sacramento de
la confesión debe ser practicado regularmente por nosotros, como católicos, ya
que nos indica las áreas de nuestra vida
que necesitan ser sanadas y perdonadas.
Hay áreas de nuestra vida rotas en cada
uno de nosotros. Para algunos puede
ser una actitud particular. Para algunos
puede ser un hábito particular que no
han cambiado y que quieren cambiar.
Para otros, puede ser una forma de
pensar o una manera de juzgar a los
demás. Nuestras razones para necesitar
el sacramento pueden ser muy diferentes para cada uno de nosotros, pero la
curación del sacramento y la misericordia están presentes para todos nosotros.
La gracia de este sacramento comienza a
curar a la persona que se acoje a la gracia
de Dios. Por lo tanto, el que abre su vida
a ese maravilloso, compasivo y amoroso
Cristo comenzará a experimentar la
curación.
A lo largo de las Escrituras escuchamos cómo Cristo sanó a las
personas destrozadas. Podría haber
sido alivio físico, o podría haber sido
espiritual, podría haber sido el quebrantamiento de las relaciones, pero cuando
se le permitió a él tocar esa ruptura
en la vida de las personas entonces
volvieron a conectarse y encontraron y
experimentaron la plenitud. Eso es de
lo que el sacramento de la confesión se
trata. Nuestro quebrantamiento, Cristo
lo toma y él con amor, a través de su
gracia, nos reconecta, nos reforma, nos
ayuda a sentir completos otra vez. Por
eso es importante que busquemos regularmente el sacramento de la confesión.
Editora: ¿Cómo hacer una buena
confesión?
Obispo Vásquez: Lo maravilloso del Sacramento es que nadie está
obligado y tenemos que estar dispuestos a aceptar el perdón de Dios, lo
que puede ser una lucha para muchas
personas. Hay muchas razones por las
que la gente no quiere ir a la confesión.
Algunos piensan que va a tomar mucho
tiempo, pero en realidad la mayoría de
las confesiones no son muy largas. La
satisfacción de tomar sólo unos minutos para hacer una buena confesión es
mucho más inmensa - la experiencia
de sentirse tan vivo después, hace
que valga la pena el tiempo que tome.
Muchos dudan en ir a la confesión, ya
que ha pasado un largo tiempo desde
la última vez que lo han hecho. Sin
embargo, quiero que la gente sepa que
¡no importa cuánto tiempo ha pasado!
Cristo se regocija cada vez que un
pecador se aparta del pecado y vuelve
a Dios. Otros pueden sentir que sus
pecados son imperdonables. Eso no
es cierto. Todos los pecados pueden
ser perdonados si estamos dispuestos
a admitirlos, confesarlos y luego pedir
perdón a Dios. No hay pecado que no
pueda ser perdonado.
La confesión implica un buen examen de conciencia. Debemos tomar
tiempo antes de ir a la confesión para
retroceder y ver las áreas de nuestra
vida en las que necesitamos la sanidad
de Dios. ¿Cuánto tiempo ha pasado?
¿Qué pecados he cometido? Debemos
examinar nuestra vida familiar, nuestra
vida profesional, nuestra vida espiritual y encontrar las áreas en las que
necesitamos el perdón y la curación.
Por tanto, debemos tener el deseo de
querer realmente cambiar. Debemos
estar arrepentidos de nuestros pecados,
tener la voluntad de cambiar y hacernos
presentes a Cristo.
Como sacerdote, he conocido a muchas personas que dicen que a menudo
se encuentran confesando los mismos
pecados. Hay muchas personas que sufren por esto, ¡pero esto no es una razón
para dejar de ir a la confesión! Aún así
necesitamos el Sacramento. Dios aún así
nos perdona siempre y cuando estemos
dispuestos a hacer un esfuerzo sincero
para vencer el pecado. Si nos arrepentimos de lo que hemos hecho, la gracia de
Dios está ahí para nosotros. Dios nunca
se da por vencido con nosotros, todo
lo que tenemos que hacer es buscar el
amor y la misericordia de Dios.
Editora: Al comenzar la Cuaresma, ¿cuál es su oración para
nosotros?
Obispo Vásquez: Mi oración
para nosotros es que experimentemos
durante estos 40 días una renovación y la
conversión de nuestros corazones. Rezo
para que veamos nuestras debilidades,
nuestras faltas, nuestros fracasos y pecados y voluntariamente los admitamos a
Dios. Dios tomará ese quebrantamiento
y nos transformará. Pido por que experimentemos la profunda gracia de Dios en
nuestras vidas durante la Cuaresma, de
modo que cuando la Pascua venga, de
verdad experimentemos la alegría de la
Resurrección.
Exhortación pastoral sobre el sacramento de
la Penitencia y de la Reconciliación
Queridos hermanos y hermanas en Cristo:
“¡La paz esté con ustedes!” Con estas palabras, el Señor resucitado saluda
a sus asustados Apóstoles en el Cenáculo el día de su resurrección. Ellos estaban preocupados, ansiosos y temerosos — tanto como hemos estado cada uno
de nosotros en algún momento de nuestras vidas. Cristo repitió las palabras:
“La paz esté con ustedes.” Pero luego añadió: “Reciban al Espíritu Santo. Los
pecados que perdonen les son perdonados”. (S. Juan 20,19-23).
