Priests from across state graduate from program designed to make them
‘Good Leaders, Good Shepherds’
See photos from the graduation celebration
GREAT BEND -- In March 2009, nearly 30 priests from the Dioceses of Salina and Dodge City, and two from the Archdiocese of Kansas City, volunteered to embark on a two-year program designed to make them stronger leaders in their parishes, better managers, and more capable stewards of time, talent and treasure.
On Oct. 28, those same priests gathered at the Dominican Motherhouse in Great Bend to celebrate their graduation from the “Good Leaders, Good Shepherds” program.
UK youth create Advent video calendar
London, England, Dec 21, 2014 / 01:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - This Advent, young Catholics in the UK are using video media to challenge their peers to “engage in the life and rhythm of the Church” and seek a deeper relationship with Christ.
In addition to being contributors to this project, Morton and Withers are also part of the team at the Vocations Centre for the Archdiocese of Southwark in London. The entire Advent video calendar can be viewed on the Made for Glory Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpuOKqS61B7VcTe9C-BTqw
“I think that as society becomes more secular, more relativised, more seemingly absent of definitive truth, then the more passionately young people will seek the truth,” Morton continued. “Young people aren’t satisfied with the soft answer, they want the real thing, they want the truth, however challenging it may be.”
Morton added that many young people are done with what the world offers them and are seeking real answers to their deepest questions.
“He’s an out-and-out evangelist, who builds bridges for Christ on foundations of friendship and trust,” he said. “He’s encouraging young Catholics to step up and be counted, to not be afraid, because when we say yes to Christ the joy of the Christian life overwhelms any doubts or fears.”
A ‘gift of heaven’
Rare baseball card brings unexpected treasure to
School Sisters of Notre Dame
By GEORGE P. MATYSEK Jr.
Catholic News Service
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Sister Virginia Muller grew up rooting for the Dodgers at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, N.Y. Ministering in Baltimore, she has more recently adopted the Orioles as her hometown heroes.
But ask who her favorite player is and the white-haired School Sister of Notre Dame turns to a Pittsburgh Pirate from another generation.
“Honus Wagner!” Sister Virginia exclaimed with a laugh.
Sister Virginia made the comments during a Nov. 5 news conference at her religious congregation’s motherhouse in Baltimore, announcing that a rare 100-year-old Honus Wagner baseball card bequeathed to the School Sisters of Notre Dame brought them $220,000 in an online auction that closed Nov. 4.
Says Pope Benedict:
‘Rich economies must pay
more attention to farming’
By CINDY WOODEN
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Modern economies must pay more attention to farmers and the entire agricultural sector, not out of some nostalgic yearning for a simpler time, but out of recognition that farms feed the world and offer dignified work to millions of people, Pope Benedict XVI said.
“I believe now is the time to re-evaluate agriculture, not in a nostalgic way, but as an indispensable resource for the future,” the pope said Nov. 14 during his midday Angelus address.
Thanksgiving holidays in many countries at the end of the harvest season are an appropriate time for everyone to reflect on the importance of agriculture and on the ways that many modern economies ignore the sector or actually inflict harm on it through trade policies or through the promotion of industries that destroy farmland, he said.
Pastoral Ministry Formation Program
Father Urban to present in-depth
tour of the New Testament
The Pastoral Ministry Formation program of the Diocese of Dodge City will present the course, “Introduction to the New Testament,” beginning Jan. 8, 2011 and running for nine Saturdays through May 7.
The instructor will be Father Reggie Urban, pastor of Prince of Peace Parish in Great Bend. The course, which will be offered at Interactive Television sites throughout the diocese, can be taken for three credit hours or for personal enrichment.
Throughout the nine sessions, Father Urban will take participants on a tour of all the books of the New Testament, “talking about the authors, and the intent of their message, their writing, and their epistle or Gospel. There are 27 books in the New Testament, so we’ll go through two or three in each session.”
A Christmas message from Aleppo's bishop: hope for joy, peace
Aleppo, Syria, Dec 22, 2014 / 06:01 am (CNA/EWTN News) - As Christmas approaches, the Melkite Catholic bishop of Aleppo has written a letter to his diocese looking forward to the feast of hope, urging his people to practice charity to the less fortunate, much like in diocese around the world.
“With my gratitude and all my thanksgiving for all you are doing to help us through these times of trial, and with my benediction, I offer you my best wishes for the New Year, for good health, joy and happiness.”
Archbishop Jeanbart also noted that his 10-year old tradition, of receiving mothers at his home “to congratulate them and to thank them for their devotedness,” like that of Mary, will continue.
“In a word we will do all we can to comfort the faithful who remain in the city, to lighten their load and to reassure them in this time of great desolation.”
“We will take care of their medical needs and sometimes even find lodgings when they have to move. Over and above these services, we have decided this year to help more than a thousand families by supplying them with heating fuel which has become very expensive and is essential here in Aleppo where the winters are freezing.”
Through the generosity of his people, he noted, the diocese has been able to support a growing number of families, paying school fees for children, offering food baskets monthly, and maintaining an emergency fund for the unemployed.
“If my clergy and I are applying ourselves in preparing carefully the religious ceremonies for the Nativity of our Savior, we are at the same time preparing carefully our social and charitable activities to reassure our people and better serve them.”
Vatican, Pope played key role in US-Cuba prisoner release
By MATT HADRO
Washington D.C., Dec 17, 2014 / 10:26 am (CNA/EWTN News) - The Vatican played a critical role behind a prisoner exchange and a groundbreaking new policy between U.S. and Cuba announced on Wednesday, senior administration officials said.
