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Communicating word of God is Oregon

priest's passion as calligrapher


By ED LANGLOIS
Catholic News Service
PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- In the morning cold of a farmhouse in the foothills of the Cascades, his hand is stiff as he grasps the broad-edged pen. His eyes have aged. But the 78-year-old priest and calligraphy master plans to write until he dies.
Father Robert Palladino, a priest of the Archdiocese of Portland, is as much evangelist as artist.
He melds Latin, English and Hebrew letters in ways that show the vitality and universality of Scriptures. He also writes the words of theologians and spiritual masters, usually short, memorable quotes people can live by. He has engraved the texts and notes of ancient chant, which he admires greatly.

Faithful Citizenship as Catholics

by Bishop John B. Brungardt

Last Sunday the Gospel was Matthew 22:15-21, including Jesus responding to the Pharisees: “Then repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God.”  We contribute to the common good by participating in our society as faithful citizens (see Catechism #2234-2246).  At times, “we must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

One way we participate in the common good as Catholics is to be involved in the political process.  Archbishop Naumann, Bishop Weisenburger, Bishop Kemme and I recently produced a series of four videos highlighting some of the important concerns of today, concerns that our Catholic faith addresses: life, marriage, religious liberty, and the economy (the injustice of usury).  I encourage you to view these teachings of the shepherds of Kansas. They can be found on our website, http://www.dcdiocese.org/, and at the Kansas Catholic Conference website: http://www.kscathconf.org/.

The U.S. Bishops teach:  “In the Catholic Tradition, responsible citizenship is a virtue, and participation in political life is a moral obligation. This obligation is rooted in our baptismal commitment to follow Jesus Christ and to bear Christian witness in all we do” (Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, 13).  [for more details, see the U.S. Bishops website: http://www.usccb.org/ Pull down the menu “Issues and Action” and choose “Faithful Citizenship.”]

Let us be informed regarding the issues, learn the voting records of the candidates, analyze the positions of the candidates, prayerfully discern where the Lord is leading you, and vote.

All readers will appreciate evenhanded

religious history of Civil War

"God's Almost Chosen Peoples: A Religious History of the American Civil War" by George C. Rable. University of North Carolina Press (Chapel Hill, N.C., 2010). 397 pp., $35.

Reviewed by NANCY L. ROBERTSN
Catholic News Service

During the Civil War, priests traveled from regiment to regiment to say Mass in makeshift chapels. The simplest altar sheltered inside a small tent flanked by a few benches sufficed. And on the eve of battle, in North and South alike, priests were typically kept busy hearing confessions -- eight hours nonstop for one Indiana chaplain, just before a fight in Munfordville during Braxton Bragg's 1862 Kentucky campaign. For whether devout or not, a soldier's greatest fear was dying without salvation.

Pope: Fighting for the poor doesn't make me Communist – it makes me Catholic

By ELISE HARRIS

Vatican City, Oct 29, 2014 / 12:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - Pope Francis spoke out against oppression of the poor due to greed and warned again of the growing presence of a “globalization of indifference” – a warning, he said, which has wrongly type-casted him.  

“It is not possible to tackle poverty by promoting containment strategies to merely reassure, rendering the poor 'domesticated,' harmless and passive,” the Pope told those gathered for his Oct. 28 encounter with leaders of various Church movements.

He called the basic needs for land, housing and work an “aspiration that should be within the reach of all but which we sadly see is increasingly unavailable to the majority.”  

“It's strange, but if I talk about this, there are those who think that the Pope is Communist,” he said.

Larned prison names Deacon Gil Rael


‘Volunteer of the Year’


Deacon Gilbert Rael of Great Bend has been named by the Larned Correctional Mental Health Facility (LCMHF) as Volunteer of the Year for 2011.
Deacon Rael, who on May 9 will celebrate 30 years since his deaconal ordination, will be honored at a gathering in Topeka, the date of which has not yet been determined.
“I was quite pleased and surprised,” said Deacon Rael, who began working as a deacon at the LCMHF soon after he and his wife, Jo, moved here from Colorado a few years ago.