¡Qué extraordinario regalo! El Señor resucitado proclamaba que todos los
sufrimientos que había soportado sólo fueron con el n de hacer disponibles los
dones de la salvación y el perdón. Él quería que los Apóstoles recibieran estos
dones. Quería que se convirtieran en apóstoles de este perdón a los demás.
En el sacramento de la penitencia y de la reconciliación, también llamado
confesión, nos encontramos con el Señor, que quiere concedernos el perdón y
la gracia para vivir una nueva vida en él. En este sacramento, nos prepara para
recibirlo libre de pecado grave, con una fe viva, sincera esperanza y el amor
sacricial de la Eucaristía. La Iglesia ve a la confesión como algo tan importante
que requiere que todo católico acuda a ella al menos una vez al año. La Iglesia
también alienta la confesión frecuente con el n de acercarnos más a Jesucristo
y a su Cuerpo, la Iglesia. Por la gracia del Espíritu Santo, buscamos el perdón
y el arrepentimiento, dejamos de lado los patrones de pecado, crecemos en la
vida de la virtud, y damos testimonio de una conversión alegre. Dado que las
gracias del sacramento son tan similares a los efectos de la nueva evangelización, el Papa Benedicto XVI ha dicho: “La Nueva Evangelización…¡comienza
en el confesionario!”
Nosotros, los obispos y sacerdotes estamos dispuestos a ayudarle si tiene
algún problema, duda o incertidumbre sobre acercarse al Señor en este sacramento. Si no ha recibido este sacramento de curación en mucho tiempo, estamos listos para darle la bienvenida. Nosotros, los que Cristo ha ordenado al
ministerio de este perdón en su nombre, también se acercan a este sacramento,
de ambas maneras, como penitentes y como ministros a lo largo de nuestras
vidas y en este momento de gracia especial durante la Cuaresma. Queremos
ofrecernos a ustedes como pecadores perdonados que tratan de servir en el
nombre del Señor.
Durante la Cuaresma — además de los diversos servicios penitenciales
durante los cuales tiene lugar la confesión individual –– nosotros, los obispos
y sacerdotes estaremos a menudo disponibles para la celebración individual
del sacramento. Oramos para que a través de la obra del Espíritu Santo, todos
los católicos — sacerdotes y laicos — respondamos al llamado de la Nueva
Evangelización a encontrar a Cristo en el sacramento de la penitencia y de la
reconciliación. ¡Vengan al Señor y experimenten la extraordinaria gracia de su
perdón!
–– Conferencia de Obispos Católicos de Estados Unidos (USCCB)
28
ESPAÑOL
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
Ayudar a los niños a lidiar con violencia y tragedia
POR EL DR. JOSEPH D. WHITE
COLUMNISTA INVITADO
La noticia del tiroteo en una escuela
en Connecticut ha conmocionado y
entristecido a nuestro país. Un evento
tan terrible plantea preguntas difíciles
para todos, pero los niños que ven las
noticias del desastre pueden tener dicultades para entender por qué y cómo
todo esto podría suceder. Los niños
vienen a nosotros porque por lo general
tenemos las respuestas cuando se encuentran atorados o confundidos. Pero
¿cómo podemos ayudarles a procesar una
tragedia como ésta, sobre todo cuando
nosotros luchamos con comprenderla?
He aquí algunas sugerencias para ayudar
a los niños de diferentes edades a enfrentar lo sucedido:
De 6 años y menores: Los niños
de esta edad tienen una capacidad
limitada para imaginar algo que sucede
muy lejos y también tienden a relatar
lo que ven y escuchan de nuevo a sí
mismos. Si tienen demasiados detalles
sobre la tragedia, pueden temer que les
va a pasar a ellos. Limite la exposición
a las noticias y trate de no discutir el
desastre al alcance de su oído. Si ya han
oído hablar del tiroteo, asegúrenles que
van a hacer todo lo posible para mantenerlos a salvo y que confían en que
sus maestros harán lo mismo. Dígales
que este tirador nunca le hará daño a
nadie más. Incluya a las víctimas y a sus
familias en las oraciones familiares.
De 7 a 12 años: Los niños de esta
edad son un tanto más capaces de
procesar la noticia del evento, pero
también necesitan ser protegidos de la
cobertura intensa que a veces puede
seguir un desastre profundo como éste.
Estarán especialmente molestos por
las noticias de los niños de su misma
edad (o la edad de sus hermanos) que
estuvieron involucrados. Algunos niños
de esta edad también pueden temer que
algo como esto suceda en su escuela.
No podemos prometer que no sucederá pero podemos asegurarles que
esos casos son raros y recordarles que
su escuela tiene procedimientos para
mantenerlos a salvo. Si la escuela de su
hijo es una de las muchas que requieren
que las visitas sean anunciadas antes de
que la puerta sea abierta, puede ser útil
señalar esto también.
