CHARLOTTE — Frank Garcia, Charlotte Catholic High School's assistant football coach, has been suspended from his coaching job after being accused of assaulting a woman.
Garcia, a former Carolina Panther football player, was arrested Dec. 8 and charged with misdemeanor assault.
He did not coach in the team’s 3A state championship game. Charlotte Catholic defeated Jacksonville in the Dec. 15 game, 17-14.
Garcia remains suspended as of Jan. 10, said Principal Kurt Telford.
Telford said Garcia's employment at the school dated back to 2012 and his only position there was assistant coach.
Garcia has also been off the air as a sports-talk radio show since his arrest. He co-hosted the "Garcia and Bailey" show on Charlotte's WFNZ-AM station.
Garcia played with the Panthers from 1995 to 2000, the Rams from 2001 to 2002, and the Cardinals in 2003.
— Catholic News Herald
CHARLOTTE — One year after his death, Bishop William Curlin’s friends remember him with fondness and love.
Bishop Curlin died Dec. 23, 2017. Champion of the poor, comforter of the sick and the dying, friend of St. Teresa of Calcutta, Bishop Curlin preached the love of Jesus Christ during more than 60 years of priestly ministry, first in the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., and 23 years in the Diocese of Charlotte.
His death during his favorite season – Christmas – was noted by many at his funeral Mass, and it continued to be a source of comfort to his friends as they marked the one-year anniversary of his passing.
During a memorial Mass offered Dec. 23, 2018, at Belmont Abbey in Belmont, near the cemetery where Bishop Curlin is interred, Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari noted that the bishop’s death at Christmas “was perhaps a special gift of divine favor.”
“Bishop Curlin loved Christmas and its celebration,” Abbot Placid said. “His garage was stuffed full of Christmas decorations, and during the holidays every inch of his house was decked out in Christmas finery. No department store Christmas display has ever come anywhere close to matching the Curlin setup!”
“We ought ask ourselves why the bishop went beyond all bounds of extravagance in his enthusiasm for the celebration of Christmas. It certainly wasn’t to impress anyone by having the biggest or best display. It wasn’t because of gifts, because he gave everything away.
“Bishop Curlin surrounded these days with such a display because it was an outward expression of his deep love for Jesus and the profound hope and joy which that love gave him,” he said.
It was “not some naïve sentiment, but rather the expression of his conviction that God ‘destined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ,’” said Abbot Placid, quoting from Ephesians 1:5.
Bishop Curlin’s love of Christmas also reflected “a memorial of God’s never-failing kindness towards lost humanity, towards each one of us sinners,” he said, “especially to the sick, the downtrodden, the homeless, the elderly, the poor and the disheartened.”
Bishop Curlin’s close friend Father Brian Cook, pastor of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem, said he was grateful to Abbot Placid for offering the Dec. 23 memorial Mass. “Bishop Curlin loved Abbot Placid, the monks and the abbey. It was very kind of them all to remember the bishop so lovingly.”
Father Cook said the one-year anniversary of Bishop Curlin’s death “was a difficult day” for him. “We all have experienced a great loss of kindness with the bishop’s passing,” he said. “Along with his transparent faith and kindness, Bishop Curlin’s legacy to the people of God will always be his unwavering devotion to the poor. He knew firsthand of the need and the responsibility of caring for the most vulnerable among us. He assured us that in caring for the poor, they would see Christ within us.”
Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro and Bishop Curlin’s friend and former priest secretary, echoed Father Cook’s comments.
“Bishop Curlin knew the human face of suffering. He rarely preached without mentioning it or the sick and the poor, and the cross.” But “as often as he preached the cross, he personally loved Christmas and all that came with it: the Christ Child, the joy, the gift giving, the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Nativity,” he said.
This past Christmas, he said he considered not putting up a Christmas tree, but the memory of Bishop Curlin spurred him on.
He recounted, “During the decorating, when I was almost finished, came the task of untangling the garland which was hastily put away the year before. I decided to forgo it, but heard in the back of my head the bishop saying, ‘Put it on. Untangle it. Put it on. It gives the tree that “ole timey” Victorian and finished look.’ So I did.
“After the last box was taken up to the attic, I sat down, rather self-satisfied, and lit the tree. With that, my dog Tater came in, circled under the tree, and made a little nest in the tree skirt and sighed that all was right with the world and we were ready for Christmas. I smiled real big inside as I imagined Bishop Curlin saying, ‘See, wasn’t that worth it?’”
“So my tree is still up,” Monsignor Marcaccio continued. “Tater and I take naps and read near it nightly. Every time I walk by it in this Christmas season, I think of Father Christmas, St. Nicholas, and his spiritual son, Bill Curlin.”
