Catechist Formation to begin
fall season with a history lesson
“Understanding the Old Testament” will be presented:
English: Sept. 8 and
repeated Sept. 11
Spanish: Sept. 12
For more information, call
Coleen Stein at (620) 227-1538, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or visit
http://www.dcdiocese.org/
catechist-formation.
Anyone who has attended a class taught by Father Henry Hildebrandt can attest to the fact that he would have made a terrific history professor.
Now, people across the diocese will have a chance to find this out for themselves.
From 6-9 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 8, the Catechist Formation Program of the Diocese of Dodge City will present, “Understanding the Old Testament,” in which Father Hildebrandt may or may not be appearing either as Moses, First Century Rabbi Johanan ben Zakkai (a Pharisee and one of the greatest teachers of his day) or another character, as he has done on several past occasions.
Pastoral Ministry Formation Program to begin
One class designed to break down language barriers,
another to examine roles of the laity
As the Pastoral Ministry Formation Program (PMF) of the Diocese of Dodge City opens its virtual classroom doors for another season, program organizers hope that one of the classes being offered this year will help break down the barrier between English and Spanish-speaking Catholics.
“Pastoral Spanish for English Speakers” will be presented from 6-8 p.m., Sept. 26, Oct. 3, 10, 17, and 24 and Nov. 7, by Mercedes Helms.
“The course is to help pastors, parish staff, catechists, and lay ministers learn some words, phrases, and sentence constructions so that they will be able to communicate basic information in Spanish…,” said Coleen Stein, coordinator of the PMF program.
Swiss Guard: We are ready to defend Pope from ISIS
Vatican City, Feb 24, 2015 / 02:17 am (CNA/EWTN News) - The commander of the Pontifical Swiss Guard says the group of soldiers charged with protecting the Pope is on high alert and ready to act if any threat from ISIS materializes.
“We are ready to intervene. Our job is security. and as gendarmes we are well organized. We are ready if anything happens,” said Cristoph Graf.
At age 54, Graf is married with two children. Yet he and the other members of the Swiss Guard are willing to lay down their lives to protect the Holy Father.
In an interview with the Italian daily Il Giornale, published on Feb. 18, Graf responded to threats from ISIS militants, who stated in a recent video, “We will conquer Rome.”
“We have asked the guards to be on higher alert, to watch how people are moving. We can’t do more than that,” Graf said.
He also stressed the importance of information to prevent potential attacks. He referenced the Jan. 7 massacre at the headquarters of a French newspaper that had published offensive images of the Prophet Mohammed.
“What happened in Paris could happen here and it cannot be prevented without intelligence based on accurate information,” he said.
Reflecting on his own appointment as commander of the Swiss Guard, Graf said, “The Pope asked me if I was willing and I could have said ‘no.’ But I think this is a mission and I answered ‘yes,’ because I see this as the Lord’s work. I know there are several crosses to carry but I trust in God’s help.”
Asked if the Holy Father is afraid, he replied, “I don’t think the Pope is afraid of anything…Anything can happen but you can see that he is not afraid.”
Commenting on the future of the Swiss Guard, the commander said that there may be difficulty in recruiting new members, but that it will ultimately “depend on the situation of the Church and the faith, and on the issue of the low birth rate.”
The Swiss Guard was established by Pope Julius II in 1506.
Its first real test came on May 6, 1527, during the sack of Rome, when 147 Swiss Guards died fighting against the troops of Emperor Carlos V to allow Pope Clement to escape. The few dozen guards that survived escorted the Holy Father to safety.
In memory of that day, new Swiss Guards are sworn in on May 6 each year, taking an oath to defend the Roman Pontiff with their very lives.
'Why RCIA?'
Bishop invites public to program designed to reinvigorate RCIA process
RCIA, or Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, is one of the most fundamental of Catholic initiatives, a process designed to introduce, educate, and guide people into the Catholic faith; yet, as the U.S. Catholic Bishops recently discovered, many parishes in the United States have failed to address the RCIA process.
Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore has introduced a workshop called, “Why RCIA?” which will be presented in English from 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 18 at St. Joseph Church in Scott City, and in Spanish from 2:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 19 at St. Anthony Parish in Liberal.
The public is encouraged to attend this program.