Edades 13-18: Los adolescentes
tienen una capacidad mucho mayor
para comprender y procesar los
informes de noticias de la tragedia y
pueden plantear preguntas difíciles
acerca de por qué Dios permite tanto
sufrimiento. Estas son preguntas que
nadie puede responder perfectamente,
pero tenga en cuenta las palabras del
beato Juan Pablo II, quien dijo: “Dios
está siempre del lado de los que sufren”. Si bien no comprendemos perfectamente por qué ocurren tragedias
como ésta, sabemos que Dios estaba
con los niños de la Primaria Sandy
Hook, sentado a su lado, mantenién-
dolos en sus brazos y llorando con
ellos. También puede animar a su
hijo o hija a hacer lo que él o ella
pueda para ayudar a apoyar causas
locales para poner n a la violencia y,
sobre todo, orando por el pueblo de
Newtown — que los que sufren sean
consolados y sepan que Dios está con
ellos, y que aquellos que han muerto
serán recibidos en el reino de Dios.
Como familias, recordemos que
Dios está con nosotros. Ahora es el
momento de estar alerta para colaborar con Dios para construir una cultura
de la vida, una civilización del amor
donde cada vida es respetada, nutrida y
protegida, recordando que un día toda
la tristeza y la violencia van a desaparecer en la luz perfecta de Cristo.
Dr. Joseph White es escritor, editor y consultor de Our Sunday Visitor,
una editorial católica. Ejerce su práctica como psicólogo clínico infantil a
tiempo parcial. Visite su sitio web en
www.sharingcatholicfaith.com.
Evangelizando con nuestro buen ejemplo
Creo que para poder ser mejores
evangelizadores, lo primero es saber
que la naturaleza de la Iglesia es eso
mismo: el evangelizar. La razón
En este Año de la Fe se nos ha
por la cual Jesús se rodeó de una
invitado a conocer, celebrar y comcomunidad fue para enviarlos,
partir nuestra fe con todos los que
“vayan y hagan discípulos a todos
están alrededor nuestro, pero espelos pueblos”. Mateo 28,19. Esta
cialmente con aquellas personas que
tarea de hacer discípulos de
han dejado de practicar y participar
Cristo a naciones y pueblos es
su fe católica. La Cuaresma es un
tarea de todos los bautizados. Su
momento clave para llevar a cabo esta tarea y la mía.
tarea, pues para muchos católicos,
No olvidemos que esta
especialmente el pueblo hispano, la
tarea hoy más que nunca es
Cuaresma es más que una celebración urgente. El mensaje de Jesús
religiosa; es también uno más de los
de que la muerte no es el
elementos de la fe de nuestros padres n de nuestra existencia
que han inuenciado nuestra cultura
y que el Reino de Dios
y costumbres. Podemos observar
está entre nosotros es
esta inuencia en nuestras comidas,
una buena noticia.
celebraciones y costumbres.
Nuestras familias,
En el miércoles de ceniza, por
amigos, vecinos,
ejemplo, cientos de personas se acerel mundo encarán para recibir la imposición de
tero necesita
cenizas, pero para muchos este es el
saber de este
único rito que los acerca a Dios, su fe, mensaje de esperanza en medio de los
sus tradiciones, su identidad. Hacienotros mensajes que reciben:
do pues de la Cuaresma un perfecto
terrorismo, guerra, violencia en las
tiempo litúrgico para evangelizar.
escuelas, adicciones, separación, solePara poder evangelizar es impordad, divorcio, fraude, deudas, muerte,
tante no caer en el espíritu de reetc. En medio de este caos, Dios
proche, como yo mismo lo he hecho. siempre está, la vida siempre triunfa.
No es con un anuncio después de
Y es justo y necesario que el mundo
la misa, regañando a las personas
sepa esto.
por que solo vienen el miércoles de
Nuestros esfuerzos de evangelizar
ceniza como podremos evangelizar.
tienen que venir acompañados de
Ya tenemos muchas malas experienun esfuerzo planeado. ¿Qué oporcias donde nuestros antepasados en
tunidades brindamos en la parroquia
la fe evangelizaron con la cruz en una para conocer nuestra fe? ¿Somos una
mano y la espada en la otra. Así pues comunidad que da la bienvenida a
es importante discernir como hacer
todos, o solo a los que pertenecen a
de estas celebraciones un momento
nuestra comunidad? ¿Qué ministede evangelización.
rios tenemos y cuáles nos hacen falta
POR EDGAR RAMIREZ
DIRECTOR DEL MINISTERIO HISPANO
para poder dar la bienvenida a todos
los que vienen a nuestra parroquia
y viven en nuestro vecindario? En
n, se requiere una planeación
que considere todos los medios
posibles para poder comunicar
el mensaje de la Buena Nueva.
