‘Jubilant praises’
Divine Redeemer Church celebrates 15th anniversary of dedication
BOONVILLE — Members of Divine Redeemer Parish celebrated the 15th anniversary of the dedication of their church Aug. 15 with the bishop who originally consecrated it: Bishop Peter Jugis.
Divine Redeemer was one of the first churches Bishop Jugis dedicated after being installed as the fourth Bishop of Charlotte. Fifteen years later, he returned to the church and recalled the words he had prayed during the dedication Mass – worshiping the Lord “with jubilant praises” and asking Him to sanctify the church so that it could be used for the celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, in which the people could in turn be sanctified through the reception of the sacraments.
Bishop Jugis noted, “How good it is to return today to celebrate, on the solemnity of our Blessed Mother Mary, to this house of prayer, the church of the Divine Redeemer, where the love of God has been celebrated for 15 years and the love of God is still present today through the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Mass.”
“Jubilant praises,” he said, referring to the prayer of dedication, are what he heard at the church’s dedication 15 years ago and what he heard again that day. “Jubilant praises, with the whole community singing jubilant praises to God.”
“May God increase in us His love that we celebrate here because, as St. John Paul II has said, opening one’s heart to the love of God also opens us to love our brothers, and we grow as a Christian community of faith, holiness and love,” he said.
Bishop Jugis concelebrated the Mass with Father Enrique González, pastor; Father Fidel Melo, vicar of Hispanic Ministry; and Father Eulogio Álvarez. Deacon Michael Langsdorf assisted and seminarian Camilo Salas-Bowen also served.
After Communion, Father González led the congregation in praying, in Spanish and in English, a prayer of thanksgiving expressing gratitude to God for His blessings over the 15 years parishioners have “lived together as family.”
After Mass parishioners enjoyed a traditional Mexican potluck called a “compartir,” with the festivities seasoned with Mariachi music.
For Jaime Ruiz, one of the oldest parishioners at the parish, the community has grown tremendously over the years. “We started with eight people and now we are a very large community, thank God and our Blessed Mother.”
Juana Silva de Rodríguez, another founding member of the parish, said the community grew due to the interest of parishioners like her who were “calling families one by one to integrate.”
Divine Redeemer Church’s roots run deep in Yadkin County. In the 1980s, a significant number of Hispanics arrived in the area, northwest of Winston-Salem, as migrants working in the tobacco industry.
They were predominately Catholic, and the Diocese of Charlotte responded by establishing a migrant ministry, eventually named Cristo Rey (“Christ the King”), in Yadkinville in the summer of 1982 to serve families in Yadkin and south Surry counties. The four Catholic parishes of Winston-Salem – Our Lady of Mercy, St. Leo the Great, St. Benedict the Moor and Our Lady of Fatima – founded the ministry in a joint effort.
In 1985, La Iglesia del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus (“Sacred Heart of Jesus Church”) was established 20 miles north in Dobson. The local community converted a former housing facility for migrant workers into a church. Although the structure had no running water and relied on kerosene heater for warmth, it was utilized as the church for eight years.
Father Joseph Waters, a pioneer in ministry to Hispanics in the diocese, was appointed director of diocesan migrant ministry in 1982. He led a search for Spanish-speaking priests to celebrate Mass for the Hispanic communities in the western Piedmont.
By 1986, the growth of Hispanic Catholics in the area prompted the diocese to buy a former hardware store just south of Yadkinville to provide a permanent pastoral center.
Father Joseph Mack, then-pastor of St. Joseph Church in Asheboro, celebrated the first Mass in the hardware-store church in 1990. In December then-Bishop John Donoghue blessed the facility, giving it the name Cristo Rey (“Christ the King”).
The number of migrant families permanently settling the Yadkinville area continued to rise, and by 1995, Sunday Mass attendance was so high that some worshipers were forced to stand outside.
A second location was found south of Dobson and the building was converted into a church in 1994. Soon, the Hispanic population outgrew both the Sagrado Corazon de Jesus and Cristo Rey facilities.
Both communities launched a plan to unite and build a new church between the two existing centers of worship for all of Yadkin County’s Catholics.
