Formation:
Feeding the Spirit within
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Editor’s Note: Promoting the four pillars of Stewardship -- formation, prayer, service and hospitality -- prepares us for, and is part of, our Commitment Sunday, Nov. 23. In this article, as in the bishop’s column, we are focusing on the first pillar, “Formation.”
It’s called “Commitment Sunday,” but it could be called, “Bring a Smile to Jesus Sunday,” or “Christ and Co. Job Fair Sunday.”
One step which leads into, and is part of, Commitment Sunday, is “Formation,” allowing Christ to mold us like a piece of clay. As we near Nov. 23, Catholics across the diocese will be introduced to a variety of ways they can get involved in their parish. They will also be shown activities and programs designed to strengthen their faith and/or their knowledge of the Church. The first way:
Formation
With a little creativity, formation programs can build the faith life of adults and youth while not putting them to sleep.
“Theology on Tap,” for instance, is a gathering of young adults who meet at a local pub where they listen to a guest speaker, such as Father Wesley Schawe.
‘Between Heaven and Mirth...’
looks at the importance of
humor in spirituality
“Between Heaven and Mirth: Why Joy, Humor and Laughter Are at the Heart of the Spiritual Life” by James Martin, S.J. HarperOne (San Francisco, 2011). 247 pp., $25.99.
Nov. 13, 2011
Reviewed by BRIAN WELTER
Catholic News Service
“Between Heaven and Mirth” uses biblical passages, personal anecdotes and saints’ stories to show the importance of humor to the spiritual life. The book shows the psychological side to belief, and humor’s role in healthy spirituality. It is an easy read that moves quickly along.
Jesuit Father James Martin discusses joy, and its relationship to humor. He highlights Pope John XXIII, who was famous for his lighter side, especially aimed at himself: “’Dear Pope,’ wrote Bruno (an 11-year-old boy), ‘I am undecided. I don’t know if I want to be a policeman or a pope. What do you think?’
'Life’ and the voting booth
Kansas bishops produce videos on election issues
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Bishop John B. Brungardt wants it known that as Kansans take to the voting booth this fall, that “the Lord and our Catholic faith” speak clearly when it comes to life issues.
In one of four election-year videos created by the Catholic Bishops of Kansas, Bishop Brungardt said that the protection of innocent human life is “of such importance, of such great moral weight, that [it] must occupy a special place in the thinking of the Catholic voter.”
“All human life is precious,” he said, “whether born or unborn.” However, because abortion has become such a partisan political issue, “It has become easy for people to forget what’s at stake.”
Every year in the United States, more than one million unborn baby boys and girls are destroyed by abortion. Since Roe v. Wade in 1973, more than 55 million “innocent, defenseless human lives have been intentionally, and legally, extinguished.
“Brothers and sisters, it is difficult to accept that evil of this magnitude could be happening in our very midst, but it is,” Bishop Brungardt said. “We cannot just go on about our lives, treating this as just another political issue to be argued about by politicians.
Filipinos unite around faith as volcano forces mass evacuations
By ANTONIO ANUP GONSALVES
Legazpi City, Philippines, Sep 20, 2014 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - Residents near the restive Mayon volcano in the Philippines are turning to prayer as the mountain begins to erupt, and the nation's Catholic charity agency is preparing to help those whose lives are disrupted.
A lava dome appeared at the top of Mayon volcano last month, and on Sept. 15 increased rockfall and seismic activity led the Philippine Institute of Volcanology to raise the alert level to three (on a scale of zero to five), which indicates high unrest, magma at the volcano's crater, and a possible hazardous eruption within weeks.
The government has forcibly evacuated more than 27,000 residents from an six kilometer (four mile) radius around the volcano.
On Friday, there were reports of lava flowing down the mountain's slopes; 22 seismic events; 70 rockfalls; and lahar, a volcanic mudflow with a consistency similar to that of wet concrete. According to International Business Times, seismologists describe Mayon as “erupting already but not at an explosive level.”