Friend Rick Menze, who knew the late bishop closely through the Order of Malta, said he cannot think of Bishop Curlin without also thinking of his late mother.
The day his mother first met Bishop Curlin, Menze recalled, remains “an enduring memory.”
Bishop Curlin loved his two chihuahuas, Missy and Cindy, and he loved Frostys from Wendy’s, Menze explained. One day his mother asked Menze if she could meet the bishop, so one Sunday, they stopped at Wendy’s, picked up a couple of Frostys and went over to the bishop’s house.
“He must have heard us pull up because he met us at the back door and greeted my mom, whom he had never met, like a long lost sister,” Menze recalled. “He immediately invited her into his family room, sat her down, put Missy in her lap and said, ‘Here, you hold the white one while we talk.’
“Bishop picked up Cindy and for the next hour and a half, he spoke with her like she was the only person on Earth.”
“Bishop Curlin’s concern for and ability to connect with others is legendary – a gift that really showed that Sunday,” Menze said. “Afterward, the only thing my mom could talk about was ‘that wonderful man!’”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
Check out nearly-discovered archival footage of Bishop Curlin’s installation as the third bishop of Charlotte and St. Teresa of Calcutta’s historic visit to Charlotte
Bishop Curlin leaves money to aid the poor
CHARLOTTE — When he died, Bishop William Curlin left money in his will to help two causes “dear to his heart”: the poor and women religious.
He gave $50,000 from his estate to an endowment created in his name: the Bishop Curlin Endowment Fund for the Poor in the Foundation of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. Established with an initial gift of $20,000 in 2006, this endowment’s principal now totals more than $200,000.
The endowment supports the work of Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte as well as the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by his close friend St. Teresa of Calcutta, and a community of Carmelite nuns in Maryland whom the late bishop had befriended.
When he learned that an endowment fund had been set up in his name, Bishop Curlin responded in a letter to the diocese, “I pray that in years to come (and long after I am gone) this fund will be able to help the poor in this diocese. There is no finer memorial.”
Monsignor Anthony Marcaccio, pastor of St. Pius X Church in Greensboro, executor of Bishop Curlin’s estate and his close friend, noted that Bishop Curlin’s estate gift to the endowment will “endow the two ways of the apostolic life” – the active and contemplative ministries of the Church, at the local and global levels.
“One of the beneficiaries is the Carmel of Port Tobacco, Maryland, a contemplative house of Carmelite sisters that he knew well from his ministry in the Archdiocese (of Washington, D.C.), but called upon frequently as bishop of Charlotte,” Monsignor Marcaccio said. Bishop Curlin often contacted the sisters with special prayer intentions for individuals or efforts here in the Charlotte diocese, he said.
“Another beneficiary is the Missionaries of Charity, also contemplative, but most often associated with being on the front line in the field of compassion and works of mercy,” Monsignor Marcaccio said. Coupled with the aid to Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte, he said, Bishop Curlin’s estate gift supports “both work and prayer, the Martha and Mary of religious life” in the Church.
The estate gift illustrates “the bishop’s unique love, kindness and compassion,” added another of Bishop Curlin’s close friends, Father Brian Cook, who serves as pastor of St. Leo the Great Church in Winston-Salem.
“Bishop Curlin really supported the work of the foundation and saw its importance in the work of the Church,” added Jim Kelley, the diocese’s development director.
“He was always encouraging people to remember the Church in their estate plans, and he did just that with his estate plan. He was an example of how to live your life loving Jesus and an example of what you do with your financial gifts when you die. I hope more parishioners will follow his example.”
Belmont Abbey College establishes Curlin scholarship
BELMONT — Belmont Abbey College is establishing the Bishop William G. Curlin Scholarship and Bishop Curlin Scholars Program. The Belmont Abbey Board of Trustees hopes to raise an initial $2.5 million to begin the program. The program is anticipated to assist 15 Curlin Scholars per year, up to at least 60 scholars.
Based on Bishop Curlin’s episcopal motto, “Sentire Cum Christo” (“Have in you the mind of Christ”), students who receive the scholarship will gain firsthand knowledge of what it means to know, love and serve Christ. They will participate in meetings where specific readings, lectures and speakers will integrate themes of service; work with ministries to gain firsthand experience caring for the poor, sick and suffering; participate in summer internships with non-profits; and go on mission trips to broaden their horizons.
“After listening to Bishop Curlin you felt you personally knew Mother Teresa and wanted to follow her good advice of never worrying about numbers, but instead helping one person at a time and always starting with the person nearest you. That is the reason for creating the Bishop Curlin Scholarship. It will help young men and women follow Bishop Curlin in his imitation of Mother Teresa in service to those most in need wherever they are met,” said Dr. Bill Thierfelder, president of Belmont Abbey College.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter