KERNERSVILLE — Holy Cross Church recently honored parishioners Terry and Bob Yuzuik (pictured with Oblates of St. Francis de Sales Father Paul Dechant, pastor) as 2016 Humanitarians of the Year.
— John Bunyea, correspondent
‘Your every act should be done with love’
‘Your every act should be done with love’CHARLOTTE — In a letter to parishioners to kick off the 2017 Diocesan Support Appeal, Bishop Peter Jugis shares the words of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “Your every act should be done with love.” These words serve as the theme for this year’s campaign, which funds more than 50 programs and ministries across the Diocese of Charlotte.
“Sacred Scripture is filled with references to love and charity,” he notes. “Love is much more than just an emotion. It calls us to action. It moves us to care for those in need.”
With that in mind, the people of the diocese are encouraged to help meet the 2017 goal of $5,670,000. This represents an increase of $370,000 or 7 percent over 2016, in large part because of the rapidly growing seminarian program.
The diocese currently has 23 men in formation at three seminaries, including seven enrolled at the new St. Joseph College Seminary in Charlotte, and it is anticipated that 10 more men will begin studies this fall. Five men are expected to be ordained to the priesthood on June 17.
The DSA campaign funds more than 50 programs, including the core operations of 23 ministries and agencies that serve thousands of people across the diocese – most notably, Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte for its counseling, food pantries, pregnancy support, refugee resettlement, elder ministry, Respect Life and other programs, as well as the programs and ministries of the Education Vicariate. It also supports multicultural ministries, seminarian education, the permanent diaconate, the annual Eucharistic Congress, and the diocese’s housing corporation.
Catholic Charities receives 34 percent of the funds collected in the campaign. Other DSA funds are allocated to: the Education Vicariate (29 percent); multicultural ministries (15 percent); vocations (10 percent); and the Eucharistic Congress and the diocesan housing ministry (7 percent). Campaign administrative costs are projected to be 5 percent.
Parishioners in all 92 parishes and missions in the diocese fund the annual DSA campaign.
Parishes that exceed their goal get to keep the extra funds they collect, while parishes which fall short of their goal in donations from parishioners make up the shortfall from their operating budgets.
Last year, the DSA campaign raised a record $5,760,369 from 17,360 donors across the diocese.
In his letter, Bishop Jugis said the DSA campaign “gives us an opportunity to ‘put love into action’ through personal prayers and financial gifts that will impact the lives of thousands of our brothers and sisters throughout the diocese.”
“We are able to share our love with others because God first loves us,” he said. “I am confident that you will put your love into action and help us bring Christ’s love to others.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
How to support the DSA
How to support the DSAPLEDGE: Make a pledge in response to a mailing you receive or in-pew appeal at your local parish. An individual DSA pledge may be paid in up to 10 installments by EFT, credit card or check. Pledging allows you to make a greater gift over time, without overburdening your budget. When you make a pledge, you will receive monthly reminder statements in the mail or by email until your pledge is paid, or until December 2017.
DONATE ONLINE: Donate online at www.charlottediocese.org/dsa, either with a one-time gift or recurring monthly gifts via credit or debit card. (If you give online, please do not complete a pledge envelope at your local parish. This could result in having two gift records.)
ONE-TIME DONATIONS: Give a one-time contribution in response to a mailing you receive or in-pew appeal at your local parish. Please make checks payable to the “DSA” and note the name of your parish in the memo line of the check. Do not send cash through the mail.
STOCK DONATION: Make a donation of publicly traded securities and receive the tax benefits for giving appreciated stock. Instructions are online at www.charlottediocese.org/donations.
Where does your money go?
The purpose of the Diocesan Support Appeal is to help provide the annual funding necessary to carry out the mission of our diocese – namely to fulfill our call to “grow ever more perfectly into a community of praise, worship and witness, and to become a leaven of service and sign of peace through love in the Piedmont and Western North Carolina.”
All parishes and missions in the diocese help fund the annual DSA. Parishes that exceed their goal in donations receive a rebate of 100 percent for the additional funds. Parishes that fall short of their goal in donations have the shortfall taken out of their operating budgets.
PARISH/MISSION, CITY: DSA GOAL
Christ the King Mission, Kings Mountain: $4,793
Christ the King Church, High Point: $13,197
Divine Redeemer Church, Boonville: $25,091
Good Shepherd Mission, King: $12,556
Holy Angels Church, Mount Airy: $23,889
Holy Cross Church, Kernersville: $76,740
Holy Family Church, Clemmons: $145,245
Holy Infant Church, Reidsville: $19,625
Holy Redeemer Church, Andrews: $5,757
Holy Spirit Church, Denver: $61,104
Holy Trinity Church, Taylorsville: $6,814
Immaculate Conception Church, Forest City: $39,450
Immaculate Conception Church, Hendersonville: $137,112
Immaculate Conception Mission, Canton: $3,486
Immaculate Heart of Mary Church High Point: $138,040
Immaculate Heart of Mary Mission, Hayesville: $19,757
Our Lady of Consolation Church, Charlotte: $47,789
Our Lady of Fatima Mission, Winston-Salem: $9,542
Our Lady of Grace Church, Greensboro: $107,215
Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission, Cherokee: $4,279
Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, Charlotte: $67,298
Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Monroe: $53,138
Our Lady of Mercy Church, Winston-Salem: $78,145
Our Lady of the Americas Church, Biscoe: $28,424
Our Lady of the Angels Church, Marion: $10,320
Our Lady of the Annunciation Church, Albemarle: $28,199
Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Charlotte: $51,105
Our Lady of the Highways Church, Thomasville: $16,961
Our Lady of the Mountains, Highlands: $16,554
Our Lady of the Rosary Church, Lexington: $19,388
Prince of Peace Mission, Robbinsville: $2,873
Queen of the Apostles Church, Belmont: $85,112
Sacred Heart Church, Brevard: $53,675
Sacred Heart Mission, Wadesboro: $2,320
Sacred Heart Mission, Burnsville: $8,887
Sacred Heart Church, Salisbury: $97,907
St. Aloysius Church, Hickory: $121,253
St. Andrew the Apostle Church, Mars Hill: $8,499
St. Ann Church, Charlotte: $97,137
St. Barnabas Church, Arden: $80,320
St. Benedict Church, Greensboro: $24,484
St. Benedict the Moor Church Winston-Salem: $12,369
St. Bernadette Mission Linville: $32,711
St. Charles Borromeo Church, Morganton: $49,338
St. Dorothy Church, Lincolnton: $26,555
St. Elizabeth Church, Boone: $39,745
St. Eugene Church, Asheville: $79,792
St. Frances of Rome Mission, Sparta: $8,858
St. Francis of Assisi Church, Franklin: $28,086
St. Francis of Assisi Church, Jefferson: $15,535
St. Francis of Assisi Church, Lenoir: $25,859
St. Francis of Assisi Church, Mocksville: $17,736
St. Gabriel Church, Charlotte: $358,991
St. Helen Mission, Spencer Mountain: $5,158
St. James Church, Concord: $113,424
St. James Church, Hamlet: $12,687
St. Joan of Arc, Candler: $27,599
St. John Baptist de La Salle Church, North Wilkesboro: $16,130
St. John Lee Korean Church, Charlotte: $14,756
St. John Neumann Church, Charlotte: $106,482
St. John the Baptist Church, Tryon: $44,590
St. John the Evangelist Church, Waynesville: $16,576
St. Joseph Church, Asheboro: $31,678
St. Joseph Church, Bryson City: $5,947
St. Joseph Church, Kannapolis: $18,515
St. Joseph Church, Newton: $24,330
St. Joseph - Vietnamese Church, Charlotte: $44,545
St. Joseph of the Hills Church, Eden: $11,596
St. Jude Mission, Sapphire: $17,625
St. Lawrence Basilica, Asheville: $71,873
St. Leo the Great Church, Winston-Salem: $153,526
St. Lucien Church, Spruce Pine: $8,617
St. Luke Church, Mint Hill: $101,104
St. Margaret Mary Church, Swannanoa: $23,016
St. Margaret of Scotland Church, Maggie Valley: $12,265
St. Mark Church, Huntersville: $251,697
St. Mary Church, Greensboro: $45,268
St. Mary Church, Shelby: $24,669
St. Mary, Mother of God Church, Sylva: $16,984
St. Matthew Church, Charlotte: $834,178
St. Michael the Archangel Church, Gastonia: $73,256
St. Patrick Cathedral, Charlotte: $84,673
St. Paul the Apostle Church, Greensboro: $106,992
St. Peter Church, Charlotte: $136,095
St. Philip the Apostle Church, Statesville: $47,000
St. Pius X Church, Greensboro: $184,286
St. Stephen Mission, Elkin: $14,426
St. Thérèse Church, Mooresville: $167,200
St. Thomas Aquinas Church, Charlotte: $105,471
St. Vincent de Paul Church, Charlotte: $124,720
St. William Church, Murphy: $21,989
TOTAL :$5,670,000
Feeding the hungry. Clothing the naked. Welcoming the stranger. Loving others as oneself.