Patriarch urges prayer after at least 90 Christians kidnapped in Syria
By Elise Harris
Rome, Italy, Feb 24, 2015 / 06:34 am (CNA/EWTN News) - With reports circulating saying that ISIS forces have kidnapped at least 90 Christians from villages in northeast Syria, Patriarch Ignatius Joseph III Younan said prayer is the only possible response.
“Let’s pray for those innocent people,” Patriarch Younan told CNA over the phone from Beirut Feb. 24.
“It’s a very, let’s say, very ordinary thing to have those people with such hatred toward non-Muslims that they don’t respect any human life,” he said, noting that the only reaction to Tuesday’s kidnappings is “to pray.”
Patriarch Younan, Syriac Patriarch of Antioch, made his comments after the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Tuesday that at least 90 Assyrian Christians were kidnapped by ISIS militants after they seized two villages near Tal-Tamr, located in the Al-Hasakah region of Syria.
The two villages attacked are inhabited primarily by the country’s ancient Christian minority.
Also known as “Hassake,” the Al-Hasakah region is located along the country’s border with Iraq, and is not far from Mount Sinjar, where many Yazidis were trapped and faced starvation after fleeing Mosul and surrounding villages when ISIS began its assault last June.
Although he said exact numbers of those kidnapped and killed are still not confirmed, the patriarch revealed that he maintains close contact with the area’s bishop, who says that the situation there has been “very, very tense.”
Patriarch Younan said that he has tried to get in touch with Al-Hasakah’s archbishop, Jacques Behnan Hindo, regarding the situation, but has not yet been able to reach him.
The Syrian civil war has forced 3 million Syrians, of all religions, to become refugees, with an additional 6.5 million internally displaced. And in Iraq, since the rise of the Islamic State, there are more than 1.8 million internally displaced persons.
Fighting between ISIS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria has intensified in recent weeks. The YPG has taken 24 villages as part of an initiative to recapture the town of Tal Hamis, which lies to the east of the two villages captured by ISIS on Tuesday, Aljazeera agency reports.
Since last month’s recapture of the town of Kobane, which borders Turkey, YPG forces have continued to advance, and have been active in Raqa, which neighbors Al-Hasakah. So far they have regained 19 villages in the area.
The observatory reports that the U.S.-led international coalition, which has backed Kurdish forces against ISIS, carried out a series of attacks on Tuesday near Tal Hamis, killing 14 ISIS fighters.
Patriarch Younan said that although it’s “so easy” for the ISIS terrorists “to kill and to cut the throat” of non-Muslims, he hopes that will not be the fate of those who were taken on Tuesday.
One possibility, he noted, is that the Christians who were taken will be exchanged by ISIS militants for prisoners being held by the Kurdish army.
“Hopefully they will do it,” the patriarch said. But, he described the ISIS militants as being “full of hatred and venomous feelings toward the Christians over there.”
The ISIS fighters, which he referred to as “military terrorists,” are “ready to do all the horrible acts without any human feelings…But as I said, we keep praying and hoping.”
Ukranian bishop meets with Pope Francis as country's crisis rages on
By Elise Harris
Rome, Italy, Feb 20, 2015 / 03:32 pm (CNA) - After meeting with Pope Francis during their ad limina visit to Rome, one of Ukraine's bishops said the country faces a humanitarian crisis in conflict areas and called for dialogue and prayers for peace.
“We need support…we now have this conflict, but I think we will have (a) humanitarian catastrophe, because people at that place don't have enough to eat or drink and we need help,” Venedykt Aleksiychuk, Auxiliary Bishop of Lviv, told CNA Feb. 20.
Although his diocese lies roughly 600 miles from Donetsk and Luhansk, the areas affected by fighting, the bishop called on Western countries to step in and offer support.
German chancellor Angela Merkel, who helped to negotiate the latest cease-fire agreement between Ukrainian government forces and Pro-Russian separatists, is set to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican tomorrow.
“It’s so difficult in this difficult situation to find the best solution. I think we need to speak, discuss and meet together,” Bishop Aleksiychuk said. He pointed out, however, that the willingness to do so must come from all sides.
“We need to pray and meet together and we will find this solution,” he said.