Esta planeación debe también incluir preparación y formación en
la fe para toda la comunidad. Este
llamado de conocer nuestra fe es
un llamado básico y necesario
para la evangelización, “¿Puede
un ciego guiar a otro ciego?”
Lucas 6,39.
El mensaje es un mensaje
de alegría, por eso lo llamamos la Buena Nueva,
el Evangelio y con esta
misma alegría debe
ser transmitido.
Este mensaje
tiene que ser
transmitido
con respeto
y buena disposición. Tenemos que
ponernos la armadura de Cristo,
como San Pablo nos dice en su carta
a los Efesios, es decir, evangelizar
como Cristo evangeliza: con la verdad
del amor incondicional de Dios por
nosotros. Hay muchos ejemplos de
Jesús evangelizando a aquellos que se
sentían lejos de la presencia de Dios.
Como la fe es un don de Dios,
este proceso debe estar acompañado
de oración tanto por los evangelizadores (todos nosotros) como por
aquellos que urge escuchen el mensaje (todos nosotros).
Finalmente, son nuestras acciones,
nuestro ejemplo de santidad, la mejor
técnica para evangelizar. Indudablemente si usted ha tenido un encuentro con Dios, usted no podrá parar de
proclamar al mundo como Dios le ha
visto y que le ha dicho. Su vida, sus
acciones, sus palabras serán el mejor
testimonio de fe. Así vayamos, conados en que en esta misión Jesús, la
razón de nuestro mensaje, está siempre con nosotros. “Y sepan que yo
estoy con ustedes todos los días hasta
el n de los tiempos”, Mateo 29,20.
Edgar Ramirez es el Director del Ministerio Hispano para la
Diócesis de Austin. Se le puede
llamar al (512) 949-2468 o por
correo electrónico a edgar-ramirez@
austindiocese.org.
Próximos eventos
Padre Jairo Sandoval, Vicario de la Parroquia de St. Helen en Georgetown,
dirigirá un día de reexión en español sobre el Año de la fe, el 16 de marzo en el
Centro Católico de Retiros Cedarbrake, en Belton. El costo es de $25, e incluye el
almuerzo. Para obtener más información o para inscribirse, llame al (254) 780-2436
o por correo electrónico [email protected].
El equipo de Evangelización de la Parroquia San Juan Evangelista ubicada en
San Marcos los invita al retiro Nueva Vida, esta es la oportunidad de cambiar su vida y
experimentar el Amor de Dios, Dios le ofrece una Nueva Vida y una Nueva Efusión
del Espíritu Santo. El retiro se llevará a cabo el viernes 15 de Febrero de 6 a 9 p.m., el
sábado 16 de Febrero de 8:30 a.m. a 5:30 p.m. y el domingo 17 de Febrero de 7:30 a.m.
a 4:30 p.m. Para más información comuniquese con Luis Alfonso Rodríguez al (512)
644-1068, o con Natalia Moreau al correo electrónico [email protected].
ESPAÑOL
February 2013
29
El Proyecto Gabriel: 20 años ayudando a
mujeres en situación de crisis
POR MICHELE CHAN SANTOS
CORRESPONSAL
El Día de San Valentín de
2013 se conmemorará el 20º
aniversario del Proyecto Gabriel,
un ministerio en la Diócesis de
Austin para mujeres con embarazos en crisis.
El 14 de febrero de 1993,
con el apoyo del Obispo John
McCarthy, el Proyecto Gabriel
comenzó en la parroquia St.
William en Round Rock. El
Padre Louis Pavlicek, el pastor
en esa época y los feligreses de
St. William apoyaron el proyecto
en su infancia.
Dos décadas después, el
Proyecto Gabriel ha orecido
en una organización que incluye
dos Centros de Vida del Proyecto Gabriel, uno en Austin y otro
en Bryan, 100 voluntarios que
trabajan como Ángeles Gabriel
y 50 parroquias. Los Centros de
Vida son atendidos por personal
remunerado y voluntarios. Al
mes, cada centro asiste a más de
100 clientes. Las clientes reciben
pruebas de embarazo auto-administradas sin costo, además de
ayuda material, tutoría y varias
clases que abarcan desde lactancia materna a nutrición prenatal
y crianza.
En julio de 2011, los Centros
de Vida del Proyecto Gabriel
pasaron a ser parte de Caridades
Católicas del Centro de Texas.
Rebecca Niemerg, la coordinadora de la atención pastoral
para el Proyecto Gabriel, dijo
que el ministerio se ve muy diferente al de hace 20 años.
“Pero la misión se mantuvo
absolutamente igual. La única
misión del Proyecto Gabriel
es proporcionar apoyo emocional, espiritual y material a
mujeres embarazadas y a las
familias que lo necesitan”, dijo.
Niemerg trabaja para la Ocina
Diocesana de Actividades ProVida y Castidad y coordina la
atención pastoral para el Proyecto Raquel, la línea de ayuda
Pro-Vida de la diócesis y el
Ministerio de la Acera, así como
el Proyecto Gabriel.
