March 21 - The Catholic Commentator

Transcription

Commentator
T H E
March 21, 2014 Vol. 52, No. 3
C A T H O L I C
S E R V I N G T H E D I O C E S E O F B AT O N R O U G E S I N C E 19 6 3
FROM
GUN TO
NUN
PAGE 3
thecatholiccommentator.org
FEASTING
ON
TRADITION
Altar pays
homage to
St. Joseph
By Barbara Chenevert
The Catholic Commentator
“St. Joseph has taken care
of me for 30 years. I wouldn’t
want to abandon him now,”
said Nickie Dimaio, one of
the founding members of the
Grandsons of Italy, who for 36
years has put up a St. Joseph
Altar in the Baton Rouge area.
The 40 members of the
Grandsons of Italy, a ladies
auxiliary of 35 and a host of volunteers spend about six weeks
preparing the traditional altar
that can feed 600 to 700 people.
There were casseroles to be
made, rock, anise, sesame and
fig cookies to be baked, pignolattis to be fried and sugared,
spaghetti sauce to be prepared,
fish to be fried and eggs to be
boiled, all in honor of St. Joseph who long ago helped their
Italian ancestors through a
drought.
The Grandsons of Italy’s
St. Joseph Altar was displayed
Lena Marie Lastrapes, Charlie Beary and Sabrina Salpietra roll and cut pignolattis, a traditional fried cookie that will be shaped
into a pine cone or haystack for display on the Grandsons of Italy’s St. Joseph Altar. Photo by Barbara Chenevert | The Catholic Commentator
March 15 and 16 at Sacred
Heart of Jesus Church in Baton
Rouge. It was one of many such
altars built by parishioners of
different churches throughout
the diocese in connection with
the March 19 feast of St. Joseph.
Legend has it that in the
1500s the Italian people were
faced with a drought that
threatened them with starvation. The people asked St. Joseph to intercede on their behalf and pray for rain. The rains
came, and in gratitude, the
people erected a table with an
assortment of foods they harvested, and distributed the food
to the less fortunate.
From there, the custom
grew, and now many Italians today build elaborate altars, with
pastries baked in the shape of
crosses, wreaths and bishops
hats; cookies; and fruits and
vegetables of all sorts.
The organization is working
to keep the tradition alive in the
Diocese of Baton Rouge.
Anthony Musso said his
grandfather immigrated from
SEE ALTAR PAGE 21
Fasting nourishes the spirit
Second in a series
By Debbie Shelley
ST. PATRICK’S PARADE – Bishop Robert W. Muench throws
beads to parade attendees during the annual Baton Rouge St.
Patrick’s Day Parade on March 15. Photo by Debbie Shelley | The Catholic
Commentator
Catholics can become lethargic in their spiritual lives, running on autopilot in their relationship with God. Lent is a time to wake up the
spirit, and an effective way to do that is through
fasting, according to religious from the Diocese
of Baton Rouge.
Father Bob Stine, pastor of Christ the King
Church and Catholic Center at LSU, said fasting
includes any source of self denial. He referred to
Plato’s comparison of the soul to a chariot being
driven by two fiery young horses. Father Stine
said the driver, through sin, falls asleep and the
horses feel the slack of the reigns and begin to
run wild. Father Stine
identified God as the
bystander who shouts
at the driver to wake up
and reign in the horses
before he goes off a perilous cliff.
“He is calling us by acts of self-denial to gain
control of our passions and desires so that we
can be free to be our truest and best selves. Eating less food, abstaining from alcohol, getting
SEE LENT PAGE 7
LENT
2
| IN THIS ISSUE
| DID YOU KNOW
A SEARCH OF THE
SACRISTY AT SACRED HEART CHAPEL in Carville offered
snapshots of the past
from the historic site.
PAGE 9
ST. JUDE CHURCH PARISHIONERS in Baton Rouge have become active in helping
curb crime in their neighborhood, especially in the Gardere Lane area. PAGE 11
BECKY PETITE’S
ANIMAL MINISTRY helps
brighten the lives
of many senior
citizens throughout the area. PAGES 12-13
POPE FRANCIS’ FIRST YEAR as pontiff
has been nothing short of extraordinary.
PAGE 4
The
RACIAL AND OTHER TYPES OF SLURS
should no longer be an accepted part of
the language in a society that respects
the life and dignity of all of its members.
Page 18
| IN THE NEXT ISSUE
Caring for those in need and social justice are integral
elements of our
baptismal call. The
third part of The
Catholic Commentator’s series on
Lent explores almsgiving, the third pillar of
our Lenten sacrifices.
LENT
| INDEX
CLASSIFIED ADS
20
COMING EVENTS
20
ENTERTAINMENT
16
FAMILY LIFE
5
INTERNATIONAL/NATIONAL NEWS
4
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
18
SPIRITUALITY
7
VIEWPOINT
18
YOUTH
14
Look for
CaThoLiC CommenTaTor
aT your LoCaL ouTLeTs inCLuding:
✔ Albertsons on Government St., Bluebonnet Blvd. and College Dr. in
Baton Rouge and in Denham Springs
✔ Alexander’s Highland Market in Baton Rouge
✔ Ascension Books & Gifts in Gonzales
✔ Benedetto’s Market in Addis
✔ Bohning Supermarket in Ponchatoula
✔ Calandro’s Supermarkets in Baton Rouge
✔ Catholic Art and Gifts in Baton Rouge
✔ Daigle’s Supermarket in White Castle
✔ Hi Nabor Supermarkets, Drusilla and Jones Creek Rd. in Baton Rouge
✔ Hubben’s Grocery in Port Allen
✔ LeBlanc’s Food Stores in Donaldsonville, Gonzales,
Hammond, Plaquemine, Plattenville, Prairieville and Zachary
✔ Matherne’s Supermarkets in Baton Rouge
✔ Magnuson Hotel in St. Francisville
✔ Oak Point Supermarket in Central
✔ Our Lady of the Lake College in Baton Rouge
✔ Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge
✔ Our Lady of the Lake Physicians Group offices with locations throughout
the Diocese
✔ Reeve’s Supermarket in Baton Rouge
✔ St. Elizabeth Hospital in Gonzales
✔ St. Mary’s Books & Gifts in Baton Rouge
✔ St. Vincent de Paul Stores throughout the diocese
✔ Schexnayder Supermarket in Vacherie
✔ Whole Foods Market in Baton Rouge
✔ Winn Dixie on Coursey Blvd. and Siegen Ln. in Baton Rouge,
Hammond, New Roads and Ponchatoula
as well as your local church parish
C
T H E
C A T H O L I C
S E R V I N G T H E D I O C E S E O F B AT O N R O U G E S I N C E 19 6 2
March 21, 2014
The ‘Good Thief’
He is known as the patron saint of second chances, of prisoners, criminals,
reformed thieves, death
row inmates and those who
seek forgiveness.
There are churches
named in his honor and
several pro-life and prison
ministry groups bear his name.
He has been called the Good Thief or
the Repentent Thief, although the Bible
merely refers to him as a criminal or revolutionary.
He has even been given a name – St.
Dismas.
Saint Dismas is said to be the repentent
criminal who was crucified with Jesus
and asked for his forgiveness before they
both died on the cross. “Jesus, remember
me when you come into your kingdom,”
the criminal is quoted as saying.
Only St. Luke in his Gospel passage
tells the now widely known story of the
Good Thief. The other Gospels merely say
Jesus was crucified with two others, referring to them as revolutionaries or criminals.
Even St. Luke dedicates only seven sen-
tences to the exchange between Jesus and the criminals crucified with him,
yet St. Dismas has been
remembered throughout
the ages.
There is even a myth
that Dismas was one of
two thieves who robbed
the Holy Family as it fled to Egypt to escape Herod’s orders to slay all male children under the age of 2. According to
the myth, Dismas bribed the other thief,
named Gestas, with 40 coins in order to
protect the family from harm. Jesus then
predicted the two thieves would be crucified with him, and Dismas would accompany him to paradise.
St. Dismas was named a saint before
there was a Congregation for Causes of
Saints and a formal investigation prior to
sainthood. His sainthood is based on popular devotion of the time.
His feast is March 25, but it is often
overshadowed by the celebration the same
day of the Feast of the Annunciation, when
Catholics celebrate the angel Gabriel’s appearance to the Blessed Mother to tell her
she would carry Jesus in her womb.
| PRAY FOR THOSE WHO PRAY FOR US
Please pray for the priests, deacons and religious women and men in the Baton Rouge Diocese.
Mar. 24 Rev. Jon C. Koehler
Dcn. Patrick J. Broussard Jr.
Sr. Micha DeHart MHS
Mar. 25 Rev. Sanjay Kunnasseril IMS
Dcn. Barry G. Campeaux
Sr. Therese Dinh ICM
Mar. 26 Rev. J. Joel LaBauve
Dcn. Michael T. Chiappetta
Br. Alan Drain SC
Mar. 27 Rev. Kenneth W. Laird
Dcn. Randall A. Clement
Sr. Dehra Elliot CSJ
Mar. 28 Rev. Charles R. Landry
Dcn. Samuel C. Collura
Sr. June Engelbrecht OP
Mar. 29 Rev. Keun-Soo Lee
Dcn. David L. Dawson III
Sr. Rosalina Tesoro Evangelista DM
Mar. 30 Msgr. Gerald M. Lefebvre
Dcn. Guy E. Decker
Sr. Dianne Fanguy CSJ
Mar. 31 Rev. C. Todd Lloyd
Dcn. Benjamin J. Dunbar Jr.
Sr. Ileana Fernandez CSJ
Apr. 1 Rev. Matthew P. Lorrain
Dcn. W. Brent Duplessis
Sr. Dulce Maria Flores HMSS
Apr. 2 Rev. P. Brent Maher
Dcn. Jeff R. Easley
Sr. Janet Franklin CSJ
Apr. 3 Rev. Cayet N. Mangiaracina OP
Dcn. Albert R. Ellis Jr.
Br. Clement Furno CSsR
Apr. 4 Rev. Samuel C. Maranto CSsR
Dcn. H. John Ferguson III
Br. Henry Gaither SC
Apr. 5 Rev. Robert G. Marcell
Dcn. Natale (Nat) J. Garofalo
Sr. Carol Gonsoulin CSJ
Apr. 6 Rev. Gerard R. Martin
Dcn. Edward J. Gauthreaux
Sr. Mary Joel Gubler OP
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Barbara Chenevert Staff Writer
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March 21, 2014
FROM GUN TO NUN
Sister Mary
Michael
trades in
fatigues for
habit
By Debbie Shelley
Sister Mary Michael Mackey
OP adored her father as she grew
up. They went for walks, visited
the park, went fishing or worked
on the car or other projects in the
garage on Saturday afternoons.
A Navy veteran and devout
Catholic, Sister Mary Michael’s
father made sure the family arrived for Sunday Mass on time.
The family later enjoyed a nice
Sunday dinner. She learned after her father died when she was
9- years-old that he had served
in the Navy. She remembers God
speaking to her at that time,
“There is no greater honor than
to serve your country.”
“I wanted to make him (her
dad) proud. I wanted to follow in
his footsteps,” said Sister Mary
Michael.
She, indeed, followed in the
Sissteps of her earthly father
Before joining the Daughters of
St. Dominic, Sister Mary Michael
Mackey served in the U.S. Army.
Photo provided by Sister Mary Michael Mackey
Sister Mary Michael Mackey spent
time working for the publishing
business, the FBI and the U.S. Military before entering the Daughters of St. Dominic. Photo by Debbie
Shelley | The Catholic Commentator
before walking the path set for
her by her heavenly father as a
religious sister. But she did some
running before she got instep
with God’s plan for her. Her faith
journey is described as “from
gun to nun.” She shared the story with people attending a Feb.
15 Magnificat breakfast as well
as parishioners of St. Alphonsus
Church and students of St. Alphonsus School.
Sister Mary Michael said
she first received the call to become a religious sister while in
high school. She said externally,
she believed she was having a
“touched by an angel moment.”
She said the call was like a whisper to her heart.
Because she didn’t know any
religious sisters, she thought, “no
way,” and reasoned that she was
meant to serve people through
the military. Her brother, likewise, joined the military and
enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard.
Sister Mary Michael spent 20
years working for a publishing
company; the FBI, as a support
personnel; the U. S. Air Force,
gathering intelligence from satellites; and the U.S. Army, as a
helicopter mechanic. After being
medically discharged from the
army, she went back to school
and received a degree in criminology, with the thought that she
would pursue a career in law enforcement.
She said there she was looking at two different pathways
for her life – law enforcement
or religious life. But as she took
her “geographic journey,” Sister
Mary Michael said she was restless. “It wasn’t as if something
went wrong,” Sister Mary Michael said. As thoughts about a
religious vocation became stronger, a priest asked her if she had
thought about being a nun. She
prayed about it and decided to
discern whether she was meant
to become a religious sister.
As she sent out applications to
different religious communities
and didn’t hear back from them,
or said, “God if you want me to
be a nun, make this happen,”
and it didn’t, she thought, “I’m
off the hook.”
As God pulled her closer, she
searched the Internet looking
at religious communities but
couldn’t seem to find one that
was a good fit. God directed her
to stop her computer search.
She complied, and that’s when
someone suggested she contact
the Daughters of St. Dominic.
She emphasized that it had the
four main elements the Lord told
her to look for: devotion, habit,
community life and Eucharistic
adoration. She also liked their
joyful spirit. She is now a part of
the community in Steubenvile,
Ohio.
Sister Mary Michael conceded that she was never comfortable with the thought of wearing
a gun and possibly having to
take someone’s life, even though
she knew that it would have been
done in duty to her country.
She also worried that if she
ever forgot to check or overlooked anything in the helicopters she worked on, it could result in soldiers dying if they went
down.
“That was heavy on my heart,”
said Sister Mary Michael.
Yet she salutes the military
for helping to bring her back to
the church. A wayward child
who “got into everything,” Sister
Mary Michael said even though
her parents made sure she grew
up in the faith, after graduating
from high school and leaving
home, she thought of going to
church as “something old people
did,” and that her relationship
with God was a personal thing
and stopped attending Mass.
But after joining the service she
started going to church. “During
basic training, you went to Mass
because you weren’t bothered
during that time,” she explained.