The Ukrainian bishops' ad limina, during which residential diocesan bishops and certain prelates with territorial jurisdiction meet with the Pope and report on the state of their dioceses or prelature, falls during a fragile cease-fire agreement between Ukrainian and pro-Russian troops.
On Feb. 12 officials from Ukraine, Germany, France, and Russia gathered in Minsk to negotiate an indefinite cease-fire in Ukraine, which was set to begin at midnight Feb. 15.
However, shelling in the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk has continued, with a recent bombardment forcing some 2,500 government troops to retreat from Debaltseve Wednesday, with others surrendering, BBC News reported.
In the written address handed to the bishops during their Feb. 20 audience with him this morning, Pope Francis recognized that Ukraine is in the midst of a “grave conflict,” and assured the bishops of his closeness.
He prayed that all parties involved would “apply the agreements reached by mutual accord and might be respectful toward the principle of international legality; in particular, that the recently signed truce might be observed.”
Bishop Aleksiychuk referred to a Feb. 19 prayer vigil held last night in the Roman Basilica of St. Mary Major, during which Ukrainian bishops of the Latin and Eastern rites joined together to pray for peace.
“Ukraine needs this peace, because when we have peace in our lives everything goes in a good way. When we don’t have peace in our life we have problems,” he said.
In the bishop’s view, the problem is not so much one of territory as of fear. Russia, he said, “doesn’t need our territory, it’s big, it’s the biggest country, but Russia, especially the Russian government, they are afraid of this change that has happened in Ukraine.”
“They think this change is coming to Russia, (so) they are afraid of this situation and they have that aggression now…we need to pray and we need this peace for Ukraine and for Russia too.”
Exactly one year ago Ukraine's former president was ousted following months of violent protest, which resulted in the death of nearly 100 civilians in Kiev’s Maiden Square.
A new government was then appointed. In March, Ukraine's eastern peninsula of Crimea was annexed by Russia and pro-Russian separatist rebels have since taken control of eastern portions of Ukraine, around Donetsk and Luhansk, where fighting has continued to claim lives.
The death toll in Ukraine now exceeds 5,400 people, plus more than 12,900 others who have been wounded since fighting broke out in April. More than 970,000 have been internally displaced.
In the free discussion that took place between the Pope and the bishops during their morning encounter, Pope Francis was attentive to the situation and displayed a paternal concern for each one present and their particular challenges, Bishop Aleksiychuk said.
“He spoke to us, he asked about our situation in the Ukraine. He’s like a father with his children.”
It has become custom for Pope Francis in ad limina visits, rather than reading his prepared text, to hand it to the bishops to read on their own and to speak freely with them – giving each the opportunity to voice questions or concerns that are close to them and their dioceses.
Bishop Aleksiychuk recalled how he first met the Pope two years ago, but that today's brief personal encounter felt “like I met him yesterday or a few days ago. He was open and friendly to everybody. It’s very important for the Pope and for us too.”
In the written remarks handed out to the bishops, Francis assured them of the Holy See's support even within international forums to ensure that their rights, concerns and “just evangelical values” are clearly understood.
He called to mind the country's ecclesial diversity, and encouraged the bishops of the various Catholic rites to strengthen their relationship as “brothers in the episcopate.”
“Unity of the episcopate, as well as giving good witness to the People of God, renders an inestimable service to the Nation, both on the cultural and social plane and, above all, on the spiritual plane,” he said.
“Both as Greek-Catholics and as Latins you are sons of the Catholic Church, which in your land too was for a long time subject to martyrdom,” Francis added. Greek Catholics especially faced severe persecution while the Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union.
“The blood of your witnesses, who intercede for you from heaven, is a further motive that urges you to true communion of hearts,” the Pope said, encouraging bishops to unite in support of one another.
Pope Francis' written address closed with both a plea not to forget the poor, and a prayer entrusting the Ukrainian people to the intercession of Mary and the martyrs.
Five tips for welcoming Hispanic
and Latino Catholics into parish life
STEUBENVILLE, OH—With almost half the Catholic population in the United States now made up of Hispanic or Latino Catholics, religious educators are seeking better ways to minister to this growing demographic.