Martin Baani: the Iraqi seminarian who will not leave his people

By JOHN PONTIFEX

Erbil, Iraq, Oct 28, 2014 / 02:01 am (Aid to the Church in Need) - Bombs are falling and the sound of the explosion is sending shock and fear into the hearts of the people. Amid the sound of crying and frenzied activity, people pack up what belongings they can carry and make off into the night.

In the midst of it all, on the night of Aug. 6, stands Martin Baani, a 24-year-old seminarian. It’s dawning on him that this is Karamlesh’s last stand.

For 1,800 years, Christianity has had a home in the hearts and minds of the people of this town so full of antiquity. Now that era is about to be brought to a calamitous end; Islamic State are advancing.

Martin’s mobile phone rings: a friend stammers out the news that the nearby town of Telkaif has fallen to “Da’ash” – the Arabic name for Islamic State.  Karamlesh would surely be next.

People of the Diocese of Dodge City

A menu for giving

By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register

SYRACUSE -- In the Kitchen of KC’s Mexican Restaurant, Carmen Baeza’s fingers nimbly worked a small pile of dough into a sopaipilla, a fried pastry that can be eaten as a dessert or as part of the meal.
“I enjoy every job that I do,” she said as she gently rolled the dough. “I believe that no matter what you do, you do it with pride and happiness.”
Carmen and her husband, Miguel, have owned the restaurant for nine years. Their two youngest – both girls – work as wait staff when not in school. The couple also has two older boys.
Carmen was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where she met and married her childhood sweetheart before moving to the United States to help support her parents and her siblings so that they could go to college. That was 32 years ago.

Syrian Christians, building cemeteries instead of schools

Damascus, Syria, Oct 28, 2014 / 12:04 am (CNA/EWTN News) - As the civil war in Syria continues its fourth year, Christians who remain in the country’s capital are finding it harder just to get by – even with the help of the Maronite local Church.

“The number of people taking the sacraments is falling from year to year – very sharply,” Samir Nassar, Maronite Archbishop of Damascus told Aid to the Church in Need Oct. 24, explaining that he is unable to keep track of how many of his faithful have fled Syria. “In 2012 there were more baptisms and weddings than in 2013. The number of funerals, on the other hand, is rising.”

“There were previous plans to build a kindergarten or a school, but now we are planning for the enlargement of the Christian cemetery.”

Youth take part in rally, retreat


JOY Retreat, Feb. 12-13 (Jesus, Others, You)


They came to get closer to Christ, each other, and in doing so, to get to know themselves just a little bit better.
It was the annual JOY (Jesus, Others, You) retreat, Feb. 12-13 at St. Dominic Parish in Garden City, in which several high school freshmen and sophomores from across the diocese participated.
During the retreat, participants took part in a trust walk, in which they were blindfolded and led around the grounds of the church.
One of the many highlights of the weekend retreat experience comes at the conclusion, when participants team up to bake bread shaped as a symbol that describes what they got out of the retreat.
According to diocese youth director, Steven Polley, every ingredient of the bread becomes a teaching component.

Junior High Youth Rally draws living

portrait of last days of Christ, March 27

More than 60 junior high school aged youth attended the 2011 Junior High Youth Rally March 27 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Dodge City.
This annual rally is designed and presented by the Diocesan Youth Council. Besides including many spiritual activities, the council makes sure that the day includes games, breakout sessions, food and fun.
Bishop John B. Brungardt shared a special message with the youth, who took part in a living Stations of the Cross with the help of youth council members.

Photos from the retreat and rally

 

Asia Bibi to Pope Francis: Pray for me, your daughter

Vatican City, Oct 28, 2014 / 10:09 am (CNA/EWTN News) - A Catholic woman condemned to death in Pakistan for allegedly violating the country's blasphemy law has asked Pope Francis for his prayers, saying that she trusts in God’s plan for her life.

“Pope Francis, I am your daughter, Asia Bibi. I implore you: pray for me, for my salvation and for my freedom. At this point I can only entrust (myself) to God Almighty who can do anything for me.”

In a letter to the Holy Father, which was obtained and made public by Vatican Insider, Bibi offered a heartfelt plea for prayer, while voicing her trust in God.

On Oct. 16, the Lahore High Court rejected Bibi's appeal against her death sentence. Bibi had been convicted under Pakistan's strict blasphemy laws in 2010. She allegedly made derogatory comments against Muhammad while arguing with a Muslim woman.