Para celebrar el aniversario,
habrá una Misa y recepción
el 23 de febrero, donde todo
comenzó Ȅ en La Parroquia
St. William en Round Rock. La
Misa a las 10 a.m. será celebrada por Msgr. Louis Pavlicek,
seguida por una recepción de 11
a.m. a 12:30 p.m. El evento será
patrocinado por la Ocina de
Actividades Pro-vida y Castidad.
“Cuando empezamos inicialmente, sólo queríamos poder
ayudar a mujeres”, dijo Toni
Donley, la coordinadora del
Proyecto Gabriel en la Parroquia
St. Luke de Temple. “No hubo
un plan enorme. Padre Pavlicek, Ann Bierschenk y Sheri
Danze –– ellos fueron –– las
tres guras principales. En sus
corazones, todos querían ayudar
a las mujeres embarazadas”.
Los anuncios del Proyecto Gabriel se ven delante
de muchas parroquias en
Texas Central. Ellos dicen:
“¿Embarazada? ¿Necesita
ayuda?” y dan el número del
Proyecto Gabriel, 1-877-WE
CARE 2 o (512) 238-1246.
¿Qué sucede después de que
una mujer llama al número de
teléfono? Ella encuentra a un
Ángel Gabriel, una voluntaria
capacitada.
“El ángel en la línea de ayuda
le dará información acerca de los
recursos para embarazo que se
encuentran en la diócesis”, dijo
Niemerg. “Van a escuchar su
historia y a compartir ideas con
ella acerca de lo que necesita, ya
sea una referencia a San Vicente
de Paúl, capacitación para trabajo o servicios sociales”.
A la persona que llama
se le da la opción de tener
su propio Ángel Gabriel, una
voluntaria que se reunirá personalmente con ella una vez
al mes. Las voluntarias hablan
con la mujer embarazada, le
llevan algunos objetos materiales y la apoyan emocionalmente en su camino.
“Los Ángeles del Proyecto
Gabriel son una parte crucial de este ministerio”, dijo
Niemerg.
Según Niemerg, en el último año, los Ángeles Gabriel
han ayudado a 70 madres.
Donley ha sido voluntaria
Ángel Gabriel desde hace más
de 15 años y es la ex co-coordinadora del Proyecto Gabriel
para la diócesis.
“La parte más gratificante de todo es que realmente
puedes dar amor incondicional a las personas que están
realmente en el momento
más vulnerable de sus vidas”,
dijo Donley de su trabajo voluntario. “Se tiene contacto
con las madres de corazón a
corazón”.
“Si algo ocurre y tienen
que ir a la sala de emergencia
y tienen miedo de perder su
bebé o han sido expulsadas
de sus hogares”, dijo Donley,
“usted está allí y físicamente
presente para ellas y saben que
usted se preocupa”.
Niemerg compartió una
historia personal acerca de
una mujer embarazada joven
LOS CENTROS DE VIDA DEL PROYECTO GABRIEL en Austin y Bryan ofrecen pruebas
de embarazo, clases y consultores de embarazo capacitados. Las clientes reciben atención
individual de un consultor y se reúnen cada mes. (Foto cortesía de Allison Skinner)
que ella ayudó cuando ella
trabajaba como voluntaria en
Nueva York con una obra de
caridad similar al Proyecto
Gabriel.
“Trabajé con una madre
que había tenido un aborto anteriormente. Pidió reunirse con
nosotros Ella no sabía nada de
lo que teníamos para ofrecerle;
su único pensamiento era “no
puedo pasar por un aborto de
nuevo”. Su madre estaba realmente presionándola para tener
un aborto. Su madre no habló
con ella durante su embarazo
entero. Yo la acompañé en el
parto. Vi a esta joven crecer y
orecer en una madre.
Su madre fue a visitarla cuando el bebé tenía cuatro meses de
edad. Esta abuela fue transformada por el niño. Se convirtió
en una abuela cariñosa. Fue un
maravilloso ejemplo de cómo la
presencia de otros nos cambia”.
Niemerg compartió esta historia para demostrar que “una
de las cosas que hacemos en el
papel de un Ángel Gabriel es
mantener la esperanza para la
madre embarazada. Decirle: ‘Las
cosas pueden ser mejores de lo
que son ahora mismo’. Tuve
la oportunidad de mantener la
esperanza cuando ella no tenía
ninguna”.
La gente supone que las
nanzas son siempre el mayor
problema para las mujeres que
llaman por ayuda pero eso no es
así, Niemerg dijo. “El dinero no
es siempre el mayor problema
para estas madres. Sino que
la gente no las está apoyando.
Ellas tienen que ser capaz de
hacer un acto de fe en sí mismas
y eso es lo que las amistades nos
permiten hacer”.
Otras veces, las necesidades
materiales son muy apremiantes.
Algunas de las mujeres con las
que Donley ha trabajado están
luchando para tener suciente
comida o un lugar donde vivir.
“Algunas de las madres están tan hambrientas cuando
llegan a nosotros, que nosotros
no podemos ni siquiera hablar
con ellas hasta que han tenido
algo que comer”, dijo Donley.