Colorado nun dies six 
days shy of 106th birthday
By VERONICA AMBUUL
Catholic News Service
Nov. 13, 2011
Editor’s Note: Sister Richardis Durant was a mainstay in the parish in which I grew up, St. Joan of Arc in Arvada, Colorado. My mother, with my sisters in the back seat, gave Sister Richardis driving lessons when she was in her 60s. One of my sisters recalled Sister Richardis heading toward a red light at a frightening speed. Some 45 years later, I can say without bias (well, maybe just a little) that Mom must have been a pretty good teacher!
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (CNS) -- A religious sister who entered the convent in the era of World War I and Prohibition died just six days shy of her 106th birthday.
Sister Richardis Durant died Oct. 20 at Mount St. Francis in Colorado Springs, the motherhouse for the Western province of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration.
‘Blessed’ encounter leads to 
child’s baptism days before
undergoing heart surgery
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Nov. 13, 2011
Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Norma Alvarez for acting as interpreter, and for her help in producing this story.
The large doors to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe opened, and in walked a young couple, Francisco Orozco and Maria Rojas (in Mexico, married women often retain their maiden name) with their two children, a 10-year-old boy, Francisco, and a boy of three, Randdy, who was soon to face heart surgery to clear a blocked artery.
Pope Francis: No one can use religion as a pretext for violence
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Tirana, Albania, Sep 21, 2014 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis opened his trip to Albania praising the “coexistence” between members of different faiths in the country, while condemning those who “consider themselves to be the 'armour' of God while planning and carrying out acts of violence and oppression.”
“May no one use religion,” the Pope said, “as a pretext for actions against human dignity and against the fundamental rights of every man and woman, above all, the right to life and the right of everyone to religious freedom!”
Such trends lead to “conflict and violence, rather than being an occasion for open and respectful dialogue, and for a collective reflection on what it means to believe in God and to follow his laws.”
Addressing the scores of people gathered outside the presidential palace, where he was welcomed by Albania's leaders and diplomatic corps, Pope Francis expressed his gratitude for the invitation to Albania, an nation he described as “a land of heroes” and “of martyrs.”
School hosts ‘Hall of Saints’
Nov. 13, 2011 -- It wasn’t all saints, but a good number of them, who paid a visit to Sacred Heart Church in Dodge City Nov. 1 in honor of All Saints Day.
Dressed as their favorite saint, fourth graders at Sacred Heart Cathedral School once again hosted their annual Hall of Saints.
Following morning Mass, the children, each with a sticker on their hand, lined the isles of the church. Other children, family and friends made their way around the church, gently pressing the sticker (button) on the hand of the child.
Each child then launched into a brief history of which saint it was that the child represented.
Catholic-Muslim spouses say Pope Francis is for everybody
By ANDREA GAGLIARDUCCI
Tirana, Albania, Sep 22, 2014 / 02:00 am (CNA/EWTN News) - A Catholic-Muslim married couple who traveled three hours from Kosovo to take part in Pope Francis’ Albanian visit say that the Pope is “for everybody” regardless of religion.
Valentin, 30, and Vanessa, 22, hail from the Kosovo town of Gjakova, where the mother of Mother Teresa lived.
“We Catholics are just a few, but we really want the Pope to come to our small country,” Valentin said. “In the meantime, I decided to come here and see the Pope.”
Both Valentin and Vanessa attended Pope Francis’ morning Mass in Tirana and then moved to the Albanian capital’s Cathedral of St. Paul, where Pope Francis celebrated Vespers.
‘What can be done in response
to illegal immigration?’
A reflection from Kansas Catholic
Bishops, Protestant leaders
Nov. 13, 2011
Editor’s Note: This is a reflection from Kansas Church leaders on issues related to undocumented immigrants. Its purpose is to assist in the formation of consciences and to contribute to the public discussion on the topic.
Our country’s openness to immigrants is not in question. With the exception of native peoples, we are a nation of immigrants, many of whom came here to escape religious persecution, political oppression or poverty.
We are in fact a country famous for welcoming immigrants. Consider the inscription on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” – this expresses what we want to say to others.
Welcoming immigrants is likewise part of our Judeo-Christian tradition. “You must befriend the alien for you were once aliens yourselves” (Deuteronomy 10:19). “I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35).
What we are presently faced with, however, is the need for a response to illegal immigration, issues related to people crossing our borders at will, living and working here without permission.