Rafting accident claims life of
former SMPC coach Frank Diskin
By TIM WENZL
Southwest Kansas Register
Former St. Mary of the Plains coach and athletic director, Frank Diskin, died June 23 in a rafting accident on the Poudre River near Fort Collins, Colo. He was on a family vacation with his wife, six children, spouses, and grandchildren.
An autopsy conducted June 24 ruled that the cause of death was drowning with complications from heart disease, said Greg Fairman, investigator for the Larmier County Coroners office.
Is your faith wearing cosmetics? Take them off, Pope Francis says
By ELISE HARRIS
Vatican City, Oct 14, 2014 / 08:37 am (CNA/EWTN News) - In his daily mass on Tuesday Pope Francis warned about the hypocrisy of those who do good in order to be seen, saying that true faith is practiced through acts of charity that go beyond outward rituals.
“Jesus condemns this cosmetic spirituality, (which attempts to) look good, beautiful – but the truth inside is something else,” the Pope said to those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse for his Oct. 14 daily Mass.
He condemns those who have “good manners but bad habits, those habits that you don’t see, but are hidden.”
The Roman Pontiff took his cue from the day’s Gospel reading from Luke chapter 11 in which Jesus is invited to the house of a Pharisee for dinner, and surprises his host by not performing the standard washing ritual before meals. He then condemns the false piety of those who desire others to see their good works.
Synod interim report: the Church can renew commitment to family
Vatican City, Oct 13, 2014 / 12:18 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - The approach to irregular unions must start from positive aspects, and stable couples should be accompanied in a development toward the sacrament of marriage, the Synod of Bishops said in a midterm report issued Monday.
“We have gathered together the results of our reflections and our dialogues in the following three parts,” reads the Oct. 13 “relatio post disceptationem,” the interim document which the synod fathers will consider in small groups during the remainder of the meeting.
The three parts are listening to the complex situation of the family today; “looking, our gaze fixed on Christ, to re-evaluate with renewed freshness and enthusiasm what the revelation transmitted in the faith of the Church tells us about the beauty and dignity of the family”; and discussion “in the light of the Lord Jesus to discern the ways in which the Church and society can renew their commitment to the family.”
The relatio is a summary of the state of discussion at the synod thus far, and at the same time is the basis for further discussion.
Cardinal Luis Tagle of Manila told journalists in a press conference that “the relatio is a sort of a mirror at which we participants of the synod we should take a look to see what we have reached so far in this journey.”
LEFT: Barbara and Gilbert Knipp, seated, are pictured with longtime friends Bishop Norbert Hermes and his sister, Lucilla Herman.
Couple reflects on 72 years of marriage
By DAVID MYERS
Southwest Kansas Register
Nearly 75 years ago, Barbara Conner was engaged to a man who stood a towering six-foot-five.
She was, that is, until one evening, a man slight of build named Gilbert Knipp came with friends to stay with her family in Wichita.
“That changed everything,” Barbara said, smiling as she sat among other St. Joseph parishioners at the church’s centennial celebration (see Page 7) in Scott City June 19.
It didn’t take long for the farmer’s son from Scott City to work his charm on the cute Wichita beautician.
Companion Camp, 2011
Local youth learn that seminary life
includes a good dose of fun
It’s a life of strict devotion -- to God, to prayer, to educating oneself about ones relationship with the Risen Lord, and when the time is right, to a hearty game of dodge ball.
Five boys from the Diocese of Dodge City recently learned that seminary life is about that and more when they spent two days at Conception Seminary in Conception, Mo.
Eighth graders Ivan Chavez, Omar Ruiz, Emmanuel Jimenez, all of Dodge City, and seventh graders Tony Guzman of Hugoton, and Trace Flax of Ness City, took part June 17-19 in Companion Camp 2011.
Who leads the fight against gay discrimination in Nigeria? The Catholic Church.
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Vatican City, Oct 11, 2014 / 12:20 pm (CNA/EWTN News) - The Catholic Church in Nigeria has been at the forefront in fighting discrimination towards persons with same-sex attraction, says Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, who adds that media coverage of the Church has been imbalanced.
In one of the strongest statements made about homosexuality during the first week of the Synod on the Family, the Nigerian prelate told the press on Oct. 8 that “the Catholic Church respects all human beings, and we believe we are all created in the image and likeness of God.”
Archbishop Kaigama said that the people of Africa believe marriage is only between a man and a woman, based on culture, biology, and religious belief. However, he stressed that this does not translate into support for the “the criminalizing of people with different sexual orientations.”
“The Catholic Church is in the forefront of defending them,” he said, “and we would defend any person with a homosexual orientation who has been harassed, who has been imprisoned, who has been punished.”
Scripture Readings, Aug. 7-Sept 4
Sunday, August 7, 2011
First Kings 19:9, 11-13
Psalms 85:9, 10, 11-12, 13-14
Romans 9:1-5
Matthew 14:22-33
Monday, August 8, 2011; Saint Dominic, priest
Deuteronomy 10:12-22
Psalms 147:12-13, 14-15, 19-20
Matthew 17:22-27
Highways, byways and sinners: these are the missionary fields
By ELISE HARRIS
Vatican City, Oct 12, 2014 / 04:17 am (CNA/EWTN News) - In his thanksgiving Mass for the canonization of two Canadian saints Pope Francis said that a true missionary goes out of himself, boldly bringing God’s message of love to all without distinction.
“Missionaries are those who, in docility to the Holy Spirit, have the courage to live the Gospel…they have gone out to call everyone, in the highways and byways of the world,” the Pope said in his Oct. 12 homily.
The Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica was held in thanksgiving for the canonization of Canadian saints François of Laval and Marie of the Incarnation, who served as missionaries in Canada’s New France territory in the 1600s.
On the road to sainthood
God is a God of surprises, Pope preaches
By ANN SCHNEIBLE
Vatican City, Oct 13, 2014 / 10:30 am (CNA/EWTN News) - Speaking of the “God of surprises” in his homily at Mass on Monday, the Holy Father noted the unfortunate inability of the doctors of the law who encountered Christ to receive his message.
“Because these doctors of the law did not understand the signs of the times they asked for an extraordinary sign ((which) Jesus later gave them),” Pope Francis said Oct. 13 during his Mass said at the St. Martha guesthouse chapel in the Vatican. “Why did they not understand? First of all, because they were closed. They were closed in their system.”
“They had perfectly organized the law, a masterpiece. All of the Jews knew what one could do, what one could not do, how far they could go. Everything was organized. And they were safe there.”