“Esta es una realidad. Siempre
nos reunimos con ellas en nuestra iglesia, tenemos una ocina
justo al lado de una pequeña cocina. Si tienen hambre, podemos
ofrecerles algo ese día o las
llevamos a conseguir comida”.
El Centro de Vida del
Proyecto Gabriel en Austin se
encuentra en 1625 Rutherford
Lane, en las ocinas de Caridades Católicas. Se encuentra
abierto de lunes a viernes. El
Centro de Vida del Proyecto
Gabriel del Buen Samaritano de
Bryan se encuentra en 1314 E.
29th Street. Ambos lugares ofrecen pruebas de embarazo, clases
y consultores de embarazo capacitados. Las clientes tienen
una relación individual con un
consultor y se reúnen cada mes.
Se ofrecen clases cuatro días
a la semana, dos veces en Inglés
y dos en español.
“Ellos pueden tomar clases
para padres, aprender acerca
de temas relacionados con el
embarazo, como la nutrición, y
también estamos asociados con
EMS quienes vienen y hacen
una clase acerca de la seguridad
del asiento de coche y un sueño
seguro”, dijo Allison Skinner,
directora de los servicios sociales de Caridades Católicas del
Centro de Texas. (La clase de
seguridad del asiento de coche
sólo se ofrece en Austin).
Las clientes ganan puntos
por asstir a clase y pueden canjear sus puntos por artículos del
bebé como un cochecito, silla
alta, una cuna portátil, o una
gran cantidad de pañales.
“Mucha gente tiene una idea
equivocada de que todas las
madres son adolescentes, pero la
mayoría de nuestros clientes están entre los 20 y 30 años. También tenemos padres que asisten
a clase. Los padres son casados
o solteros, y tenemos una buena
combinación de niveles de educación”, dijo Skinner. Algunos
de nuestros clientes no han
terminado la escuela secundaria,
mientras que otros son graduados universitarios o con estudios
superiores.
Si un cliente necesita servicios médicos, el personal del
Proyecto Gabriel lo reere a los
proveedores de estos servicios.
Skinner dijo que ella está
agradecida por el trabajo de
las personas que fundaron el
Proyecto Gabriel.
“Sembraron la semilla de
algo que ha orecido”, dijo.
Las personas interesadas
en convertirse en voluntarios
del Proyecto Gabriel, por favor
contacten a Rebecca Niemerg
al (512) 949-2488 o [email protected]. Las
mujeres con embarazos en crisis
que necesitan ayuda pueden llamar al 1-877-WE CARE 2 o al
(512) 238-1246.
ESPAÑOL
Todas las personas, incluso los ateos, tienen el deseo
humano de conocer quién es Dios, dice el papa
30
POR CAROL GLATZ
CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE
El deseo de ver y de conocer a Dios es innato en todas
las personas, incluso en los no
creyentes, dijo el papa Benedicto XVI.
Pero es especialmente importante que la gente busque a
Dios no solamente cuando lo
necesiten; por el contrario, deben de darle cabida a Dios durante toda su respectiva vida,
sin importar lo ocupado que
estén, dijo el papa durante la
audiencia general semanal en
la sala del Vaticano que lleva
el nombre de Pablo VI, el 16
de enero.
Al nal de la audiencia, el
papa también saludó al secretario de Defensa de los Estados Unidos, León Panetta,
quien estaba presente y es
católico.
El breve encuentro se
produjo durante la ceremonia
que se conoce con el nombre
italiano de “baciamano”, momento en el que el papa le da
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
la mano a cada uno de los prelados e invitados especiales del
día, sin ser eso una audiencia
privada.
El papa habló por un buen
rato con el que fue director
de la CIA (Agencia Central de
Inteligencia), quien sonreía y
estrechaba gentilmente ambas manos del papa. Panetta
recibió, además, una de las
medallas reservadas para invitados especiales.
Panetta dijo después que el
papa le había dicho: “Gracias
por ayudar a proteger al mundo”. Panetta dijo que a eso él
respondió “Rece por mí”.
Panetta, quien dejaba el
puesto de jefe del Pentágono,
se encontraba en Roma, también, como parte de una gira
por toda Europa que aprovecharía para reunirse con los
ministros de defensa europeos
para estudiar los conictos de
Afganistán y Mali.
El papa dijo, durante su
catequesis dedicada al Año de
la Fe: “El deseo de conocer
verdaderamente a Dios; esto
es, de ver el rostro de Dios,
existe en cada persona, incluso
en los ateos”.
Ese deseo puede ser algo
inconsciente, simplemente de
saber “quién es Él y qué es
para nosotros”, dijo el papa.
Ese anhelo se cumple
en Cristo, dijo el papa. Tal
y como Jesús les dijo a sus
discípulos: “Todo el que me
haya visto a mí ha visto al
Padre”.
El papa dijo que era importante seguir a Cristo “no
solamente en los momentos
en los que lo necesitamos”,
sino que “debemos darle cabida a Cristo en todos nuestros
diarios quehaceres” y a través
de toda nuestra vida.