“Very importantly, the Vatican played a role in this as well,” a senior administration official said in a White House conference call with reporters on the prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Cuba, and the opening of new relations between the two.
Pope Francis made a personal appeal to the presidents of both countries in a letter asking them to “resolve the case of Alan Gross and the case of the three Cubans who have been imprisoned here in the United States and also encouraging the United States and Cuba to pursue a closer relationship,” the official added.
The White House announced a prisoner exchange with Cuba on Wednesday, as well as a historic shift in the relationship between the countries, which for decades has been marked by an embargo and lack of formal diplomatic relations.
Plans are in place for U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to begin talking to Cuba “on the re-establishment of diplomatic relations” for the first time since 1961, the White House said. Also in the works is a new U.S. embassy in Havana and “high-level” visits to the country.
The countries will try to work together to fight Ebola, and on issues of migration, counter-terrorism, and drug-trafficking, a senior administration official explained. They “fully expect” there to be “strong differences” between the countries, but the Obama administration believes that “engagement is a better tool than isolation.”
The U.S. will continue to push for better human rights in Cuba, the administration officials maintained. The new policy is “not lessening our emphasis on human rights, on democracy,” one official said, adding, “Our emphasis on human rights will be just as strong and we believe more effective under this policy.”
Regarding the prisoner exchange, Cuba released Alan Gross, an American imprisoned there for five years, on “humanitarian grounds,” as well as an unidentified intelligence “asset” who was held there for 20 years, a senior administration official confirmed. In return, the U.S. released three Cuban prisoners.
The prisoner swap was finalized at the Vatican, a senior administration official confirmed. Senior Vatican officials hosted delegations from both countries “this fall.”
“The Support of Pope Francis and the support of the Vatican was important to us given the esteem with which both the American and Cuban people hold the Catholic Church,” one official stated, noting that Francis was also the first Pope hailing from Latin America.
“President Obama has enormous respect for Pope Francis and his personal engagement was important to us,” the official continued.
A meeting between the Pope and U.S. President Barack Obama also served as the starting point for Francis’ personal appeal, an official said, noting that “Cuba was a topic of discussion that got as much attention as anything else.”
Pope Francis followed up that meeting with a letter to President Obama as well as a direct appeal to Cuban President Raul Castro.
The appeal was “very rare,” one official acknowledged. “We haven’t received communications like this that I’m aware of.”
The Vatican was the “only other government that participated in these discussions,” an official confirmed.
In his announcement of the prisoner exchange and new diplomatic relations, Obama personally thanked Pope Francis for his involvement, saying that the pontiff sees “the world as it should be, rather than simply settling for the world as it is.”
The Vatican Secretariat of State release a communique Wednesday relating Pope Francis' "warm congratulations" for the decision "to establish diplomatic relations, with the aim of overcoming, in the interest of the citizens of both countries, the difficulties which have marked their recent history."
It noted that the Pope had, "in recent months", written to both Castro and Obama, inving them "to resolve humanitarian questions of common interest, including the situation of certain prisoners, in order to initiate a new phase in relations between the two Parties."
"The Holy See received Delegations of the two countries in the Vatican last October and provided its good offices to facilitate a constructive dialogue on delicate matters, resulting in solutions acceptable to both Parties," it continued.
"The Holy See will continue to assure its support for initiatives which both nations will undertake to strengthen their bilateral relations and promote the wellbeing of their respective citizens."
‘I would give my life to make his small world true and equal’
Locals recall oft-forgotten
battle for equal rights
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Nearly 60 years ago -- a few years after the end of World War II -- a small but highly significant battle was being waged in Dodge City.
And it had to do with a swimming pool.
In July 1951, a proposal was put before the city that would have allowed Hispanics and African Americans to finally be able swim at the municipal swimming pool, which to that point had been opened only to whites.
At first unrelenting, the city finally agreed to open the pool to Hispanics for one day, and to African Americans the next. On the third day the pool would be drained and cleaned before it would again be opened only to Anglo-Americans.
The “concession” was designed in part to quell the growing disquiet over the refusal to allow anyone who wasn’t white to swim in the public pool.
The notion of cleaning the pool only after the Hispanics and African Americans swam raised the ire of Ruth Martinez, who, in a July 21, 1951 letter to the Dodge City Daily Globe, wrote, in part, “I guess we aren’t supposed to mind not being white or clean enough to swim with the rest of the population…. We’re not supposed to mind everyone else’s dirty water because I notice nothing was said about providing clean water for us.”
Ruth Martinez had moved to Dodge City from Copeland after her husband, Jay, a semi-pro baseball player, joined the Dodge City Cowboys baseball team. Once settled in to their new home, the young parents learned the sad truth, that their four children were not allowed to swim in the city pool because of the color of their skin.
Vatican offers olive branch to US nuns
Influence of nun honored for teaching
career felt way beyond classroom
By LAURA DODSON
Catholic News Service
MELBOURNE, Fla. (CNS) -- Former Army paratrooper David Isnardi had Mercy Sister Immaculata Knox as a teacher for only a year, but he said she had “such a huge impact” on his life.
“From the top of a mountain in Bosnia-Herzegovina, from Israel to the Middle East and North Africa, through the most arduous times, I thought of Sister Immaculata,” said Isnardi, who was in her kindergarten class from 1964-65.
“When I think back on the finer things in life, I realize that she was that finer thing,” he said.
People packed an awards banquet at a Florida conference center to honor the Irish-born nun, whose career spanned almost 50 years of teaching and extended far beyond the classroom.