Sister Mary Michael, who has
always enjoyed being in uniform, said she is now in God’s
army. “This is my armor,” said
Sister Mary Michael about her
dark veil, white habit, cross and
tennis shoes that help her keep
up with her energetic lifestyle.
Sister Mary Michael was
asked by one of the students at
St. Alphonsus School about her
meandering journey in life, if
the restlessness went away after
she became a nun. She responded that she has profound peace
3
and joy. She also tells people that
what God did for her, he can do
for them.
And Sister Mary Michael can
say that during her life, which
she said is like a bowl of spaghetti because it has a lot of twists
and turns, she has walked in the
steps of her earthly and heavenly
fathers.
“Now I work for the big daddy,” Sister Mary Michael said.
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POPE FRANCIS’ FIRST ANNIVERSARY
March 21, 2014
For Pope Francis, a year of reform and evangelization
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – As leader of the
universal church, a pope must direct his
ministry in both of the ways traditionally
described by the Latin terms “ad intra” and
“ad extra:” inwardly to the church itself,
and outwardly to the rest of the world.
Pope Francis has accordingly spent the
first year of his pontificate pursuing two
ambitious projects: revitalizing the church’s
efforts at evangelization and reforming the
church’s central administration.
As he wrote in his first apostolic exhortation in November, “Evangelii Gaudium”
(“The Joy of the Gospel”), Catholics must
go out into the world to share their faith
with “enthusiasm and vitality” – not “like
someone who has just come back from a
funeral.”
He wrote that the church’s message “has
to concentrate on the essentials, on what
is most beautiful, most grand, most appealing and at the same time most necessary,” namely, the “saving love of God made
manifest in Jesus Christ who died and rose
from the dead.”
With his affable, informal manner and
simple language, Pope Francis has focused
on a message of mercy, forgiveness and
concern for the poor. He has taken largely
for granted those elements of church teaching, including sexual and medical ethics,
that contemporary culture tends to reject
as censorious and intolerant. He has thus
elicited extraordinary levels of curiosity
and good will far beyond the ranks of practicing Catholics around the world.
At the same time, the pope has carried
out an all-but-explicit electoral mandate to
reform the Vatican bureaucracy. A major
topic of discussion at the cardinals’ meetings before the March 2013 papal conclave
was the previous year’s controversy over
published revelations of corruption and incompetence in the Roman Curia and Vatican City State.
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Pope Francis has moved swiftly in this
area, launching investigations of the Vatican’s accounting practices and the Vatican
bank, expanding the reach of Vatican City
laws against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, establishing a new
office to supervise Vatican finances under
an oversight board that includes laypeople
and setting in motion a constitutional overhaul of the entire curia.
One might have predicted some tension,
if not conflict, between these two goals:
preaching the Gospel with renewed zeal
and energy to the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics (and 5.9 billion others), while transforming the highly traditional bureaucratic
culture of an enclave with fewer than 3,000
employees in Rome.
The demands of governing the Vatican
have presumably played a role in Pope
Francis’ choice to spend little time away.
For a pope who stresses the need to evangelize and serve those on society’s “peripheries,” he has spent far more time than either
of his predecessors within the Vatican’s
walls.
Blessed John Paul visited 129 countries
outside of Italy during his 26-year papacy,
pioneering the role of the pope as globetrotting evangelist. Even the less peripatetic Pope Benedict XVI took as many as five
international trips in a single year.
Pope Francis has taken one international trip so far – to Brazil in July – and his
planned pastoral trips for 2014 – to the
Holy Land and South Korea – will be relatively short, only three and five days long,
respectively.
Yet, he has hardly cut himself off from
his global flock. With the highly quotable
expressions and spontaneous gestures that
have made him an instant television and
social media star, Pope Francis has proved
he can grab the world’s attention without
leaving St. Peter’s Square.
The pope’s ad intra and ad extra commitments are not merely compatible; they
actively reinforce each other. It is not hard
to see how reforming the Vatican’s handling of money should bolster the cause of
evangelization, especially the ministry to
the poor on which the pope has placed such
emphasis.
By the same token, much of Pope Francis’ preaching – particularly his warnings
against clericalism, careerism and materialism among priests – obviously applies all
the more urgently to his closest collaborators in the Vatican.
Most effectively, with his simplicity of
life and extraordinary accessibility, the
pope himself serves as the foremost model
of both the evangelical poverty and the ecclesiastical service he preaches.
Pope Francis’ top 10 most quotable quotes
VATICAN CITY (CNS) – In his
formal documents, many speeches
and unscripted morning homilies
the past year, Pope Francis has
given the church a bounty of memorable sound bites.
Here’s a look at what could be
the top 10 most quotable quotes.
– “Brothers and sisters, good
evening. You all know that the duty
of the conclave was to give a bishop
to Rome. It seems that my brother
cardinals have gone almost to the
ends of the Earth to get him ... but
here we are.” (First words as pope:
March 13, 2013)
– “The Lord never tires of forgiving. It is we who tire of asking
for forgiveness.” (First Angelus as
pope, March 17, 2013)
– “This is precisely the reason
for the dissatisfaction of some,
who end up sad – sad priests – in
some sense becoming collectors
of antiques or novelties, instead of
being shepherds living with ‘the
odor of the sheep.’ This I ask you:
Be shepherds, with the ‘odor of the
sheep,’ make it real, as shepherds
among your flock, fishers of men.”
(Chrism Mass, March 28)
– “Ask yourselves this question: How often is Jesus inside and
knocking at the door to be let out,
to come out? And we do not let him
out because of our own need for
security, because so often we are
locked into ephemeral structures
that serve solely to make us slaves
and not free children of God.”
(Pentecost vigil, May 18)
– “Men and women are sacrificed to the idols of profit and
consumption: it is the ‘culture of
waste.’ If a computer breaks it is a
tragedy, but poverty, the needs and
dramas of so many people end up
being considered normal. ... When
the stock market drops 10 points in
some cities, it constitutes a tragedy. Someone who dies is not news,
but lowering income by 10 points
is a tragedy! In this way people are
thrown aside as if they were trash.”
(General audience, June 5)
– “Faith is not a light which
scatters all our darkness, but a
lamp which guides our steps in the
night and suffices for the journey.
To those who suffer, God does not
provide arguments which explain
everything; rather, his response is
that of an accompanying presence,
a history of goodness which touches every story of suffering and
opens up a ray of light.” (“Lumen
Fidei,” June 29)
– “If someone is gay and is
searching for the Lord and has
good will, then who am I to judge
him? ... The problem is not having this tendency, no, we must be
brothers and sisters to one another. The problem is in making
a lobby of this tendency: a lobby
of misers, a lobby of politicians, a
lobby of masons, so many lobbies.”
(News conference during flight
from Brazil to Rome, July 28)
– “An evangelizer must never
look like someone who has just
come back from a funeral.” (“Evangelii Gaudium,” Nov. 24)
– “Gossip can also kill, because
it kills the reputation of the person! It is so terrible to gossip! At
first it may seem like a nice thing,
even amusing, like enjoying a candy. But in the end, it fills the heart
with bitterness, and even poisons
us.” (Angelus, Feb. 16)
– “The perfect family doesn’t
exist, nor is there a perfect husband or a perfect wife, and let’s not
talk about the perfect mother-inlaw! It’s just us sinners.” A healthy
family life requires frequent use of
three phrases: “May I? Thank you,
and I’m sorry” and “never, never,
never end the day without making peace.” (Meeting with engaged
couples, Feb. 14)
March 21, 2014
FAMILY LIFE
5
Parents can help children enter into Christ’s passion
By Debbie Shelley
“Jesus Loves Me, This I know,” is one
of many songs children sing as they receive their first glowing lessons about how
much God cares for them. Lent is a time
when parents can teach their children the
realities of Christ’s suffering and death on
a cross that he underwent out of his deep
love for them.
A good way to introduce children to
Christ’s passion is to pray the Stations of
the Cross with them, either at church or
by using a children’s Stations of the Cross.
Some children’s stations urge the child to
draw the station, said Cherry Riggs, director of children’s faith formation at St.
George Church in Baton Rouge.
While reflecting on the stations, families can connect Jesus’ passion with their
lives by asking questions such as, “What
do I do when someone is being wrongly
blamed for something?” or “Am I sorry for
the pain that I have caused others?”
Furthermore, parents can explain that
though people are made in God’s image,
they sometimes turn away from him,
which is why Jesus came into the world
and suffered and died for their sins.
“You can help them understand that
Jesus loves them so much that he was
willing to do anything to follow God’s
I
“You can help them
understand that Jesus loves
them so much that he was
willing to do anything to
follow God’s will.”
Cherry Riggs
Director of Children’s Faith Formation
St. George Church, Baton Rouge
will,” Riggs emphasized.
Parents can emphasize that Jesus’ passion models to them how they can sacrifice
out of love for him. Children might donate
to charity by giving a portion of their allowance or the proceeds from a lemonade
stand that they set up. They might also forgo some of their favorite activities to pray
more.
Parents can also give their sons and
daughters children’s Bibles.
There are many excellent family Lenten activity suggestions on websites such
as loyolapress.com and catholicmom.com,
stated Riggs.
Parents can also tap into resources and
activities, including family nights, provid-
ed by their parish’s school of religion and
Catholic schools.
Riggs said St. George family night projects have explored Lenten topics including
Stations of the Cross; activities that help
support Catholic Relief Service’s Operation Rice Bowl, which invites Catholics to
support the hungry throughout the world
through praying, fasting and almsgiving;
the making of resurrection eggs; discussions on the blind man healed by Jesus and
where they have failed to see the goodness
of Christ; and how they can bring the light
of Christ to th world.
This year, the St. George fourth- and
fifth-grade PSR students and their parents
learned about the Sedar meal, the Jewish
ceremonial meal that marks the beginning
of Passover. The meal recounts the story of
the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt.
Riggs said children played an active
part in the meal, because the ceremonial
script has parts where children ask questions about Passover.
Riggs highlighted the relevance of the
Sedar meal to Christians in that Christ
celebrated a Passover meal before his passion.
At St. Aloysius Church in Baton Rouge,
catechists and first- through sixth-grade
students discussed the meaning of Lent,
said Tricia Greely, director of family ministries at St. Aloysius. Students then took
home resources including a Lenten calendar, Stations of the Cross and Lenten stories and materials for discussion about the
meaning of Easter. Their families received
materials to participate in Operation Rice
Bowl.
Parents were encouraged to have their
child receive the sacrament of reconciliation and to pray the Stations of the Cross.
“The parish goals and prayers are that
our parish families walk the Lenten journey with their child and share their own
experience of Lent with them,” Greely
said.
At St. Aloysius School, students received an Operation Rice Bowl bank, said
Edie Boudreaux, coordinator of religious
education at the school.
Inside each rice bowl is a calendar with
information and ideas for families to celebrate Lent. The calendar features a different country that benefits from Operation
Rice Bowl and meatless meal recipes for
Friday dinners.
Boudreaux said many parents have
joined the students in the school’s daily
prayer services.
“During Lent, the prayer will focus on
one aspect of Lent, prayer, fasting and
thanksgiving. The daily prayer services
reflect on one of the readings of the day
and explains how the reading is related to
these Lenten practices,” Boudreaux said.
The government and matrimony in America
n January, The Chronicle
of Higher Education ran a
special issue about a federal
program to promote healthy
marriages, run by the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services.
The “HHS family of agencies,” as it calls itself, comprises
11 operating divisions and 10
regional offices. One is the Office of Family Assistance, which
runs the Healthy Marriage
Initiative. It’s hard to say how
much the initiative costs, but it
has about $60 million in grants
outstanding.
Here’s how it works. Recruiters seek out poor parents, in
places like hospitals and foodstamp offices, and offer them
money and other inducements
to attend 13 weeks of relationship education. A mere $60
million is small potatoes for an
agency like HHS, but it comes to
about $11,000 per couple for the
program participants.
The results are disappointing. A three-year study of eight
grantees found couples who
took part were no more likely
Guest Opinion
John Garvey
to stay together or get married
than the control group. Fathers
did not spend more time with
children. Children were not
more secure. Some programs
showed negative outcomes,
which is to say, the control
group did better. The Chronicle
article asks, “Why aren’t we
pulling the plug?”
It doesn’t seem unreasonable
to spend money to encourage
young parents to marry and
stay married. However ineffec-
tive this program has been, it
does focus on a principal cause
of the ills that afflict children
and families. Consider the
much-discussed problem of
growing economic inequality. A
new study by Harvard economist Raj Chetty indicates that
the best predictor of economic
mobility is the percentage of
children who live in intact
families.
The program’s failure is
more disappointing because it
is that rare solution that claims
bipartisan support. Presidents
Bush and Obama have both
been fans.
Isn’t it odd that we have
engaged the federal government to teach young people
about healthy marriage and
relationship skills? I don’t just
mean “odd” in a constitutional
or political sense. I mean “odd”
because HHS, as an institution,
knows so little about love and
marriage.
In the past we learned about
those things from our families,
our churches, parochial schools
and other private associations.
Today we look to Washington.
I am reminded of the passage
in “Democracy in America”
where Alexis de Tocqueville
speaks about the progress of
the temperance movement: “I
came to understand,” he says,
“that these hundred thousand
Americans, frightened by
the progress of drunkenness
around them, wanted to support
sobriety by their patronage. ...
One may fancy that if they had
lived in France each of these
hundred thousand would have
made individual representations
to the government asking it to
supervise all the public houses
throughout the realm.”
These days, we’re more like
France.
Private institutions and individuals will always understand
love, marriage, child rearing and
families better than the government does.
Remitting to them the task of
restoring marriage asks each of us
to contribute a lot of arduous and
unpaid work. That may explain
the appeal of asking the government to manage our relationships.
But – no surprise – the evidence
indicates that that doesn’t work.
GARVEY is president of The Catholic
University of America in Washington.
Honor Those We Love.
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6
March 21, 2014
Sign of cross passing church; CatholicMatch and divorced
Q
I have some
questions
regarding a
practice I observed as
a child (in the 1970s).
While they were passing
in front of a church (either walking or in a car),
I used to notice some
people making the sign
of the cross. I’m not sure
whether this was just a
personal custom or one
endorsed by the church.