“El resplandor del semblante divino es la fuente de
vida; es lo que nos permite ver
la realidad”, y su luz es una
guía segura en nuestra vida,
dijo.
Al nal de su catequesis, el
papa le pidió a la congregación
que se uniera a la práctica de
la Semana de Oración por la
Unidad Cristiana, que iría del
18 al 25 de enero.
EL PAPA BENEDICTO XVI ofrece una bendición durante una audiencia general en el Vaticano. (Foto CNS/
Paul Haring)
Indulgencia plenaria para el Año de la Fe
POR CATHOLIC SPIRIT
Los católicos que participan
en actos relacionados con el
Año de la Fe 2012-2013 pueden recibir una indulgencia
especial, de acuerdo con un
decreto emitido por el Vaticano
el 14 de septiembre de 2012. El
Papa Benedicto XVI estableció
el Año de la Fe para efectuarse
desde el 11 de octubre de 2012,
al 24 de noviembre de 2013.
La indulgencia es la remisión de la pena temporal debida por los pecados que han
sido perdonados. Se puede
otorgar en nombre del peticionario individual o en nombre de las almas difuntas. La
indulgencia plenaria se ofrece
a quienes visitan determinadas
iglesias y santuarios, a los que
participan en eventos locales
relacionados con el Año de la
Fe, y para aquellos que puedan
estar demasiado enfermos o
impedido de otra manera de la
participación física.
De acuerdo con el decreto
del Vaticano, las condiciones
para la indulgencia especial del
Año de la Fe incluye los requisitos normales establecidos por
la iglesia para todas las indulgencias plenarias, es decir: que
la persona verdaderamente se
arrepienta de sus pecados, se
conese, reciba la Eucaristía, y
ore por las intenciones del Santo
Padre. Un miembro
de la Iglesia que ha
cumplido esas condiciones puede ganar la
indulgencia plenaria
en cualquiera de las
siguientes maneras:
A. Cada vez que
asisten cuando menos a tres sermones
durante una misión,
o por lo menos tres
conferencias sobre el
Concilio Vaticano II o
sobre el Catecismo de
la Iglesia Católica.
B. Cada vez que
visitan a modo de
peregrinación una basílica papal, una catacumba cristiana, una
iglesia catedral o un
lugar sagrado designado por
el obispo local para el Año de
la Fe y ahí participan en una
liturgia, o al menos permanecen
durante el tiempo necesario de
la oración y meditación piadosa, concluyendo con el rezo
del Padrenuestro, el Credo en
cualquier forma legítima, y las
invocaciones de la Santísima
Virgen y, dependiendo de las
circunstancias, de los santos
apóstoles o santos patronos.
En la Diócesis de Austin los los días siguientes han sido
siguientes cuatro sitios han sido designados por el Obispo
designados por el obispo José S. Vásquez para la indulgencia
plenaria del Año de
la Fe: 13 de febrero
(Miércoles de Ceniza),
28 de marzo (Jueves
Santo), 30 de marzo
(Vigilia de Pascua), 31
de marzo (Domingo
de Pascua), 8 de abril
(Solemnidad de la
Anunciación), 19 de
mayo (Pentecostés),
15 de agosto (Solemnidad de la Asunción),
1o de noviembre (Día
de Todos los Santos)
y 24 de noviembre
(Solemnidad de Cristo
Rey).
D. En cualquier
día que elijan, durante el Año de la Fe,
si hacen una visita a
Vásquez para la indulgencia ple- un lugar de oración, donde
naria del Año de la Fe: Catedral recibieron el sacramento del
de St. Mary en Austin, Parroquia bautismo, y ahí renuevan sus
St. Mary en College Station, Pa- promesas bautismales en cualrroquia St. Mary en Lampasas y quier forma legítima.
Los miembros de los eles
Parroquia de St. Louis en Waco.
C. Cada vez que participen verdaderamente arrepentidos y
en la Misa, la Liturgia de las que no pueden participar en las
Horas, añadiendo el Credo, en liturgias públicas por razones
cualquier iglesia parroquial en la graves (como, por ejemplo, las
diócesis, en los días determina- monjas que viven en los monasterios de clausura perpetua, los
dos por el obispo local.
En la Diócesis de Austin presos, los ancianos, los enfer-
mos y los que sirven a los enfermos en hospitales) obtendrán
la indulgencia plenaria en las
mismas condiciones, si, unidos
en mente y espíritu con la asistencia de eles, sobre todo en
un momento en que las palabras
del Santo Padre o uno de los
Obispos diocesanos son transmitidos a través de la televisión
o la radio, recitar en casa, o dondequiera que su impedimento
les obliga a estar (por ejemplo,
en la capilla del monasterio, en
el hospital, en una clínica, en la
cárcel, etc.), el Padre Nuestro,
el Credo en cualquier forma
legítima, y otras oraciones de
conformidad con los objetivos
del Año de la Fe, ofreciendo su
sufrimiento o dicultad en sus
respectivas vidas.
El decreto sobre la indulgencia del Año de la Fe dijo:
“Dado que el objetivo principal
es desarrollar la santidad de la
vida en el mayor grado posible
en esta tierra, y por lo tanto para
alcanzar el nivel más sublime de
la pureza del alma, un inmenso
beneficio puede derivarse del
gran don de las indulgencias
que, en virtud de la facultad
conferida por Cristo, la Iglesia
ofrece a todos los que, siguiendo
las normas debidas, se encarga
de las prescripciones especiales
para obtenerlas.
SITINGS
February 2013
ST. LUKE PARISH IN TEMPLE celebrated
a Christmas Mass for children on Christmas
Eve. (Photos by Keith Thompson)
31
THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON the India Catholic
Association of Central Texas donated cash, diapers
and baby clothing to the Gabriel Project Life Center
in Austin. (Photo courtesy Ramona Kar)
THE LADIES SOCIETY of St. Monica
Parish in Cameron
assisted in a food
drive and collected
monetary donations
for the Cameron
Thrift Store during
Christmas. (Photo
courtesy Carolyn
Klecka)
THE JOHN
PAUL II LIFE
CENTER
OF AUSTIN
presented Dr.
Thomas and
Sue Hilgers with the
“Dignity in Life”
Award at a
benet dinner last Dec.
5. This distinction is for their work in developing the science of
NaProTECHNOLOGY in women’s health.
(Photo courtesy Lori Mazzurana)
THE SOCIEDAD CULTURAL HISPANA AMERICANA and the Knights
of Columbus at St. Joseph Parish in
Killeen provided food for the residents
at the Gilmore Center in Killeen. The
Knights of Columbus also provided
Christmas dinner for a local family
who lost their house to re just before
Christmas. (Photos courtesy Gilbert
Barratachea)
A NATIVITY SET was
donated to St Mary of
the Visitation Parish in
Lockhart. (Photo courtesy of George Escobedo
Sr.)
THE KJT OF CORN HILL
sponsored a food drive at
Holy Trinity Parish in December. The donations were
distributed to help those in
need in the Jarrell/Georgetown area. (Photo courtesy
Helen Havelka)
STUDENTS at
St. Mary’s Catholic School in
Temple recently
participated in a
prayer blanket
workshop during
which they made
blankets for
residents in area
nursing homes.
(Photos courtesy
Kerrie Bourque)
BISHOP
JOE
VÁSQUEZ
celebrated
Conrmation at Holy
Trinity Parish in Corn
Hill on Dec.
30. (Photo courtesy Aimie Dejesus)
Send photos by the 10th of the month to [email protected].
SITINGS
32
THE MIDDLE SCHOOL
YOUTH GROUP
(MIGHTY) at St. Elizabeth
Parish in Pugerville sang
Christmas carols in the
surrounding neighborhood
on Dec. 14. (Photo courtesy Drigelio Albadan)
ST. MICHAEL’S CATHOLIC
ACADEMY in Austin hosted
its annual Crusader Classic Middle School Basketball
Tournament, benetting the
Capital Area Food Bank of
Texas. Sixteen teams from
eight schools participated in
the competition. More
than 1,800 pounds of food were donated to the food bank.
(Photo courtesy Megan Kraft)
C ATHOLIC S PIRIT
THE FAYETTEVILLE KJT recently teamed up
with the local youth ministry in a Bake Sale and
a “Matching Grant” program. The KJT Home Ofce matched the $132 made in this fundraiser to
benet the youth of St. John Parish in Fayetteville
and St. Mary Parish in Ellinger. (Photo courtesy of
Lucas Sodolak)
PARISHIONERS from St. John the
Evangelist in Marble Falls and St. Paul
the Apostle in Horseshoe Bay donated
clothing, personal care items, and recreational equipment as well as hand-made
blankets for the Veterans’ Hospital in
Temple. The Prayer Blanket Ministry of
St. John made 60 lap quilts and 30 twin
quilts for the patients. (Photo courtesy Karen Wilkens)
ST. GABRIEL’S
CATHOLIC
SCHOOL in Austin collected more
than 1,000 coats for
the Austin Junior
League’s Coats for
Kids Drive. (Photo
courtesy Erika AllenWalsh)
THE CHOIR at St Joseph Catholic School in Bryan held a Christmas Concert with proceeds donated to Hospice Brazos Valley,
a non-prot health care organization. (Photo courtesy Christine
McDonald)
MORE THAN 200 PARISHIONERS and neighbors attended the blessing of the new Our Lady
of Guadalupe Prayer Garden at St. William Parish in Round Rock on Dec. 8. The Society of the
Guadalupanas made the garden possible through
their contributions of time and treasure. (Photos by
Elizabeth George and Betty Glaser)
ST. LOUIS CATHOLIC
SCHOOL IN AUSTIN
students presented the
school’s Nativity Mass on
Dec. 21. (Photos courtesy Renee Gately)
Send photos by the 10th of the month to [email protected].