At the July 2010 St. John Bosco Conference for Religious Educators held at Franciscan University of Steubenville, two workshops given by Martha Fernández-Sardina addressed the challenges of helping Hispanic Catholics embrace their faith heritage — while helping non-Hispanics understand and appreciate their Latino brothers and sisters.
In an interview following her workshops, Fernández-Sardina, director of the Office for Evangelization of the Archdiocese of San Antonio, offered five tips for making parishes more welcoming to Hispanic or Latino Catholics.
To follow Christ, we must confront life's deserts, Pope says
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Vatican City, Feb 22, 2015 / 10:22 am (CNA/EWTN News) - The 40 days of Lent are a reminder that we face spiritual deserts, and we must confront them with courage and the aid of Scripture, Pope Francis said during his weekly Angelus address.
Delivering the Feb. 22 address from the papal apartments to a sizable crowd gathered in Saint Peter's Square, the Pope's remarks came on the first Sunday of Lent, hours before he embarked on a week-long Spiritual Exercises retreat with members of the Curia.
The pontiff began his pre-Angelus reflection by speaking on the Gospel reading of the day, in which St. Mark gives an account of Christ's 40 days in the desert following the Baptism in the river Jordan. During this period, he recalled, Jesus was “tempted by Satan,” and “was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to him.”
This “voluntary test confronted by Jesus” is one from which he “emerges victoriously and which prepares him to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God,” the Pope said.
During the period in the desert, Jesus engaged in “hand-to-hand” combat with Satan, “unmasking his temptations” and being victorious against them, the Holy Father said. “Everyone has triumphed” in Jesus through this victory; however, “it is up to us to protect this victory in our daily lives.”
Lent is a time of “spiritual battle against the spirit of evil,” Pope Francis said. “And as we cross the Lenten 'desert', we fix our gaze toward Easter, which is Jesus' definitive victory against Evil, against sin, and against death.”
This is the significance of the first Sunday of Lent, the Holy Father continued: “to decisively lose ourselves on the path of Jesus, the path which leads to life.”
He went on to highlight the desert as a place for listening to “God's voice and the tempter's voice,” which cannot otherwise be done amidst noise and confusion, in which “one only hears superficial voices.”
Since God's voice is heard in His Word, the Pope reminded those present of the importance of reading the Scriptures daily, “because otherwise we do not know how to respond to the hidden dangers of evil.”
This desert, he continued, “helps us to say no to worldliness, to idols,” while helping us “to make courageous choices in conformity to the Gospel,” reinforcing “solidarity with our brethren.”
“Therefore, we enter into the desert without fear, because we are not alone: we are with Jesus, with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit.”
In particular, Lent is a time of becoming “ever more aware of how much the Holy Spirit, (who we received) in Baptism, has worked and is able to work in us.”
Before leading the crowds in the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis turned to Mary, the “model of docility to the Spirit,” who “helps us to allow ourselves to be guided by Him who wishes to make each one of us a 'new creation'.”
The Pope prayed in particular for Mary's intercession during “this week of Spiritual exercises” in which he and members of the Curia were to take part, beginning Sunday afternoon.
He then appealed to the faithful to pray for those taking part in the Exercises, they may “listen to the voice of Jesus and correct” their many defects, and “confront the temptations” which attack them daily.
Following the recitation of the Marian prayer in Latin, Pope Francis greeted the various pilgrims from around Rome and the world, before introducing the distribution of prayer booklets to those in the square.
“Lent is a journey of conversion,” he said, adding that “our heart must be converted to the Lord.”
For this reason, Pope Francis took the first Sunday of Lent as an occasion to distribute small prayer booklets entitled “Custodisci il cuore” – “Guard your heart” – to those in Saint Peter's Square. Each booklet, distributed by volunteers in the square, contains various tenants of the faith, including the Seven Sacraments, Ten Commandments, a list of the virtues, and the works of mercy.
The Pope said those in the square should carry with them this “richness of our doctrine,” in order “to guard the heart.”
“Humanity needs justice, peace, love,” he said, and can have it only by turning with all its heart to God, who is the source of all these things.
Film showcases hardships migrants
face on journey to new country
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A recent discussion held at the Migration Policy Institute in Washington showcased the plight of migrants from Central America who are trying to get to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Migrants must survive a 25-day journey, an expedition that three journalists from El Faro, a Spanish-language online news service based in El Salvador, witnessed firsthand over a two-year period.
The project undertaken by the journalists took them to places that “no one from the media has gone before” and out of it came their documentary, “En el Camino” (“On the Journey”), which they described at the institute.
For Coptic Christians, threat of martyrdom is part of daily life
By MATT HADRO
Washington D.C., Feb 22, 2015 / 04:37 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - The brutal murder of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya at the hands of ISIS last week is shining a light on the reality faced by many of Egypt’s Christians on a daily basis.
“These 21 victims, they were not the first and they will not be the last. There is a flowing river of Christian blood in the Middle East,” said Mina Abdelmalak, one of the organizers of a D.C. candlelight prayer vigil outside the White House on Ash Wednesday.
The prayer vigil commemorated the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded last week by the Islamist terror group ISIS. The Christians had been working in Libya to support their families back home. They were abducted by ISIS in December and January.
In an internet video published by the extremist group, the Copts were marched along the Libyan coast and then murdered, with the video title “A Message Signed with Blood to the Nation of the Cross.”
The video caught the attention of the world, garnering significant media attention and responses from world leaders.
While this act of martyrdom was heroic and newsworthy, several Coptic priests stressed that for many Christians in Egypt, the threat of death for the faith is a daily reality that goes unnoticed by the rest of the world.
“Most people living in those areas, really every day they live by the grace of God,” explained Fr. Anthony Messeh of the St. Timothy and St. Athanasius Coptic Orthodox Church in Arlington, Va.
“They’re not as shaken by these things as we are, because they count every day as a gift from God.” Their public faith could mean “the end of their life,” he told CNA.
One local Coptic Orthodox priest in attendance at the Washington, D.C., prayer vigil voiced both fear and hope in response to the Libya massacre.
“We are afraid about the spreading of the devil all over the world,” said Fr. Domadious Rizk of St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in Fairfax, Va. “The only thing can face this devil is Christ Himself.”
“We believe that the Lord will overcome all this darkness and spread it away,” he said.
Rural Egypt, where many of the Christians hailed from, is no friend of Christianity, Fr. Messeh said. While he has not lived in Egypt, the conveyed the situation there from accounts of those who had.
The plight of the Copts was “very bad” under the rule of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, he said.
Now, the situation has “officially” improved with the new president, Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who has said and done the right things. However, many Christians are still persecuted, especially in the rural areas where they are very much a minority.
The differences between Egypt and the U.S. are striking, Fr. Messeh said, and the hardship for Christians in Egypt is difficult for Americans to truly grasp. Faith for the Copts is everything, “a life that they’re willing to lose for the sake of their faith.”
This is why the “extreme bravery” of the Coptic martyrs is so compelling, he said. “They’re doing the stuff that we’re preaching.”
“For us, you can get by with a Sunday-only faith,” he explained. “They can’t, because every day of their life they see in front of them the decision to follow Christ does impact the grades they get in school, it impacts which customers will come to their stores.”
And in some cases, their public faith is met with death.
The video of the beheadings shook his Virginia parish, Fr. Messeh admitted.
“It shook us up because it kind of put all those stories that we hear about, it kind of put it in pictures,” he said of the beheading video circulated by ISIS.
“Somehow this one really struck a chord with everyone, even people who have no connection with Egypt whatsoever.”
A Church united in prayer over the killings will only be strengthened, Fr. John Farag of St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Cabin John, Md., told EWTN News Nightly on Wednesday.
“Copts live on prayers,” he remarked, explaining that the people are relying upon prayer and solidarity.
Local Coptic parishes will hold prayer services this weekend for the martyrs. Bishop Paul Loverde of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Arlington even reached out in condolence, Fr. Messeh revealed, and offered to do a joint prayer service with St. Timothy and St.Athanasius parish. It was a gesture Fr. Messeh “really appreciated.”
He also thanked Pope Francis for offering a memorial Mass for the slain Coptic Christians earlier this week.
The Pope mourned their deaths and hailed them as martyrs, also praying especially for Patriarch Tawadros of the Coptic Orthodox Church.
“The blood of our Christian brothers and sisters is a testimony which cries out to be heard,” Pope Francis said on Feb. 16. “Their only words were: 'Jesus, help me!'”