Are you familiar with
this practice and, if so,
how did it originate? Is
it an appropriate sign of
reverence? (Des Moines, Iowa)
not aware of any official
“endorsement” of this
practice by the church,
but such a gesture of
faith is a long-standing
custom – particularly in
Ireland but also in Italy
and the Philippines.
I know that some
people when passing a
church make the complete sign of the cross,
employing the entire
hand on the forehead,
breast and both shoulders, but more often, it
seems, just the thumb is
used.
Interestingly, that simple cross on the
forehead seems to have been the original
sign used to indicate a Christian’s belief
in the redemptive death and resurrection of Jesus, before it developed into
the wider gesture.
The theologian Tertullian, in the year
211 A.D., in a work called “The Chaplet,” wrote: “In all our actions, when we
come in or go out, when we dress, when
we wash, at our meals, before resting
to sleep, we make on our forehead
Question Corner
Father Kenneth Doyle
A
Yes, I am familiar with this practice. I’m not sure whether it was
taught to me by my mother or by
the nuns in school. Ever since I was a
child, whenever I pass a Catholic church
I make the sign of the cross with my
thumb on my forehead, as a priest does
to a child at baptism.
I do this as a sign of reverence for
Jesus, present in the tabernacle. I’m
the sign of the cross. These practices
are not commended to us by a formal
law of Scripture, but tradition teaches
them, custom confirms them and faith
observes them.”
I also am aware of gentlemen tipping
their hats when passing a church and
of people making the sign of the cross
when passing a cemetery (as a “quick
prayer” for those buried there) or when
an ambulance or fire engine goes by
(asking God for a favorable outcome to
that emergency).
Q
If a widow cannot marry a
divorced man, why are local
churches advertising Catholic
Match.com, which lists numerous divorced Catholic men looking for a wife?
(Monmouth County, N.J.)
A
You’re right: A widow cannot
marry a divorced man in a Catholic marriage – unless that man
has had his earlier marriage annulled by
the church. CatholicMatch.com is an online dating service that says its purpose
is to “help single Catholics be in a better
position to find their spouses and have
successful marriages.”
Your question prompted me to contact CatholicMatch.com to ask whether,
in fact, they were helping to find partners for those ineligible to marry with
the church’s blessing. Their response
quoted their published caution: “Please
be aware that divorced members who
are not free to marry in the Catholic
Church are permitted to use CatholicMatch but not for romantic purposes. If
this is your situation, we encourage you
to contact your parish priest or diocesan marriage tribunal to determine if
you are a candidate for the annulment
process.”
To clarify even further, I emailed
them back, asking what would be a
“nonromantic” purpose for using a
dating service, and they explained,
“Divorced members who aren’t eligible
to use the site for romantic purposes
generally use the site as a ‘support system’ as they go through the annulment
process.”
FATHER DOYLE is chancellor for public
information in the Diocese of Albany,
N.Y. Send questions to askfatherdoyle@
gmail.com and 40 Hopewell St., Albany,
NY 12208.
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March 21, 2014
SPIRITUALITY
7
LENT: Sacrifice helps maintain a healthy heart
FROM PAGE 1
appropriate exercise, spending less time
on the computer, could be possible acts of
self-discipline to help us grow in freedom,” Father Stine said.
The soul, like the body, can become
flabby if not exercised, said Father Stine.
Fasting and sacrifice are part of the exercises that keep the spirit alive and in shape.
Sacrificing is necessary if people are
to achieve the greatest good in their lives,
said Father Stine. He advises students if
they want to make good grades, they may
have to fast from watching TV or spending
time on the computer. If they want to stay
awake during an afternoon class, they will
want to eat a light lunch.
People can also fast for the greater good
of the world. They can fast from some of
their favorite activities to pray for those in
need. They can donate the money they save
from fasting to Catholic Relief Services to
feed the malnourished. Fasting is more
mature than dieting, Father Stine said. He
stated people on a diet who are told they
look good have their reward.
“Fasting is different. It’s simply not to
look better, but to do better for someone
else,” Father Stine said.
Fasting also helps people identify with
the less fortunate of the world, noted Father Stine.
F
Fasting brings people closer to God through reliance on him. File photo
“People who have a comfortable life
may not have compassion for the poor,” he
said.
Father Richard Andrus SVD, pastor
of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Baton
Rouge, urged people to fast throughout
the year in order to pray for all humanity.
He said for the more fortunate, fasting is
a voluntary form of prayer for those who
have nothing to eat. He noted that 16 per-
cent of U.S. citizens go hungry.
A good way to approach fasting is to
fast from negative things in order to gain
something positive, according to Father
Andrus.
He urged people to fast from negativity, criticism, anger, self-hatred and other
sinful activities. He said people should
go further than refraining from negative
habits by replacing it with positive ones.
For example, if one talks negatively about
another person, they should find goodness in the person and tell others about it.
Fasting, far from being self-punishment, is also an acknowledgment that everything is a gift from God, said Deacon
Steve Gonzales, deacon assistant at Holy
Rosary Church in St. Amant.
While people may experience discomfort or irritability while fasting, it should
drive them to deeper prayer as they seek
God’s help in order to endure during the
sacrifices that they are making. Fasting reminds people that they do not get
through trials on their own.
“Fasting is a reliance on our Lord,”
Deacon Gonzales said.
When fasting from food, Deacon Gonzales said, people should not go overboard.
“It’s sacrifice, not mortification,” said
Deacon Gonzales.
Done properly, fasting should be beneficial for people’s health, he said
Father Stine, Father Andrus and
Deacon Gonzales each emphasized that
prayer, fasting and almsgiving are interrelated and work together. In the case of
fasting, it is both a form of prayer and
a catalyst to be more generous in their
almsgiving.
Next: Almsgiving.
Joy, even in darkness, is the hallmark of a Christian
or many parts of the
Northern Hemisphere,
this has been the winter
of our discontent. Snowstorm
upon snowstorm blanketed great
swaths of the United States. Ice
brought cities in the Southern
U.S. to a virtual standstill, while
Canada and Alaska experienced
disconcerting periods of warmth.
The British Isles were hit by
massive flooding.
During one particular harsh
week of subzero wind chills, I
realized why they call it “the
dead of winter.” I must admit
my spirits lagged and I dreaded
getting out to the grocery store.
Some people suffer from
what’s called seasonal affective
disorder and struggle to maintain their good humor in the
long winter months. When the
Christmas lights all dimmed, I
experienced a bit of that struggle.
I think we all yearn for change
this year. And so, here we are,
with the season of change upon
us, into the heart of Lent. It’s no
wonder we look ahead to Lent
with something resembling giddiness. Spring and resurrection
cannot be far behind.
We sense there is change in the
air, there’s an indication of this
We know what one misguided robin knows
in his heart, that the season of change is
here. It is exactly the way the Christian
should approach this solemn penitential
season: with joy and expectation.
For The Journey
Effie Caldarola
ancient Earth rotating on its axis,
and there is a feeling that newness is upon us. As I write this,
another round of below normal
temperatures is hitting my city.
Yet, to my unbelieving eyes, I
spotted a robin in the backyard
yesterday. I don’t know where the
poor little guy is today, but somehow I took hope from his courage.
All of this readiness for spring
coincides with Lent. We know
what one misguided robin knows
in his heart, that the season
of change is here. It is exactly
the way the Christian should
approach this solemn penitential
season: with joy and expectation.
Sometimes we don’t think of
joy and Lent at the same time. It
is a period of sacrifice, of meditating on the great sacrifice and
suffering of Christ, done for our
benefit.
We know how the story ends.
This hope is the foundation of
our faith. St. Paul wrote that “if
Christ has not been raised, your
faith is vain.”
Even when our spirits lag,
and darkness is all around us, we
remember the joy of the saving
presence of Christ, the God of rebirth, the God of second chances,
the God of forgiveness, the God
who brings early morning light
back into the winters of our lives.
Lent presents us with the gifts
of fasting, prayer and almsgiving.
They help us focus on needed
change in our lives, and on the
change for which we yearn. They
help us focus on the neediness,
the sinfulness, the emptiness in
us, but they do so always in the
spirit of joy.
When Pope Francis was asked
by an interviewer to express who
Pope Francis was, he replied, “I
am a sinner.” But Pope Francis
said this with a smile, because
he believes that, like us, he is a
beloved sinner.
It’s no accident that Pope
Mr. D’s
Francis named his first letter to
us, “The Joy of the Gospel.”
A newly ordained priest told
my husband that when he met
Pope Francis in Rome, the pope
told him that in his vocation, he
must “always be joyful.”
Joy is the hallmark of the
Christian.
Even in a time of penitence,
the Christian lives with a sense
of joy. Even in the darkness of
winter, the Christian has faith in
the rebirth of spring. Focus on
change this Lent, but experience
change through the lens of joy.
CALDAROLA, writes a general-interest column, and can
be reached at Catholic News
Service, 3211 Fourth St. N.E.,
Washington, DC 20017.
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8
Funds
Diocese of Baton Rouge Seminary Scholarship Funds
What is a Seminary Scholarship fund?
A seminary scholarship fund is an invested sum of money, the
interest of which is used in perpetuity to help fund the education of men studying for the priesthood.
How does someone establish a fund?
It is simple. A fund may be established and named for anyone
you choose – friend, family, bishop, priest, religious, etc. Anyone can name or establish a fund.
Who do I contact to establish or contribute to a fund?
To create a fund or to make a contribution to an existing fund,
please send it to the Vocations and Seminarians Department,
P. O. Box 2028, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-2028. For information call 225-336-8778.
This is only a partial list of all Seminary Scholarship Funds.
Visit our website at www.diobr.org/vocations for a
complete list of Seminary Scholarship Funds.
Contributions November 2013 through February 2014
Archbishop Antoine Blanc
In Memory of: Deceased Members of KC #8878
By: Knights of Columbus #8878 149.00
In Memory of: Lottie Daigle
By: Louis/Belinda Daigle
20.00
Joseph/Linda Daigle
20.00
In Memory of: Landry and Lottie Daigle
By: Vivian Morrant
20.00
In Memory of: Humpfrey Olinde
50.00
In Memory of: Joe Mallett
50.00
By: Archbishop Antoine Blanc Assembly #2047
In Memory of: Ms. Hazel Casadaban
50.00
In Memory of: Joe Mallett
50.00
By: Knights of Columbus #7856
In Memory of: Norma Le Duff
20.00
In Memory of: John Henry Cline
20.00
By: M/M James Robert Sr.
In Memory of: Norma LeDuff
By: Mark/Brenda Hurst
15.00
$17,601.31
Brian Blanchard
In Memory of: His Anniversary
100.00
By: Marian L. Blanchard
$21,945.00
Louis and Nita Bonfanti
By: Louis/Lisa Bonfanti Jr.
200.00
$1,050.00
Father Matthew Faschan
By: M/M L. F. Aguillard
250.00
$3,307.89
Father Maynard “Tippy” Hurst
In Memory of: Curtis Charrier
Bill Bailey
Josie Peeples
Gloria Parrino
Nick Bravata
Diomedesa Son
Johnny Marx
Rickt Bosarge
Charlotte Kelleher
Judy Decateau
Thomas Vaughn
Earline Chatelain
Yvonne Litton
James Willis
Lawrence Nguyen
By: Court St. Francis of Assisi # 1915, Roberta Farrell,
Renee Caruso, Lisa Gueho, Dot Devillier, Barbara
Schmitt, Rita Valentine, Charlene Wilson, Ida Mae
Alonzo, Margaret Blackwell, Pat Pavlovich, Lyn
Deville, Patricia Ryan, Betty Baughman
413.00
$7,776.00
NEW: Alvy Dee and Rezette Alleman Jenkins Family Living and
Deceased
By: Rezette A. Jenkins
3,000.00
$3,000.00
Father Aubry Osborn
By: Constance Butler Chapter #9 50.00
$10,904.35
Serra Clubs of Baton Rouge
By: Robert Bogan
200.00
$10,175.00
Tomorrows Priest
In Honor of: Father Frank Bass
By: Patricia Vidrine
200.00
In Memory of: Mary Pivonka
By: Stephen/Marilynn Lacy &
John/Kathy Bona
50.00
By: John/Kathryn Graham
100.00
Albert J. Waguespack
By: Jacqueline Waguespack
200.00
Carl/Ellie Sandlin and Children 250.00
Deacon Francis A. Waguespack
In Memory of: Beck Hymel
By: M/M Percy J. Legendre Jr.
25.00
Msgr. John A Weber
By: Joyce Weber
500.00
$14,850.75
$17,094.41
$4,125.00
$59,021.22
Additional Scholarship Funds
Monsignor James J. Finnegan ...........................................$5,275.41
Monsignor Andrew Frey ..................................................$77,800.00
Monsignor Leo Gassler.....................................................$20,100.00
Monsignor Paul J. Gauci ..................................................$20,000.00
Edward C. Gauthier ..........................................................$20,940.16
Monsignor Patrick Gillespie ............................................$20,000.00
Monsignor Cage Gordon ..................................................$20,000.00
Mr. & Mrs. A. X. Guillot ................................................$20,000.00
Kathlyn Elise Heroman ....................................................$20,000.00
Father Salvador Impastato...............................................$20,000.00
Alene Kaylor .......................................................................$18,518.68
Rev. Vincent Kleinpeter ....................................................$20,000.00
Father Wilfred Knobloch .................................................$20,000.00
Mr. & Mrs. Albert J. Koppel ...........................................$20,000.00
Father John Koppel ...........................................................$20,115.00
Monsignor Paul Landsman ............................................$20,000.00
Gerald T. Leblanc ..............................................................$20,475.00
Edith Louise Leonard .......................................................$10,000.00
Monsignor Louis E. Marionneau ...................................$20,000.00
Monsignor Louis E. Marionneaux #2 ............................$20,000.00
Fathers Martens & Perino ...............................................$24,045.00
Thomas Beatty Mary ........................................................$18,483.63
Dr. McCaa and Monsignor Marionneaux .....................$20,000.00
Father Charles McConville ..............................................$20,000.00
John McGinnis .....................................................................$6,238.46
Father Joseph E. McLaughlin .........................................$19,424.06
Deceased Members of KC Council #3298 ...................... $6,721.39
Deceased Members St. Alphonsus KC Council #3331 $20,000.00
Deceased Members of KC Council #4030 ....................$20,000.00
Deceased Members of Pierre Part KC Council #5352 ..$1500.00
Deceased Members of St. Gabriel Ladies Altar Society $2,200.00
Father Patrick Mille ..........................................................$20,000.00
Mary Catherine Muench .................................................... $1,675.00
Murphy and Wallace Families...........................................$1,656.42
Monsignor Charles J. T. Murphy ....................................$20,000.00
Mr. & Mrs. C. J. T. Murphy.............................................$20,000.00
Fred Nacol ...........................................................................$15,862.30
Monsignor John Naughton .............................................$20,000.00
Father Aubry Osborn........................................................$10,854.35
Bishop Stanley J. Ott .........................................................$26,539.50
The Ott and Berthelot Families .......................................$20,000.00
Pioneering Fathers of Grosse Tete Ridge....................... $19,499.44
George R. Reymond ..........................................................$20,000.00
Monsignor Leonard Robin...............................................$21,124.16
March 21, 2014
Adoption
agency
accredited
Catholic Charities’ Maternity and Adoption Services for the
Diocese of Baton Rouge has been
reaccredited by the Hague Convention’s Council on Accreditation, a destination that means the
agency ensures the best interest of
children in handling international
adoptions.