Twenty acres were purchased in Boonville, at the midpoint between Dobson and Yadkinville, and in 2003 an 18,000-square-foot, $1.5 million building was constructed to serve as a worship, educational and gathering space. Named “Divino Redentor” (“Divine Redeemer”), the church features traditional Mexican architecture, stucco and a red tile roof to pay homage to the heritage of the founding Catholics of the community. The sanctuary’s crucifix and altar were also crafted in Mexico.
Father Melo, among the first native Spanish-speaking priests to serve the community, said the church was designed so that parishioners, mostly who emigrated from Mexico, can feel at home.
“We have a great responsibility to make felt the strong presence of the Catholic Church, especially by demonstrating our identity as Christian Catholics,” he noted.
— César Hurtado, Reportero hispano
In gratitude for ‘a beautiful vocation’
Jubilee Mass commemorates priestly ordination milestones
CHARLOTTE — Priests celebrating milestone anniversaries were honored Aug. 1 with a Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral offered by Bishop Peter Jugis.
The Mass, held as part of the annual Priests’ Colloquium in Charlotte July 31-Aug 2, recognized priests marking their jubilee anniversaries of ordination of 25 years or more this year.
Honorees were Father Gabriel Meehan (60 years); Benedictine Father Francis Forster (55 years); Benedictine Father Arthur Pendleton (55 years); Father Louis Canino, OFM (50 years); and Father Michael Kottar (25 years).
Two other priests were also recognized at the Mass: Father Frank O’Rourke, pastor of St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte, and Father Richard Benonis, pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Church in Maggie Valley. Both pastors recently announced they plan to retire this year.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis expressed his joy in offering prayers of thanksgiving and blessing upon his brother priests celebrating ordination anniversaries this year, as well as those beginning retirement.
“We pray in this Mass that God continues to shower and bestow His blessings upon all of them,” Bishop Jugis said.
Directing his comments to his fellow priests, he said, “The anniversary of a priesthood ordination is always celebrated with sentiments of gratitude to the Lord – gratitude for the opportunity to serve, for being called to serve, and gratitude for being called to enter so profoundly, so intimately into communion with Christ the High Priest to be a ministerial participant in His eternal, holy priesthood.”
Being a priest enables them to help people on the path to salvation, he said, “by offering them the sacraments, by offering them the Gospel teaching and by shepherding them with love and with courage as the Good Shepherd would.”
“Serving the salvation of our brothers and sisters, we all know, my brothers – and it is good to be reminded at a time like this – of the important work in which we are involved, that the most important work on the face of the earth is definitely the work of salvation. God has consecrated us for this most important work to which He has called us.”
The priesthood, he emphasized, is “a very beautiful vocation.”
“The faithful realize this,” he said. “That is why, as we have been hearing over the past year or more, that they demand holiness from their priests because they realize the beauty of the vocation and the intimacy and love of Christ that is present in that vocation.”
But jubilee anniversaries are not just a time to express gratitude, Bishop Jugis continued. They offer the opportunity for priests to “think back on the amazing journey that we have had with God over the years ... all beginning from that discernment that takes place in accepting a call to the priesthood.”
“Many times,” he continued, discernment “is initiated by something as simple as someone saying, ‘I think you have a vocation to the priesthood.’ And many times, that is the idea that gets planted and starts the wheels turning and the mind thinking. ‘Maybe someone sees something in me that I do not yet see.’ And that begins a process of discernment.
“Then in the months and the years that follow that initial offer – which ultimately is coming from God – reflecting on all of the events and circumstances in our lives, all of the people and places that have been placed in our lives, eventually working through all of that and seeing God’s hand at work in everything that has been happening to us to that point – eventually coming to the conviction that God indeed has chosen you for this vocation, that God indeed has chosen you.”
Bishop Jugis reflected on a line from the opening prayer for the jubilarian Mass: “O God, bless those whom You have chosen for the special ministry of sanctification.”
“God has chosen you, giving you the grace of totally dedicating yourself to God, giving you the grace of dedicating yourself totally to the service of His Church and His people, and giving you the grace of celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom.”
“That conviction,” he continued, “can only lead, and only led, to one response: ‘Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.’”
Discernment of God’s will does not end at their ordination, he also noted. “Even through the years of one’s service, the experience of God’s special affection, that you have been chosen, continues to mature.
‘That special affection continues to sustain the vocation bringing us to events like this, anniversary events, to reflect back and look over the whole course and say, ‘God has been good. God is good. God has been very good to me.’”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