“We are pleased that we were
reaccredited. This allows us to
continue to provide international
adoptions for families in this diocese and all of Louisiana,” said
Paula Davis, clinical director and
international adoption social worker for the diocese.
Maternity and Adoption Services is one of three local agencies
that have been accredited.
Hague accreditation means the
agency is committed to best standards of adoption and operates
under the principle of what is in
the best interest of the child, Davis
said.
Some of the standards required
for accreditation include: not offering incentives for birth parents to
give their children up for adoption;
no preferential treatment in home
studies or placements; a properly
trained staff with continuing education every two years; and at least
10 hours of training for adoptive
parents.
Maternity and Adoption Services was first accredited by Hague
in 2010. The accreditation is good
for four years.
The accreditation gives the
agency more flexibility in placing
children because some countries
and agencies will only work with
Hague approved agencies, Davis
said.
In July the Universal Accreditation Act will take effect that will
set standards for agencies dealing
with international adoptions to ensure ongoing monitoring and oversight of adoption service providers.
Those standards are the same as
Hague requires, Davis said, so the
diocesan agency will already be in
compliance. The Universal Accreditation Act will help minimize bad
practices in adoption, Davis said,
adding often times there are no repercussions for agencies that do a
poor job of protecting children and
adoptive parents.
March 21, 2014
9
Search of sacristy provides
snapshot of Carville history
By Richard Meek
Myra Tircuit eagerly opened the door of
an aging cabinet and out popped history.
Tircuit, along with diocesan archivists
Ann Boltin and Katie Oubre, recently spent
a day perusing old closets and cabinets
at Sacred Heart Chapel in Carville. Each
creaking of the hinges yielded another
chapter from a remarkable past.
The hunt surfaced vestments of numerous hues dating to well before Vatican II,
engraved chalices, patens and even relics,
which surprised Tircuit.
“Those relics, I didn’t think anything
for those being relics,” she said. “Whenever
they started getting into it, and there’s four
of them, I realized this is something.”
There were also blankets from Guatemala. Included in the findings were a number of tabernacle veils, which Boltin did not
recognize. They have not been in use since
Vatican II.
“The veils were interesting because I
had never seen one before,” she said. “I did
not know what it was.”
“(The items) are special because it’s not
just the stuff that was provided,” Boltin
added. “I think pretty much everything (at
the chapel) was donated. There were items
there that the patients created. That was
their special place.”
Creating the most buzz however, was
a piece of paper stained with age which
is believed to be a proclamation from the
Vatican directed to Sister Katherine Sullivan DC, who, according to Boltin, played a
significant role in having the chapel built in
1934.
Old chalices and other liturgical items were
found at Sacred Heart Chapel when Tircuit
searched them. Many of the items were
pre-Vatican II.
“The (Daughters of Charity) were instrumental in getting absolutely everything,” Bolton said. “There is nothing over
there that they did not have their hand in
getting. And they started from nothing.”
Boltin recalled how the nuns helped establish what would become the country’s
only leprosy hospital in Carville, when
the disease remained a mystery to medical experts. The patients were transported
from Hotel Dieu Hospital in New Orleans
to Carville, the site of an old plantation, on
a barge in the darkness of the night in the
late 1890s.
At that time, patients were quarantined
and remained so until approximately 50
years ago when it was discovered the disease was a virus and not contagious. The
Daughters of Charity were able to get the
chapel constructed and they remained on
site until 1996.
Bolton said her staff will attempt to
identify and catalog what was found. She
said she hopes some of it can be re-purposed at either local parishes or perhaps in
other parts of the world.
Previously, the diocese has sent vestments that were not able to be used locally
to a mission.
“We’re trying to identify the art work
and what’s out there,” Bolton said. “We
found a lot of vestments, a lot of those tabernacle veils.
“We do a full catalog of everything, then
we have to make some hard decisions.”
Boltin said some of the articles, including a couple of ciborium, are in disrepair.
She added her office will consult with diocesan officials to develop an appropriate
method of disposal.
“You have to dispose of things in a respectful manner,” she said. “We try to put
it to good use but if it’s something that can
no longer be used then we have to make a
decision.”
Tircuit came across many of the items
several years ago after Sacred Heart became a mission chapel for St. Gabriel
Church Parish in St. Gabriel, where she
serves as DRE and administrative assistant. She was not sure what was there or
what to do with the items, so she contacted
Boltin.
“It’s interesting to me just to go back,”
Tircuit said. “An advantage of being a lifelong member of the community is that
when I was growing up it was always
the Hansen’s disease center, then later it
was the federal bureau for prisons and it
changed. Now it’s the National Guard.”
“Even though time has changed and
things have changed the constant down
there is the faith community,” she added.
“The church and the role that it played in
the lives of the people. The patients, the
prisoners when the prison was there. Now
the young men and women at Youth Challenge Program.
St. Gabriel Church Parish administrative assistant Myra Tircuit holds up an old tabernacle veil found in the sacristy at Sacred Heart Chapel in Carville. Tircuit and diocesan archivists Ann Boltin and Katie Oubre recently spent a day going through cabinets and
closets in the sacristy. Photos by Richard Meek | The Catholic Commentator
“We don’t use the veils over the tabernacle anymore but the tabernacle is still there
and it’s part of history.”
Boltin said some of the items likely will
be loaned to the National Hansen’s Disease
Museum, which sits near the chapel, for an
exhibit dedicated to the chapel.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Boltin said.
“Carville is one of those places that is so
special.
“It would be a nice tribute to the people
who served there.”
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Carol Goldsmith looks at books in the “Little Free Library” set up outside the new Gardere Initiative education center. St. Jude Church in Baton Rouge plays a large role in the Gardere Initiative, an effort to improve
conditions in the once crime ridden area located within the church parish boundaries. Photo by Barbara Chenevert |
St. Jude parishioners curb
crime in neighborhood
“We pray on the street corner,
hold hands and then knock on
doors. We’re out of our Catholic
comfort zone.” That’s how Carol
Goldsmith describes the efforts
of St. Jude Church parishioners who have joined with other
churches, businesses and civic
leaders in trying to reach out to
residents of the Gardere Lane
area in Baton Rouge.
St. Jude is a stockholder in the
Gardere Initiative, an organization that strives to address drug
abuse and other issues in the
once crime ridden area, which
lies just south of the church.
The latest effort of that group
is to open a free library, office
and education center, where
Gardere residents can come for
tutoring, have access to computers, nutrition programs, parenting classes, prayer and Bible
study.
The office, a converted apartment located on Ned Avenue,
was formally dedicated Jan.
25 after the group received a
grant from the South Burbank
Crime District to help pay rent
and make improvements to the
building. Some of the rent was
diverted with sweat equity after
volunteers made repairs to the
apartment.
Goldsmith and volunteer
Reggie Brown, both parishioners of St. Jude, said they want
the people of the area to know
that they are “part of our parish.”
The Gardere Lane area, particularly the west side south of
Burbank, has been notorious as
a high crime area and a haven
for drug dealers.
“The drug dealers feel like
they can come out here and
they do,” Goldsmith said. But
she added the sheriff’s office has
been active in the community
and quickly solves many crimes
there.
And, Brown added, “No matter what happens, we are here
to stay.” Both Brown and Goldsmith said the area has been
steadily improving.
In its first week of operation,
the center already was helping
residents of the area prepare for
the HiSet, a high school equivalency test, and holding cooking
demonstrations, using the vegetables grown in a community
garden in the nearby HartleyVey BREC park.
A free library set up in front
of the apartment offers residents
from elementary school age to
adult an opportunity to read.
Part of a nationwide program
known as “Little Free Libraries,”
the local program makes books
available free of charge. Basically
you take a book and put one back
in, Brown said, of the homemade
structure which houses the donated books.
On Jan. 21, Martin Luther
King Day, more than 500 books
were distributed.
The apartment is equipped
with computers to give Internet
access to nearby residents. Tutors
from St. Jude and other churches
will be available to help students
after school and intercessory
prayer will be held on Thursdays.
Goldsmith credited Gardere
Initiative member Murelle Harrison and its president Caulette
Jackson with being instrumental
in getting the new office set up
and in being creative in bringing
services to the area.
In the meantime, parishion
ers of St. Jude plan to roll up
their sleeves, knock on doors and
let the people know what services
are available.
The interaction is important,
Goldsmith said. “We want them
to know that we are concerned
about you. You are not forgotten
and you are not bad. You are valued.”
May 19 –
July 25, 2014
BUILD A BASKET
When families are struggling to exist on
low incomes, just paying the rent and
putting food on the table is difficult.
Needy children learn at an early age that
there’s nothing in the budget for extras.
Things like Easter baskets are luxuries their
families simply cannot afford.
Last year, our Build a Basket campaign was a tremendous
success and reached so many children in
The kids in these pictures were
need.
uplifted by this faithful act of sharing.
Join St. Vincent de Paul and Catholic
Community Radio WPYR 1380 AM in
providing Easter baskets for hundreds of
needy children. You can actually build a
basket yourself (see instructions below) or make a
contribution to Build a Basket online at www.svdpbr.org –
we will build it for you, and give it to a
needy or homeless child. For more
information call us at (225) 383-7837,
ext. O or visit us at svdpbr.org.
Bring Christ into the lives of
those in need!
Build a Basket Instructions for A Happy Easter
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Lots of love and prayers.
A new or gently used basket.
Easter Candy of all sorts. (No peanut products.)
Easter related toys, small toys, stuffed animals,
crayons, color books, etc.
Wrap the Basket with Easter cellophane.
Drop your gift off at our St. Vincent de Paul Main
Charitable Campus, located at 220 St. Vincent de
Paul Place, Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
12
FARM MINISTRY
The Catholic Commentator | March 21, 2014
March 21, 2014 | The Catholic Commentator
13
Animal ministry brings
delight to senior citizens
Earl Lewis, a member of the youth group, said
he was there because he is “good with animals
and wants to help other people,” but showed he
everly Hebert remembers when she had
was a typical teenager when he quickly added he
her own horse as a child. “It stepped on
carried a bunny instead of a chicken “because he
my foot,” she said with a laugh, recalling
didn’t want to deal with the poop.”
days gone by.
Sarah Aldridge, a student at Dutchtown High,
Now the smile on her face is provided by likes to help people and loves animals, so bringBecky Petite and a group of young high school ing the animals to the nursing home is a perfect
students and com- ministry for her.
munity volunteers
Inside the nursing home, resident Pearl Poche
who bring animals held a dog and talked about how she looks forto the nursing home ward to the group coming each year. “I love
Hebert calls home.
them,” she says, “Oh, look at this one,” she adds
“This has brought with excitement as a pony approaches her chair.
joy and excitement
Resident Dodie Melancon talked about how
to my life,” Hebert much she loved the animals and thanked the
said, as she pets a young people for coming.
pony. “We had old
Volunteer Velda Smiley sees God’s love at work.
MacDonald’s farm, “Some of these residents have no one to talk to. I
we had so many know it’s for the residents, but we get a lot out of
animals when I was it. It’s so good to see happy faces.”
young,” she recalled.
She said the residents will tell the teens stories
Petite, a former of their youth, as they share a moment with the
special education classroom para-professional, animals: like Annabelle Bourque who recalled
now has what she lovingly calls a “farm minis- that she used to “go to bed with the animals evtry,” in which she brings her ponies, chickens, ery night.”
rabbits, goats, guinea pigs and dogs to area nursIan Pererira, who belongs to the church youth
ing homes. On Feb. 15, she visited the Gonzales group, commented that some of the residents
Healthcare Center with the assistance of the have no one to talk to as he carried a rabbit
youth group from St. John the Evangelist Church around with him, talking to residents and letting
in Prairieville and other
them pet the animal.
volunteers.
Petite, who has raised
“Miracles can take place”
animals all her life, shares
with interaction between
her ministry not only with
people and animals,” said
nursing home residents,
Petite who annually visbut with special needs chilits Gonzales Healthcare.
dren. She also provides
“Some of the (nursing home)
animals for a living nativregulars can’t wait. When
ity. “I’m just the vessel,”
they see us, they starting
she said. “God sends everywheeling their chairs down
one who is needed” for this
the hall.”
ministry.
Becky Petite
The interaction with the
After the nursing home
Farm Ministry Founder
animals can bring out the
visit, Petite thanked the
best in the residents. “I see a glow in them,” Petite teens, telling them they have answered God’s
said. “We put a rabbit in the lap of one lady who call. “At your age I was not at a nursing home
was blind and you could see her mellow. There is on Saturday, I can assure you of that. You have
something special between people and animals.” made the day of these residents.” She then invitSt. John youth group coordinator Ashley ed the youth to share their experiences. AmanBourgeois said the animals also break the ice for da Guedry said she talked to one lady who was
the youth to start a conversation with the older thrilled because she had not petted an animal in
people. “Sometimes it is hard to break the barrier a long time. Another teen said a resident told her
with people you don’t know. Animals tend to be she now has a new best friend.
able to do that,” she said.
But volunteer Linda Lamy’s story topped them
Volunteer Payton Granier, who likes to show all when she said one resident told her the brown
off the bunnies, said she has been coming for rabbit she was holding “would be good in a jammany years “just to bring smiles to everyone.”
balaya.”
B
Beverly Hebert
pets a pony held
by volunteer
Sylvia Durio.
“Some of the (nursing
home) regulars can’t wait.
When they see us, they
starting wheeling their
chairs down the hall.”
Skittles, the pony, with Sam Guidry and Sylvia Durio.

Senior citizen Dodie Melancon is delighted by the rabbit that visited her nursing home. Velda Smiley, left, who volunteers with this farm ministry, said she
sees God’s love at work in the faces of the nursing home residents. Photos by Barbara Chenevert | The Catholic Commentator
FARMING OUT
SMILES

Becky Petite, in plaid shirt, leads a prayer before the St. John youth group and other volunteers who
bring chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs and ponies into the Gonzales Healthcare Center.
Earl Lewis shares a special moment between the chicken he is holding and Betty Smith.
Annabelle Bourque is amazed by the furry rabbit being held by Amanda Guedry.
14
YOUTH
March 21, 2014
Students tackle poverty on mission trip
While on their Mardi Gras vacation, a group of eight students
from St. Michael High School
took a week-long trip to Managua, Nicaragua as part of the
International Samaritan’s volunteer program.
The missionary work the
students did was in the garbage
dump community of Ciudad
Sandino, outside of Managua.
“Ciudad Sandino has hundreds
of square miles of garbage that
locals dig through to find anything they can refurbish or resell just to make a living,” said
Jim Baldridge, mission leader.
He and his wife, Lisa, also a St.
Michael faculty member, made
their second mission trip to Nicaragua with students from St.
Michael.
The students taught English in the community’s school
for one hour a day. They also
painted classrooms and broke
up concrete to make way for
the construction of new school
buildings. But their main task
was the renovation of the school
bathroom. The school has about
2,000 students, creating unsanitary conditions, the Baldridges
said.
The trip made the students appreciate what they have, and not
take anything for granted.
St. Michael High School students bonded with children they served
during a mission trip to Managua, Nicaragua. Photo provided by Sean Beauvais |
St. Michael High School
They also bonded with the
children.
“Recess started simply. I
threw the Frisbee with one kid.
Then more kids started to join in.
I gave one a hug and lifted him,
which created a line of children
waiting to be hoisted into the air,”
said Richard Tuminello, a senior
at St. Michael.
“I gave one kid my bandana
and another rode on my back,
and as the line for name writing lengthened, so did the line
of kids wanting a piggy-back
ride. It is the simple things here
that make the children so happy.
Simplicity sometimes is all you
need,” he said.
Upon the missionaries arrival
home, Camille Savoie felt she had
been called to something more in
her life.
“Teaching the children opened
my eyes to so much,” Savoie said.
“At first it was so overwhelming, all the chaos, but then after
soaking it all in, I truly felt God’s
presence. The kids are so much
fun. They taught me that I really
want to do mission work a lot in
my life. I think with anywhere I
go in life I always want to change
hearts. I truly want to help those
in need, and the children today
taught me this.”
The Brighton School
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Monday – Thursday
June 2 – June 26, 2014
8 a.m. – 12 Noon
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LOCATION: The Brighton School Elementary Campus
9150 Bereford Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70809
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language-based learning differences
•Reading Comprehension: Building the
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•SLA: Building stronger phonemic skills
•Math: Designed for students weak in math
•Computer/Writing Enrichment Activities
For more information and enrollment, please contact:
The Brighton School, 225-923-2068; or email: [email protected]
RICE BABIES – Kindergarten students at St. John Primary
School in Plaquemine created rice babies to represent their
birth weight as an interesting way to learn about matter measurement and estimation in science and math classes. With
the display of rice babies are, from left, Preston Berthelot,
Natalie Heintze and Jack Sheets. Photo provided by Janis Ament | St. John
Primary
LENTEN BLESSING –
On, March 10 Father
Cayet Mangiaracino,
parochial vicar at
Holy Ghost Church in
Hammond, blessed
students and classrooms to begin Lent.
The school’s Lenten
theme is “Walking in
the Footsteps of Jesus.” Father Mangiaracino blesses the
students in the BQuest classroom including Sadie Mitchell, Kamryn Hecker,
Rickie Matheu and
Olivia Brouilette. Photo provided by Cindy Wagner |
Holy Ghost School
March 21, 2014
YOUTH
15
Cooper looks to make road safer through no texting campaign
By Debbie Shelley
Research shows many people
who text while driving know they
are engaging in risky behavior
and can harm others and themselves, but they are addicted to
texting and cannot stop. People
who text while driving are six
times more likely to be involved
in an accident than those who
drink while driving. Five seconds
is the minimal time drivers’ eyes
are taken off the road if they text
while driving.
Many texters become part of
crash statistics. In 2011, 23 percent of car accidents, or 1.3 million, were caused by texting while
driving in the United States.
Nydia Cooper, 12, a seventhgrade student at Ascension Catholic Middle School, is looking to
change such statistics through
her 4-H project, “No Texting –
No Problem Campaign.”
Cooper is asking people to
pledge they will not text while
driving and/or ask someone else
not to do so. Students at West
Thibodaux Middle School, Ascension Catholic Middle School
and St. James Civil Parish 4-H
Club members were given a log
to record each time they or someone they knew wanted to text
while driving but didn’t or asked
someone not to.
The public can also participate by accessing her website
nydia-tips.com.
Everyone who participates
will receive a reward, according
to Cooper.
She said, “I love people, and
this a way to express this by helping.”
She described texting while
driving as “a huge problem,” and
encourages people to think about
the consequences.
“No parent wants their son or
daughter killed,” Cooper said.
The youth said she hopes that
someone will continue the project after the she finishes, to keep
ongoing education about the
problem of distracted driving.
“I think that my project will
help teenagers and adults think,
‘Would you rather text and take Nydia Cooper, 12
Hometown: St. James
School: Ascension Catholic Middle School
Parish: St. James Church
a chance on having a wreck or
be safe and have a good future
ahead of you?’ ” she said.
Although she was diagnosed
with a 40 percent hearing loss in
both ears when she was 5 years
old, Cooper has had many accomplishments, which were recently recognized by the Jasmine
Civic and Social Club.
Cooper maintained a 4.0 GPA
at Ascension Catholic Elementary School. She is on the school’s
basketball and volley ball teams
and plays soccer. She plays saxophone in the band, and has excelled in the St. James Parish
4-H program, competing in the
Ambassador’s Program at LSU
and receiving a blue ribbon for
her speech on “Seafood Marketing,” placing first in safety, and
first overall individual.
On her website, she challenges
people to be safety conscious in
several areas. She participated in
a summer drama camp at Nicholls State University, performed
in the Ascension Catholic Middle
School play “Seussical.” She also
attended the Exxon/Mobil Bernard Harris Science and Math
Camp at Southern University.
Cooper has earned a second
degree-level 3 black belt in Taekwondo and is receiving instructor training at Active Martial
Arts School in Gonzales. She has
had nine years of dance instructions and is a member of the Pelican Point swimming team.
She learned photography
from her mother, a professional
photographer. For community
service, she took individual and
group photographs at the St.
James Parish Senior Citizens’
Social and made the prints.
She has served as queen for
the National Association of University Women, page and princess twice for the Krewe of Agape
and was first runner-up of Phi
Sigma Omega, Alpha Kappa Alpha Parade of Pearls pageant.
She is an altar server/candle
bearer, youth choir member and
a member of the liturgical dance
team at St. James Church in St.
James.
At Ascension Catholic Middle
School she is also conducting a
recycling campaign for telephone
books and construction paper.
One day Cooper hopes to build
a center where people of all ages
can come for recreational activities and education.
16
MOVIE
REVIEWS
USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting
classifications:
A-I – General patronage
A-II – Adults and adolescents
A-III – Adults
A-IV – Adults, with reservations
L – Limited adult audience
O – Morally offensive
300: Rise of an Empire
Warner Bros
Directed by Noam Murro, this 3-D war
drama, both a prequel and a sequel to
2007’s “300,” is short on dialogue but long
on relentless and increasingly repellent action. As ancient Persians and Greeks once
again battle for supremacy of the Aegean
peninsula, the film serves up a second helping of the choreographed violence and warrior beefcake that characterized its predecessor. Following their nation’s victory over
the Spartans at Thermopolyae, the Persian
king (Rodrigo Santoro) and his sexy naval
commander (Eva Green) plan an invasion of
Greece, setting their sights on Athens. The
stage is set for an epic naval battle, as the
Athenian fleet admiral (Sullivan Stapleton)
leads a crusade for freedom and democracy
over tyranny. Tasteless carnage, needless to
ENTERTAINMENT
Motion Picture Association of America
ratings:
G – General audiences; all ages admitted
PG – Parental guidance suggested; some
material may not be suitable for children
PG-13 – Parents are strongly cautioned
to give special guidance for attendance
of children under 13; some material may
be inappropriate for young children
R – Restricted; under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
NC-17 – No one under 17 admitted
say, is the real name of the game, with innumerable gross-out moments. Relentless
gory and sometimes gruesome fighting, a
graphic nonmarital sex scene, upper female
and rear nudity, skimpy costumes, some
rough language. L; R
Non-Stop
Universal
A troubled air marshal (Liam Neeson)
with a drinking problem finds himself bewildered when an anonymous murderer
aboard the transatlantic flight he’s been
assigned to protect succeeds in making it
appear as though he is the one felling his
fellow passengers. He enlists the help of a
newfound acquaintance (Julianne Moore),
the traveler in the seat next to his, as well as
that of a veteran stewardess (Michelle Dockery) who is a longtime friend. But mutual
March 21, 2014
mistrust hampers the trio’s efforts to identify and stop the perpetrator. The rapid pace
and frequent plot twists of director Jaume
Collet-Serra’s thriller divert attention from
its improbabilities. Though the protagonist’s
habit of severely smacking down all who get
in his way – together with a bit of risque humor – sets this popcorn movie off limits for
kids, most grownups will likely handle such
turbulence without much difficulty. Considerable harsh but mostly bloodless violence,
brief nongraphic sexual activity between
incidental characters, some adult references, numerous uses of profanity, at least one
instance of the F-word, several crude and
crass terms. A-III; PG-13
Pompeii
TriStar
The cataclysmic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. is the backdrop for this
swords-and-sandals tale of forbidden love,
revenge and a whole lotta lava, directed by
Paul W.S. Anderson. In the fabled Italian
town on the Bay of Naples, a slave-turnedgladiator (Kit Harington) falls for the
daughter (Emily Browning) of a wealthy
merchant (Jared Harris). As he fights for
love and his freedom, he befriends a veteran of the arena (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje) and seeks vengeance on the Roman
senator (Kiefer Sutherland) who killed
his parents and cast him into slavery. A
climactic swordfight in the arena is interrupted when the volcano roars to live and
all heck breaks loose. Much gory violence
and a few brief sexual images. A-III; PG-13
Son of God
Fox
The life of Jesus (Diogo Morgado) is recounted by the aged, exiled St. John the
Evangelist (Sebastian Knapp) in this reverent but uneven screen version of the
Gospel story. While director Christopher
Spencer’s portrayal of the Passion, and the
events leading up to it – with Judas (Joe
Wredden), Caiaphas the high priest (Adrian
Schiller) and Pontius Pilate (Greg Hicks) all
assigned believable motives – is compelling, other aspects of his film range from
moving to awkward. Catholic viewers will
appreciate the unqualified acknowledgement of St. Peter (Darwin Shaw) as the
leader of the apostles as well as scenes highlighting Mary’s (Roma Downey) closeness
to her son. The first wide-release movie in
nearly 50 years to focus on the Savior’s biography as a whole, this outgrowth of the
popular History cable channel miniseries
“The Bible” offers some solid catechesis and
an easy, though sometimes oddly truncated,
introduction to the Lord’s ministry, teaching,
death and resurrection. As such, it’s probably acceptable for older teens, despite an unflinching treatment of the Redeemer’s sufferings. Strong gory violence. A-III; PG-13
3 Days to Kill
Relativity
Director McG offsets a great deal of action mayhem with pro-marriage, familyfriendly values in this story of a terminally
ill CIA agent (Kevin Costner) whose efforts
to reconcile with his estranged wife (Connie
Nielsen) and teen daughter (Hailee Steinfeld) are complicated when another operative (Amber Heard) lures him back into the
spy racket by offering him a potentially
life-saving experimental medicine as his
reward. Scenes of domestic life and the protagonist’s compassionate interaction with
the African immigrants who have occupied
his Paris apartment as squatters are interspersed with car chases, explosions, thirddegree interrogation sessions and assassinations in an odd mix of genres suitable
only for thick-skinned grownups. Considerable harsh violence with some gore, torture,
brief rear nudity, images of decadent sensuality, several instances of profanity, occasional rough and crude language. L; PG-13
Mr. Peabody & Sherman
Fox
The chronology-defying adventures of a
hyper-intellectual dog (voice of Ty Burrell)
– whose many accomplishments include
the invention of a time machine – and the
perky human son (voice of Max Charles) he
adopted as an infant turn perilous when
the lad takes an unauthorized trip to the
past in the company of a classmate (voice
of Ariel Winter) he’s anxious to impress.
Director Rob Minkoff’s 3-D updating of a
popular TV cartoon of the 1950s and ‘60s
adds a tiresome amount of potty humor to
the elaborate, sometimes groan-inducing
puns characteristic of the original material. But basic history lessons for the youngest moviegoers, together with a worthy
message about respecting people of different backgrounds – even if they do happen to be canines – endow this more than
usually literate children’s film with some
countervailing virtues. Scenes of mild peril, several scatological jokes and sight gags,
a single double entendre. A-I; PG
The Wind Rises
Touchstone
Master Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki takes to the skies in what has been
announced as his final animated film, a
fictionalized biography of the aeronautical
engineer Jiro Horikoshi (voice of Joseph
Gordon-Levitt) set against the turbulent
events of the years leading up to World War
II. In his dreams, Horikoshi visits his hero,
Italian airplane designer Giovanni Caproni
(voice of Stanley Tucci), who becomes the
inspiration for his life’s work. He’s also influenced by his bond with chance acquaintance-turned-love-interest Nahoko (voice of
Emily Blunt). Horikoshi isn’t torn between
pacifism and militarism; he just wants to
design the best and fastest aircraft in the
world, which he does. The film’s attempt to
put a human face on the rise of militarism in
1930s Japan may offend some viewers. Miyazaki prefers to honor creativity and technological achievements such as Horikoshi’s
“Zero” fighter airplane, rather than dwell on
the consequences: hundreds of thousands
of lives lost, including those of the victims at
Pearl Harbor. Historical themes requiring
mature interpretation, action sequences, a
few disturbing images. A-III; PG-13
March 21, 2014
ENTERTAINMENT
1
Unconditionally
Oh no, did I get too close?
Oh, did I almost see what’s really on the
inside?
All your insecurities
All the dirty laundry
Never made me blink one time
Know that you are unworthy
I’ll take your bad days with your good
Walk through this storm I would
I’d do it all because I love you, I love you
Refrain:
Unconditional, unconditionally
I will love you unconditionally
There is no fear now
Let go and just be free
I will love you unconditionally
So open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart and just let it begin
Open up your heart
Acceptance is the key to be
To be truly, truly free
Will you do the same for me?
Come just as you are to me
Don’t need apologies
Repeat refrain.
Repeat refrain.
Is it possible to love unconditionally? Yes, but ...
K
On The Record
Charlie Martin
out – one day at a time. Sometimes, loving another person is
easy, like the flow of a breeze
through a warm summer day.
Then there are times when love
meets the chilly winds of hurt,
disappointment, even uncertainty. That’s when she’ll discover
more about what it means to
keep such a promise.
She will bump into times
when she is selfish, lacks
compassion or has run out of
patience with her partner’s
behaviors. Then what? If she is
wise, she will look beyond the
urge to blame her partner for
what has happened and examine
her actions.
Her ability to love unconditionally starts with honesty. She
may not be able to keep her lofty
promises, but it doesn’t need
to defeat her intent. She can
challenge herself to grow, even
if at times it’s hard to manifest
unconditional love.
She also has no idea whether
her romantic partner is open
to receiving her love. What if
he’s disrespectful and devalues
her dignity? She might still be
able to love him, but if he is
not willing to acknowledge his
mistakes, the relationship will
not last.
Loving someone does not
mean accepting bad behavior. Love asks us to set clear
boundaries about what is and is
not respectful. If her partner’s
behaviors violate these boundaries, then her love, even unconditional love, will not be enough
to keep the relationship going.
Her goal, even if naively set,
is admirable. Her most important step would be to ask the one
who truly does love her unconditionally to help. God accepts
each one of us as we are and
never removes his love because
of our actions.
We can only love because of
God’s love. When our foundation is based on our belief that
we are loved by God, then we
might be surprised just how
much we can love others.
Is it really possible to love
unconditionally? Yes, but only
by immersing oneself in the
unconditional love of God.
MARTIN is an Indiana pastoral
counselor who reviews current music for Catholic News
Service. Write chmartin@
hughes.net or 7125 West CR 200
South, Rockport, IN 47635, or
like this column on Facebook at
“Charlie Martin’s Today’s Music
Columns” and leave a comment
or suggestion.
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Sung by Katy Perry | Copyright © 2013 by Capitol Records
aty Perry’s latest single,
“Unconditionally,” is off
her recent “Prism” album.
Perry says the song was inspired
by her 2013 work for UNICEF in
the nation of Madagascar. Perry
talks about her travels deep into
the mountains of the country
to meet with school children.
She was taken with “all these
children and the love that they
had toward each other.”
She notes that “it was unconditional love between all of them
... that kind of pure love that is
unaffected by the trends of the
world.”
In the song, the character
speaks to her romantic interest
and asks, “did I get too close ...
did I almost see what’s really on
the inside?”
Even if she did see more than
he wanted, she affirms that recognizing who he really is “never
made me blink one time.” She
welcomes him into a relationship where “I’ll take your bad
days with your good.” She tells
him, “I will love you unconditionally.”
This is quite a promise. Most
of us enter into a relationship
with needs, problems, hopes
and expectations that may or
may not be met. However, she
believes that if he will “open up
your heart, and just let it begin,”
with “acceptance,” then true,
unconditional love will flow.
This goal is demanding.
Can she follow through? Can
she keep this promise after the
initial emotions of new love have
faded and doubt has crept in?
There is only one way to find
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ACROSS
1 Catholics Ted Kennedy and
Alec Guinness
5 Sister of Judah
10 Lenten foliage
14 Second woman mentioned
by name in the Bible (Gen
4:19)
15 Terse bridge bid
16Scent
17 The soldiers put a scarlet
one on Jesus (Mt 27:28)
18 Currency units
19 Leaf of a book
20 “Great” teacher of Aquinas
22Prestigious
24 Patron saint of farmers
26 Yang’s compliment
27 Word bk.
29 “___ Fideles”
34 “It was ___ joke.”
38 Launch grp.
40 The Lord, in Madrid (with”El”)
41 Agape ___
42 Take off the board
44Infatuated
45 Vatican news service
47 Cart for heavy loads
48 Vacation sites
49Rash
51 Jolly Roger hand
53 Science rm.
55 Pertaining to fire
60Strangle
65 Moses, for one
66 Genesis weather
67 One of the prophets
69Landed
70 “___ Kleine Nacht Musik”
71 Abraham was probably glad
to see this in the desert
72 Sandwich shop
73 Part of BPOE
74 British guns
75 The Garden
DOWN
1 Wife of Abram
2 Paul was upset because
68
69
www.wordgamesforcatholics.com
of the number of these in
Athens (Acts 17:16)
3 Title for Jesus
4 One of two names in a
Catholic book publishing
company
5Tenet
6 Serpent’s tail?
7 Hawaiian goose
8Restless
9 “O Salutaris ___”
10 Leader of the Church
11 He was an original
12Booth
13 TV horse, of course
21 “…thy ___ and thy staff, they
comfort me.” (Ps 23:4)
23 “…to the ___ of the earth.”
(Acts 1:8)
25americangreetings.com
product
28 Former Russian rulers
30 Head shots, briefly?
31Crack
32 Garment of ancient Rome
33 Gaslight and Good Feeling
34 Radio bands (abbr.)
35 Princess from Alderaan
36 1949 Gatsby portrayer
37 Knighted Catholic actor
39 “Same here”
43Monocle
46 “You are the ___ of the
earth” (Mt 5:13)
50Pity
52 Vane reading
54 Puff up
56Elude
57Greased
58 Beneficial
59 Start to have an effect
60 Plant in the story of the fall
61 “___ Mary”
62 Skating arena
63Singles
64 Being (Lt.)
68 Aachen article
Solution on page 18
18
VIEWPOINT
The human struggle with sexual energy
| EDITORIAL
T
All demeaning slurs should be
eliminated from society’s language
he demeaning effect of the apparent widespread use of racial
slurs has long been ignored in a
society that tolerates such vile language with a collective shrug, or worse
yet, a coy smile.
Oddly, it has taken an incident inside the hallowed halls of a professional
football locker room, long considered
an incubator of political incorrectness,
to expose the toll inflicted on the victim.
Former Miami Dolphins offensive
lineman Jonathan Martin left the team
during this past season because of what
he claims was a constant barrage of
racial slurs and other demeaning language from fellow lineman Richie Incognito.
As details emerged, many were justifiably enraged, although, amazingly,
some were supportive of the abhorrent
behavior of Incognito, chalking it up to
the testosterone-driven atmosphere of
an NFL locker room.
Because of the incident, league officials are now considering a policy
where players would be penalized for
using a racial slur on the field of play.
While the NFL, and others who have
spoken out against such racial bigotry
are to be applauded, the unanswered
question is why stop there. To be sure,
racial slurs are dehumanizing, but are
they any more degrading than gay
slurs, or mean-spirited remarks targeted at one’s religion or heritage?
Unfortunately some of these types
of comments have seemingly become
an accepted component of the colloquialism of our language, such as using
a nationality as a verb to describe an
event or transaction. This is detestable.
Words are the tools by which we
communicate, their beauty evident
when used for praise, unsightly when
launched as verbal sorties aimed at a
race, gender, religion or special interest
group.
Slurs of any type are harmful and
display a lack of dignity that every human being deserves. This type of language should never be tolerated, not in
a society where acceptance and respect
for our cultural differences should be
one of its pillars.
| LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Death penalty defended
It was interesting to read in the Feb. 21 issue of The Catholic Commentator the
report on surveys noting that the teaching of the church is not fully taught. How
ironic then that the editorial from the same issue calls the death penalty “society’s
scourge” for “vengeance minded individuals” that is “equally nefarious as abortion.”
But is this so? The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes “From the first century the church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion.” This is because abortion is in all circumstances an intrinsic evil – something that can never
be done for any reason.
Is this so with the death penalty? Again, from the Catechism:
“… the traditional teaching of the church does not exclude recourse to the death
penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against
the unjust aggressor.” (2306)
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety
from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means …”
So, while the church teaches that non-lethal means should be pursued, nonetheless, if the defense of the common good calls for it, a person may be put to death.
Thus, the death penalty is not an intrinsic evil as is abortion. In no way is it “equally
nefarious.” Also, as a prudential judgment, one called to order the public good may
decide to permit the execution of an individual not out of vengeance, but to defend
the common good. I quote Cardinal Ratzinger who wrote:
“Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia …
While the church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise
discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about
waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”
It is unfortunate that The Catholic Commentator does not present this nuanced
teaching of the church in its fullest.
Steven Felix MD
Prairieville
March 21, 2014
T
he church has always struggled with
sex but so has everyone else. There
aren’t any cultures, religious or
secular, pre-modern or modern, post-modern or post-religious, that exhibit a truly
healthy sexual ethos. Every
church and every culture
struggles with integrating
sexual energy, if not in its
creed about sex, at least in
the living out of that creed.
Secular culture looks at
the church and accuses it
of being uptight and antierotic. Partly this is true,
but the church might well
protest that much of its
sexual reticence is rooted in
the fact that it is one of the
few voices still remaining
who are challenging anyone
towards sexual responsibility. As well, the church
might also challenge any
culture that claims to have found the key to
healthy sexuality to step forward and show
the evidence. No culture will take up that
claim. Everyone is struggling.
Part of that struggle is the seeming innate incompatibility between what Charles
Taylor calls “sexual fulfillment and piety,”
between “squaring our highest aspirations
with an integral respect for the full range
of human fulfillments.”
Commenting on this in his book, “A
Secular Age,” Taylor suggests that there is
a real tension in trying to combine sexual
fulfillment with piety and that this reflects
a more general tension between human
flourishing in general and dedication to
God. He adds: “That this tension should be
particularly evident in the sexual domain
is readily understandable. Intense and profound sexual fulfillment focuses us powerfully on the exchange within the couple; it
strongly attaches us possessively to what
is privately shared. ... It is not for nothing that the early monks and hermits saw
sexual renunciation as opening the way to
the wider love of God. ... Now that there
is a tension between fulfillment and piety
should not surprise us in a world distorted
by sin ... but we have to avoid turning this
into a constitutive incompatibility.”
How can we avoid doing that? How can
we avoid somehow pitting sexual fulfillment against holiness? How can we be
robustly sexual and fully spiritual at one
and the same time?
In a soon-to-be-released book, “The
Road is How, A Prairie Pilgrimage through
Nature, Desire and Soul,” Trevor Herriot suggests that human fulfillment and
dedication to God, sex and holiness, can
be brought together in a way that properly respects both of them. How? Without
using the word that is at once so-honored
and so maligned, he presents us with an
image of what chastity means at its true
root. Much like Annie Dillard in her book,
“Holy the Firm,” Herriot draws a certain
concept of chastity out of the rhythms of
nature and then presents those rhythms as
the paradigm of how we should be relating to nature and to each other. And, for
Herriot, those rhythms cast a particularly
enlightening beam on how we
should be relating sexually.
His words:
“These days, we watch
truckloads of grain pass by
and sense that something in
us and in the Earth is harmed
when food is grown and
consumed with little intimacy,
care and respect. The local
and slow food movements are
showing us that the way we
grow, distribute, prepare and
eat food is important for the
health of our body-to-Earth
exchanges. The next step may
be to realize that the energy
that brings pollen to ovary and
grows the grain, once it enters
our bodies, also needs to be husbanded.
The way we respond to our desire to merge,
connect and be fruitful – stirrings felt so
deeply, but often so shallowly expressed –
determines the quality of our body-to-body
exchanges. ...”
In a world bathed in industrial and
impersonal sex, where real connection and
tenderness are rare, will we sense also that
something in us and in the Earth is being
harmed from the same absence of intimacy, care and respect? Will we learn that
any given expression of our erotic energies
either connects us to or divides us from
the world around our souls and us? We are
discovering that we must steward the energies captured by nature in the hydrocarbons or in living plants and animals, and
thereby improve the ways we receive the
fruits of the Earth, but we struggle to see
the primary responsibility we bear for the
small but cumulatively significant explosions of energy we access and transmit as
we respond to our own longings to connect, merge and be fruitful. Learning how
to steward the way we bear fruit ourselves
as spiritual/sexual beings with a full set of
animal desires and angelic ambitions may
be more important to the human journey
than we fully understand.” Chastity, as imagined by Charles Taylor,
Annie Dillard and Trevor Herriot, has
always been the one thing that properly
protects sex, the white dress adorning the
bride, the means of squaring our highest
aspirations with an integral respect for the
full range of human fulfillments, and, not
least, the trusted guideline for how we can
access and transmit our sexual energy with
intimacy, care and respect.
In Exile
Father Ron Rolheiser
FATHER ROLHEISER, theologian, teacher and
award-winning author, is president of the
Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio,
Texas. He can be contacted through his
website ronrolheiser.com. Now on Facebook facebook.com/ronrolheiser.
March 21, 2014
I
VIEWPOINT
I
19
Spirit-filled evangelizers
n the final chapter of his papal exhortation, “The
Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis returns to a theme
he stressed in one of his first public interviews.
Asked if the Catholic Church needed to change, he answered yes, in some ways it did, and the first and most
important change was a change in “attitude.”
This is particularly true, he claims, with regard to the
call made in this exhortation for all Catholics to become
evangelizers. He says that “Jesus wants evangelizers
who proclaim the good news not only with words, but
above all by a life transfigured by God’s presence ... How
I long to find the right words to stir up enthusiasm for a
new chapter of evangelization full of fervor, joy, generosity, courage, boundless love and attraction! Yet I realize
that no words of encouragement will be enough unless
the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts.”
Pope Francis wants “spirit-filled evangelizers,” and defines these as persons who “pray and work.” He is pleased
by an increase of faithful who are devoted to prayer, the
reading of Scripture and adoration of the Eucharist, but
prayer cannot become an excuse for not offering one’s life
to others in mission. It was always a challenge to proclaim
the Gospel in a world of self-absorption, complacency and
selfishness. “Let us not say, then, that things are harder
today; they are simply different.”
According to Pope Francis, the primary reason for
evangelizing is the love that we have received from Jesus,
the love that has made a difference in our lives, healed us,
and impelled us to share it. This is what he calls salvation.
It makes sense when we think of the love we received from
our parents and want to pass on to our children. Or what
girl, having received an engagement ring, doesn’t want to
show it to everyone and tell them about the wonderful guy
who asked her to be his wife? Pope Francis asks us, concerning Jesus, “What kind of love would not feel the need
to speak of the beloved, to point him out, to make him
known?” That is what evangelization is. It is a case of being
given “a treasure that makes us more human and helps us
to lead a new life. There is nothing more precious which we
can give to others.”
However, living in a pluralistic society like we do, and
s it any wonder Monday is the most
detested day of the week?
After two days of blissful slumber,
relaxation and perhaps even libation,
the alarm screams in the wee hours of
Monday, announcing a full week of work
ahead. Ever notice the alarm always
sounds more piercing on Mondays, than
say, perhaps Fridays?
And why is it that some of the week’s
most troublesome work-related problems usually occur on Monday morning?
Shouldn’t there be some type of grace
period on a Monday, with any crisis
automatically deferred until after lunch,
or better yet, Tuesday?
Not long ago as I was struggling with
one of those challenging mornings a
co-worker bounced into my office, her
cheery disposition intruding on grumpiness, and asked if I would like to go pray
the rosary, which happens every Monday
for employees of the Catholic Life Center.
I’m sure I shot her a look that made her
believe she had three heads.
knowing the complexity
of our 2,000-year-old
faith which every century
seems to add to its rules,
regulations and customs,
we see how non-Catholics
have a hard time understanding us and can have
some fairly weird ideas
about Catholicism. This
can make us hesitate to
share our faith. So Pope
Francis urges us to think
like a missionary and give
people just what they really need. Keep it simple.
“The missionary is convinced that, through the
Father John Carville working of the spirit, there
already exists in individuals and peoples and expectation, even if an unconscious
one, of knowing the truth about God, about man, and
about how we are to be set free from sin and death. The
missionary’s enthusiasm in proclaiming Christ comes
from the conviction that he is responding to that expectation … It is not the same thing to try to build the world
with his Gospel as to try to do so by our own lights. We
know well that with Jesus, life becomes richer, and that
with him it is easier to find meaning in everything. That is
why we evangelize.”
Evangelization must be joyous. Pope Francis is a great
inspirational speaker. “If I can help at least one person to
have a better life, that already justifies the offering of my
life ... We achieve fulfillment when we break down walls
and our heart is filled with faces and names!” He notes
that all around us are nurses, teachers, even politicians,
who have “soul.” They are people who “have chosen deep
down to be with others and for others.” Such an attitude
draws us to union with God. “Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God.”
Indeed, only the person who feels happiness in seeking
Another
Perspective
the good of others, in desiring their happiness, can be a
missionary.”
Unfortunately, some people will not commit themselves to the mission that Jesus has given to all of us. They
think that nothing will change; there is too much evil in
the world. They say, “Why should I deny myself my comforts and pleasures if I won’t see any significant result?”
Pope Francis calls this thinking “only a malicious excuse
for remaining caught up in comfort, laziness, vague dissatisfaction and empty selfishness. It is a self-destructive
attitude.” And such people have lost their greatest hope
and source of strength – faith in the resurrection of Jesus.
“However dark things are, goodness always re-emerges
and spreads ... beauty is born anew, it rises transformed
through the storms of history ... Such is the power of the
resurrection, and all who evangelize are instruments of
that power.”
I found the most powerful part of Pope Francis’ exhortation to be toward the end where he describes how God
uses our weak human efforts to spread Jesus’ Gospel.
“Because we do not always see these seeds growing, we
need an interior certainty, a conviction that God is able to
act in every situation, even amid apparent setbacks: “We
have this treasure in earthen vessels” (2 Cor 4:7) … We
can know quite well that our lives will be fruitful, without
claiming to know how, or where, or when. No single act of
love for God will be lost, no generous effort is meaningless, no painful endurance is wasted. All of these encircle
our world like a vital force ... The Holy Spirit works as he
wills, when he wills and where he wills ... let us give him
everything, allowing him to make our efforts bear fruit in
his good time.
Pope Francis closes by describing Mary the “mother of
evangelization,” and the perfect example of what God can
do through one lowly person who accepts completely the
mission he gives her.
FATHER CARVILLE is a retired priest of the Diocese of Baton
Rouge. He writes on current topics for The Catholic Commentator and can be reached at johnnycarville@gmail.
com.
Gaining an appreciation of the rosary
For many, myself
included, the rosary
remains one of the great
mysteries of our faith.
During my formative
years at St. Leo the Great
School in New Orleans
we prayed the rosary
everyday after luncheon
recess. This was long
before schools were airconditioned so praying
the rosary in the heat
of a classroom after an
hour of playtime ... well
let’s say it had the trappings for a much-needed
nap.
So, when my co-worker asked about praying
the rosary, I made a
few lame excuses about being too busy,
having to catch up after the weekend, it
was too cold to walk outside, etc. But she
was undeterred, and continued to press
her point about how the
rosary would help me get
through what was shaping up to be a stressful
day. With apprehension,
laced with anticipation, I
agreed.
As we began to pray
my mind wandered,
eventually returning to
what needed to be done
at the paper. But as we
progressed, something
remarkable happened.
My focus began to
shift from my desk to the
Blessed Virgin Mother.
Each Hail Mary seemed to
be directed at Mary, each
Our Father God’s way of
saying pay attention, much
the same way the nuns did so many years
ago in a steamy classroom.
With each decade my heart seemed to
lighten, my stress level slowly dissipat-
Wandering
Catholic
Richard Meek
ing. Only later did I realize it was God’s
way of relieving me of my own burden
so that the stress could be replaced with
love, work with faith.
Surprisingly, the rosary ended much
quicker than I anticipated. As we were
walking back to the office I told my coworker how amazed I was at the sense
of peace and calmness I felt. She smiled
knowingly, aware of the source of that
peace.
Since then I have made a concerted
effort to pray the rosary each Monday
and have even on occasion done so
while exercising (for one as Jurassic as
I exercise means walking through the
neighborhood while receiving stares of
sympathy, or is it pity, from the younger
generation.) Little did I realize that one
of God’s greatest gifts was contained in
such a simple setting.
MEEK is the editor and general manager
of The Catholic Commentator. He can be
reached at [email protected].
20
COMING EVENTS
Jazz Brunch – The Baton Rouge Chapter of the Xavier
University Alumni Association will hold its annual scholarship jazz brunch and silent auction on Sunday, March
30, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., at Le Bon Temps Bar and Grill, 8342
Perkins Road, Baton Rouge. Tickets are $50 each and can
be purchased by calling 225-939-7346 or by emailing
[email protected].
Retrouvaille Weekend – Retrouvaille is designed to help
couples with troubled marriages. It is a specialized couple
peer ministry with six follow-up sessions. The next weekend is Friday, April 11 – Sunday, April 13. Registration is
March 21, 2014
$150. No couple is denied because of financial difficulties.
For information, call 225-261-1901 or visit retrouvaille.
org.
Last Supper Dramatization – Our Lady of Pompeii
Church, 14450 La. Hwy. 442, Tickfaw, will present a dramatization based on the painting of Leonardo da Vinci’s
the Last Supper on Palm Sunday, April 13, 7 p.m. For information, call 985-345-8957.
Charismatic Renewal Day – The Catholic Charismatic Renewal Office of the Diocese of Baton Rouge will sponsor a
Charismatic Renewal Day, “As By A New Pentecost,” Saturday, April 5, 9 a.m.– 3 p.m., at the Our Lady of Mercy
Parish Activity Center, 444 Marquette Ave., Baton Rouge.
Bring a bag lunch. For information, call 226-766-3873 or
225-346-8873.
Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites – Meetings of the
Secular Order of Discalced Carmelites are held monthly
at the Our Lady of Mercy Parish Activity Center, St. Gabriel Room, 444 Marquette Ave., Baton Rouge, at 1:30
p.m. The next meeting will be Sunday, April 13. For information, call 225-926-6962 or email [email protected].
PO Box 3316
Baton Rouge LA 70821-3316
For help placing your classified ad,
call 225-387-0983. All classified ads are
prepaid. Credit cards are not accepted.
Announcements
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Estimated Fee…11 days/$3924
Includes…air, hotel, some meals, & tours
Contact: Donna Kirkland
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 225-803-6013
For additional details go to:
www.donnakirkland.com
While we at The Catholic Commentator do our best to bring reliable advertisers to our readers, we are not
responsible for any claims made by
any advertiser.
Flower beds, landscaping, general
yard work, debris removal; commercial;
residential; quality work, licensed, free
estimates, references. 225-247-6079.
THOMAS LUNDIN, CPA
Accounting and taxes for businesses,
non-profits and individuals; business,
computer, financial and management
services. 30 years experience; professional, prompt and personal attention.
225-296-0404.
For Sale
Hillcrest Cemetery, Groom Road, Baker,
La. 2 or 4 spaces at $1000 each. Phone
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Church Fundraiser
Best Jean Prices on Earth
“Levi,” “Carharh,” Wrangler”
Tom Waters, Baton Rouge
1-800-460-6827
8-6pm, Mon.–Fri.
FRC available. Welders welcome
Business Service
Baton Rouge Care Service. Serving Baton Rouge and surrounding areas since
1960. Registered sitters, nurses, and
nurses aides for the sick and elderly in
the home, nursing homes and hospitals.
Licensed and bonded for private duty
care. 225-924-6098 or 225-667-0480.
www.batonrougesittersregistry.com.
INCOME TAX PREPARATION
Located in St. Francisville. Over 30 years
exp. Professional service, reasonable
pricing. By appointment. Get the refund
you deserve. 225-635-6634 or 225-9369725. cmworkablesolutions@hotmail.
com. Visit www.workablesolutions.biz.
LEBLANC’S TREE & STUMP
REMOVAL, INC.
Prompt service–Free estimates
FULLY INSURED
E. H. “Eddie” LeBlanc
Phone 383-7316
Anthony's Furniture Specialties. We
restore hurricane damaged furniture.
If it's furniture we do it all! Refinishing,
re-upholstery, pick up and delivery, etc.
2263 Florida Blvd., BR. 225-413-2607.
Kitchen counter tops. Call for free estimates. John O'Neill 225-938-6141 or
225-683-6837.
Donnie’s Furniture Repair & Upholstery. We do refinishing, repairs, caning,
painting of furniture and upholstery.
In business 43 yrs. Pick up and delivery.
10876 Greenwell Springs Rd. 225-2722577. See our showroom.
Dulaney Decks, Fences & Porches
Household Repairs
Carports Enclosed
Professional Work with
Reasonable Rates. . .
225-276-2985
Portfolio Available
Pennington Lawn and Landscape
225-806-0008
Lawn & bed maintenance. Clean-up neg
lect. Call for your free estimate.
BROUSSEAU'S Painting
Interior and exterior painting. Experienced and reliable. Free estimates. Call
225-241-8488 or 225-928-7194.
Mr. D’s Tree Service
3 Licensed Arborists
Free Estimates
Fully Insured
Don Decell & Carl Babin, owners
225-292-6756
Dave’s Bicycle Repair and Sales. Free
pickup and delivery, free estimates, expert economical repair on all brands.
225-924-4337 or www.davesbicyclerepair.
com.
St. Joseph is the Patron Saint of a
Peaceful Death. St. Joseph Hospice is
available to support families as they face
end-of-life decisions. Peace, comfort,
dignity and support can make every day
"a good day." Call 225-368-3100 for more
information.
Help Wanted
Help Wanted
Part-time caregiver for elderly woman
in Prairieville. Cleaning of her room and
bathroom, occasional cooking. Refrences
required. Email: caregiver9988@yahoo.
com.
In sales employment advertisements,
the advertiser must name the product or service to be sold. Ads must
state how wages will be paid (salary,
commissions, etc.) if money is mentioned. The ad must also state if there
is an investment required.
Diocese of Alexandria • Catholic Schools Office
Principal Opening
2014-2015 School Year • St. Mary’s Catholic School, Natchitoches, Louisiana
St. Mary’s Catholic School seeks an enthusiastic, dedicated and qualified principal to minister in
leadership for a school community of more than 400 students in Grades Pre-K – 12. The successful
candidate must be committed to balancing the strong traditions of the 124 year history as a parish
school with embracing new and creative opportunities to lead the faculty, students, and parent
community to deeper spiritual, academic and social excellence. Ability to collaborate with pastor,
parish staff, assistant principal, faculty, and parent body is essential.
Applicants must meet the following criteria:
• Practicing Catholic
• Masters Degree, Preference of Degree in Education
• Minimum of 5 years experience in Education
• Preference of Catholic Education
• Credentials meeting Non-Public School
• Certification for State of Louisiana
• Demonstrated Leadership Ability in Education
• Availability on or before July 1, 2014
Interested applicants may call Vanessa Pichon at (318) 445-6424, ext. 227 for an application packet.
Catholic Schools Office, P.O. Box 7417, Alexandria, LA 71306
Deadline for Application Packet: March 28, 2014
The schools of the Diocese of Alexandria admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all
rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at its schools. They
do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of educational policies,
admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school administered programs.
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Mail to: The Catholic Commentator, P.O. Box 3316, Baton Rouge, LA 70821-3316
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www.wordgamesforcatholics.com
March 21, 2014
ALTAR: ‘Everything has a meaning’
FROM PAGE 1
Italy to America in 1900 and put
up a St. Joseph Altar in his home
in Plaquemine Point. “I didn’t
know it was in my roots until I
started talking to people. They
said he put up an altar every
year until he passed away in the
1940s.”
Dimaio said before the Grand-
sons of Italy was founded, St.
Joseph Altars were primarily in
private homes, estimating there
were 15 to 20 set up in area
homes. “But as the older generation began to pass away, so did
the altars.”
“Thirty-six years ago there
were no altars in Baton Rouge,
so we decided to start the Grand-
Classifieds
Help Wanted
Help Wanted
S
St. George Catholic
School
Teaching Positions Available
St. George Catholic Elementary School
seeks full-time teachers for the
2014-2015 school year




5th Grade Math/Science
Lower Elementary
Middle School ELA
Spanish Part-time
E-mail Resume' to:
Cheri Gioe, Asst. Principal
[email protected]
St. Michael the archangel high School
CAMPUS MINISTER
21
sons of Italy to continue the tradition. The first altar was set up
at St. George (Church in Baton
Rouge), and by the second year
we fed 5,000 people. I still don’t
know how we did it,” he said.
Interest in the altars was rekindled and now there are many
around the diocese.
Every weekend since Feb. 9,
the organization members have
gathered at the Exchequer Restaurant off Industriplex Boulevard to cook. Restaurant owner
Quentin Cappo said he offered
his restaurant because he is Ital- Donald Salpietra, left and his twin brother Ronald, right, along with
ian and the group has supported Tommy Mackey, center, prepare the pignolattis for frying. Mackey
his business. “Plus I like eating said he was an Irishmen who married into an Italian family. Photo by
the cookies,” he said.
Barbara Chenevert | The Catholic Commentator
On March 8 and 9, the week
before the altar was constructed,
“Everything has a meaning Catholic High School.
workers rolled, cut, fried and to St. Joseph, the Holy Family or
Eddie Dimaio is the “decoracoated with sugar pignolattis that Sicily at the time the tradition be- tor” for the group and arranged
were then shaped
gan,” she said.
the food on the altar “with help
in the form of a
Anthony Mus- from a lot of people,” she said.
pine cone, someso said the altar “St. Joseph is my favorite saint. It
thing Jesus would
uses at least 200 seems right” to do this, she said,
have played with
pounds of granu- adding she has learned patience
as a child, Carolated sugar, 70 and understanding as she works
lyn Musso said.
pounds of pow- with other people on the altar.
Carolyn Musso
ered sugar, $800
Then there is the actual celalso prepared the
worth of special- ebration which took place March
modica,
bread
ly baked St. Jo- 15 and 16. On Saturday, the group
crumbs that are
seph bread, thou- led a procession carrying a statue
baked with sugar
sands of boiled of St. Joseph to the church for
until brown and
eggs in addition the 4 p.m Mass. After Mass, the
then sprinkled
to scores of oth- altar was blessed, and vino and
over spaghetti.
Carolyn Musso
er ingredients, cookies were served to all who atGrandsons of Italy auxiliary member
The modica repmany donated by tended.
resents saw dust
area businesses.
On Sunday, the Holy Family,
that would have been generated The food is all meatless.
played by a member of the grandby St. Joseph the carpenter. She
And cooking is only part of the sons and two young people choalso made a rosary for the altar altar preparation. Thursday eve- sen by the group, were served in
from sesame seed cookie dough ning the group began setting up the traditional “Holy Family Tabas a sign of her devotion to Mary the aluminum framing for the al- leau.” Afterward, an Italian feast
and St. Joseph.
tar with the help of students from was served to the public.
“Everything has
a meaning to St.
Joseph, the Holy
Family or Sicily
at the time the
tradition began.”
www.smhsbr.org
2014-2015 SCHOOL YEAR
The successful candidate should be:
• A practicing, passionate Catholic
with a Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree in
Theology
• Experienced in working with high
school youth
• A strong communicator, a leader,
a collaborative worker, and highly
organized.
This job entails organizing, planning and executing
retreats and liturgical events, teaching a Christian
leadership class, and organizing and participating in some
evening and weekend Campus Ministry events. Previous
experience in Catholic education is a plus. The candidate
should exemplify the mission of St. Michael and be willing
to guide students in seeking the truth, living the faith, and
serving like Christ.
Please send cover letter and resume to:
Aimee Wiles, Assistant Principal
[email protected]
17521 Monitor Avenue
The Grandsons of Italy’s St. Joseph Altar was on display March 15 and 16 at Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in
Baton Rouge. The grandsons organization and its auxiliary spend the six weekends prior to St. Joseph’s
feast day preparing the altar.
22
March 21, 2014
Chef John Folse, cathedral volunteers to be honored at Bishop’s Day celebration
Chef John Folse – local restaurateur, author, television personality and noted ambassador for
Louisiana and its culture – and
several parishioners of St. Joseph
Cathedral will be honored at the
24th Annual Bishop’s Day cel-
ebration on Sunday, March 23.
The day will begin with a
special 10 a.m. Mass celebrated
by Bishop Robert W. Muench,
followed by a luncheon at Boudreaux’s
honoring
Bishop
Muench, Folse and several St.
Joseph Church volunteers. The
luncheon is scheduled from 11:30
a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
Receiving the St. Joseph’s Apprentice Award are parishioners
Mary Furlow; Todd and Hope
Gaudin and their children Barn-
abas, Bridget, Paige and Ethan;
Gabe and Judy Jumonville; and
Robert René. These awards recognize the honorees’ invaluable
contributions to the worship and
service ministries of the church.
Folse will receive the St. Jo-
ST. MICHAEL HIGH SCHOOL
Summer CampS
seph Cathedral Community
Award in honor of his eager and
active involvement in and support of many church activities
and events throughout the Diocese of Baton Rouge. Folse was
an integral part of the cathedral
parish’s bicentennial celebration
in September 1992. when he prepared dinner for approximately
2,000 guests at the new Riverside
Centroplex (now the Baton Rouge
River Center).
Folse provided the meal,
focusing on cuisine from the
church parish’s three centuries of
history.
Luncheon reservations are
$50 per ticket. Reservations are
required in advance and tickets
must be purchased before March
18.
For more information or to
purchase tickets, contact the parish office, 225-387-5928 or [email protected].
The Parish Development
Group of the Cathedral of St. Joseph is the event producer.
Everyone is invited to the festivities.
St. Paul
sponsoring 5K
walk/run
BOYS BASKETBALL
June 2 - 6 9am - 3pm
Grades 7 - 9 $150
June 16 - 20 9am - 3pm
Grades 4 - 6 $150
June 23 - June 27 9am - 12pm
Grades K - 3 $125
DEVELOPMENTAL SUMMER LEAGUE
June 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19, 24, 26
Grades 7 - 9 $150
GIRLS BASKETBALL
May 27 - May 30 9am – 12pm
Grades 5 - 9 $115
CO-ED SOCCER
June 9 - 13 9am - 11am
Grades 6 - 12 $100
BASEBALL
June 30 - July 3 9am - 12pm
Grades 3 - 9 $100
BAND CAMP
June 9 - 12 9am - 12pm
Grades 5 - 8 $90
PERCUSSION CAMP
June 9 - 12 12:30pm - 2:30pm
Grades 5 - 8 $90
11am - 11:30am
Grades 5 - 8 $100
FOOTBALL
July 14 - 17 9am - 12pm
Grades 4 - 8 $100
VOLLEYBALL
June 9 - 13 8am - 11am
Grades 4 - 6 $115
June 9 - 13 12pm - 3pm
Grades 7 - 8 $115
ATHLETE WEIGHTLIFTING
INCOMING FRESHMEN FOOTBALL
June 2 M, T, Th 10am - 11:30am
INCOMING FRESHMEN BASKETBALL
May 27 T, Th 3pm - 4:30pm
MIDDLE SCHOOL WEIGHTLIFTING
June 2 - July 11
M, T, Th 11am - 11:30am
Grades 5 - 8 $125
For more information and to sign up: www.smhsbr.org; [email protected]
17521 Monitor Avenue | Baton Rouge, LA 70817 | 225-753-9782 |
www.smhsbr.org
St. Paul Catholic Church and
the St. Paul Adult Learning Center are sponsoring a 5K walk/
run for literacy awareness Saturday, March 22 on the grounds
of the church at 3912 Gus Young
Ave., Baton Rouge. Registration
opens at 7 a.m., with an 8 a.m.
race time scheduled. Awards,
refreshments and community
awareness activities will follow.
Organizers said this is the
first 5K walk/run to be held
in the Eden Park community,
which has the highest rate of illiteracy in Baton Rouge.
The learning center is celebrating 30 years of providing
education to more than 5,000
students, many of whom have
received GEDs and are employed
in various industries and leading successful lives through the
dedicated mission of its founders, the late Sister Kathleen Bahlinger CSJ and Sister Lory Scaff
CSJ.
Pre-registration is $35 or $40
the day of the event. Register at
www.race4literacy.com
March 21, 2014
Test of
excellence
RITE OF ELECTION – About 650 catechumens and candidates in the
Diocese of Baton Rouge attended the Rite of Election at Sacred Heart
Church in Baton Rouge on the first Sunday of Lent. The “elect” are
received by Bishop Robert W. Muench and now enter their final
preparation period for the sacraments of initiation at the Easter Vigil.
Photo by Morgan Kelley | The Catholic Commentator
The regional level of the non-public school Student of the Year competition was held recently
at the Catholic Life Center in Baton Rouge. Each of the seven dioceses in the state of Louisiana
sent their winners to compete against other local winners. The competition is open to grades
fifth, eighth and 12th. The judges selected a winner for each of the three grade levels, who will
then enter the state competition. Students are evaluated based on portfolio, grades, writing
sample and an interview. Photos by Richard Meek | The Catholic Commentator
23
24
March 21, 2014
Knights of Peter Claver play valuable role in the life of the church
The Knights of Peter Claver
(KPC) and the Ladies Auxiliary
of Wilfred B. Ricard Council #116
have historically recognized the
need to nurture the youth of the
church in the Catholic faith and
Christian ideals of righteousness.
KPC members are dedicated
to planning, promoting, sponsoring, and executing commendable
works of Catholic action wherever
and whenever possible and pro-
viding good example in deportment, word and deed, especially
to the youth.
Council #116 provides supervision of Junior Knight and Junior
Daughter branches, which consist
of youth from 7 to 18 years of age.
The Junior Knights and Daughters fill positions in the church,
commensurate with their age,
e.g., altar servers, youth choir and
participants in church activities.
Friday LENTEN Shrimp Specials!
Shrimp Spaghetti and Italian-Style Marinated Shrimp Poboys
Plan any
special
occasion with
our delicious
sandwich
platters:
muffolettas;
mini
muffolettas;
roast beef
w/provolone;
turkey w/Swiss!
Anthony’s ItAlIAn DelI
10248 Florida Blvd.
Mon. - Sat. 9:30 - 6
Baton Rouge’s only
TRUE ITALIAN Deli Since 1978
225-272-6817
Phone orders welcome
They are encouraged to attend
and participate in the Annual
Junior Branch State Conference
and the Annual Junior Branch
National Convention. During the
summer, the KPC Louisiana State
Conference conducts a state conference Expansion Picnic for junior branches.
The average number of active
members in the Junior Knight
Branch Council #116 is 19 and the
KPC are responsible for guiding
them on the Catholic faith journey to full participation in the
Catholic Church.
During the Christmas holidays
in 2013 and again this past January, the junior knight commander
and assistant commanders of the
chapter took the junior knights
out for a bowling night.
In April, a team of three junior
knights and three junior daughters from the chapter won first
place in the Quiz Bowl during the
Junior Branch State Conference.
Then at the Junior Branch National Convention, in Indianapolis, Ind. the teams won second
place at the National Quiz Bowl.
Grand Knight Reginald Berry, right, presents a donation to the youth
ministry of Immaculate Conception Church in Baton Rouge to pastor
Father Thomas Clark SJ. Submitted photo by Knights of Peter Claver
The KPC and the Ladies Auxiliary assume responsible roles
in all church ministries and activities. Members of the KPC and
Ladies Auxiliary serve as religion teachers for the parish religious office, chaperones for youth
nights and teachers for Vacation
Bible School.
The knights are committed to
supporting youth programs and
will occasionally sponsor a youth
night by providing food and refreshment. Council #116 donates
funds to purchase back-to-school
supplies for the needy, Christmas
gifts for children of incarcerated
mothers, supports the program of
the junior knights, donates funds
to support St. Francis Xavier Elementary School, gives two college scholarships annually and
supports the youth ministries of
the church.
2 Ways You Can Help the Needy this Lenten Season!
Bishop Robert Muench and Chef John Folse
Want to Serve You and Your Family at the
2014 Count Your Blessings Supper
Friday, April 4, 2014 at 7:00 PM - Our Lady of Mercy Parish Activity Center
Bishop Robert Muench and Chef John Folse invite you to join us for our 19th annual Count Your Blessings
Supper as we break bread and pray together this Lenten season. This year’s supper is scheduled for 7:00
p.m. on Friday, April 4th, at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. John Pastorek has prepared a wonderful
program that will be informative and entertaining as always, but with a much shorter format.
With the need in our community continuing to grow, our Count Your Blessings Supper is more
important than ever. Your gift of $10.00 will make a real difference in someone’s life. Please join us for
this special Lenten tradition in our Diocese. Please see the order form below for information. We look
forward to seeing you there!
---------------------------------------------------------Clip and send in----------------------------------------------------Yes, I want to buy tickets (or make a donation) to the Count Your Blessings Supper. I would like __________ tickets at $10.00 per person.
I am enclosing a check for $_______.
Name: ____________________________________________
Make checks payable and mail to: Society of St. Vincent de Paul, P.O. Box 127,
Address:___________________________________________
Baton Rouge, LA 70821-0127. For more info, call us at (225) 383-7837.
City: ____________________State: _________Zip: _________
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You Can Save a Life Today!
Our St. Vincent de Paul Community Pharmacy needs your help! For more details on how you
can save someone’s life by filling a prescription, visit our website at www.svdpbr.org.

March 21 - The Catholic Commentator

Transcription

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