Volunteers at five Charlotte area parishes practice the corporal works of mercy in a tangible way each week over the cold winter months, through a collaborative, interfaith effort of the Urban Ministry Center called "Room in the Inn."
Room in the Inn organizes overnight shelters for homeless women, children and men from December until March. These "neighbors," as volunteers caringly call them, are welcomed into the churches' parish halls, where they are provided a hot supper and a bed or cot, then breakfast and a bag lunch to take with them when they leave the next morning. The winter shelter program is part of the Urban Ministry Center's overall effort to help hundreds of people each year in Charlotte experiencing homeless and extreme poverty, providing basic services and strategies to help them get back on their feet.
St. Gabriel, St. Peter, St. Ann and St. Thomas Aquinas churches in Charlotte, plus St. Mark Church in Huntersville, all participate in Room in the Inn, welcoming the homeless one day each week through the winter season. The parishes' dedicated volunteers help bus the neighbors to and from the shelters, set up the tables and cots, cook and serve the meals, and stay overnight with the neighbors. They pray, they hand out clothing and toiletries, they help with laundry, and – perhaps most importantly – they lend a compassionate ear towards the homeless, who can be all too easily ignored on the streets of Charlotte. So far the parishes have provided more than 524 neighbors with overnight shelter and it is only half-way through the winter season.
Matt Daniels, director of Room in the Inn, expects the parishes will provide more than 866 beds for Room in the Inn neighbors this year.
"If we add up all the church beds that have been provided so far this season (Dec. 1, 2015 through Feb. 15, 2016) it comes to 10,594 beds!" Daniels says. "This is quite a large number but we still need more church participation to meet the overall need during the winter months, particularly Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday nights. On many of these nights we do have to turn neighbors away because the demand outpaces our supply. My goal is to be able to provide 200 beds a night from December 1st through March 31st! We aren't there but we're working on it!"
St. Gabriel Church provides an overnight shelter on Thursday evenings. Frank Czaniecki, coordinator of the parish's Room in the Inn ministry, has volunteered for more than 13 years.
"At St. Gabriel's Room in the Inn, I gained so much satisfaction and gratitude from the homeless that I decided we could do more. I took over the ministry and wanted change for our guests, so we got beds instead of mattresses, (and now we provide) some basic clothing – socks, underwear, etc.
"I have been rewarded in many ways by the friendships, appreciation and prayers that they say because of what we do. Volunteers were hard to get, but what we do has been blessed with our parish's spiritual and physical participation."
Close to 200 people are involved in some way at St. Gabriel's ministry – driving vans, serving food, making beds, staying overnight with the guests, doing laundry for them, and more. At least six different volunteers join him each week – God's way of dedicating disciples to do His works of Mercy, he says.
"Room in the Inn is my sanctuary, where I can see how blessed I have been in my life. And I get great joy and satisfaction of knowing I am making someone's life better, even though it's a day at a time. My reward has come this year, when my 17-year-old granddaughter Kaitlyn decided this is what God wanted her to do. Every week she shares her faith and love with our guests and her grandfather."
Dorothy Menze assists Czaniecki at St. Gabriel Church.
"I have been involved with the Room in the Inn ministry for many years," Menze says. "Initially I provided food for our guests. Now I am responsible for coordinating the volunteers that provide the evening meal, bag lunches and breakfast food each Thursday evening. We typically host 20 people each week during the season. There is usually a mix of women, men and some children."
All of the neighbors are welcomed with open arms, she says.
"I think that it is important that we care for others in our community. Service to others was a value that I was raised with, and I have tried to teach my children this same value. This year, I bring my 4-year-old grandson to help us make the beds on some Thursdays. It is challenging to explain what we are doing and why we are doing it to someone so young and so blessed, but I feel it is important for him to begin to see the difficulties that daily life presents to so many."
Each neighbor parishioners welcome has a story and is more than willing to tell it to anyone willing to open their hearts and listen, volunteers say.
"Sadly, since the financial troubles a few years ago, their stories sounded much like our own story but for its outcome," says Deacon Joe Diaz, who coordinates the Room in the Inn ministry for St. Thomas Aquinas Church. "It showed us that if we had made different choices or had a major medical issue, we could have been recipients rather that participants of the ministry. 'There but for the grace of God, go I.'"
St. Thomas Aquinas Church partners with Advent Lutheran, Harrisburg United Methodist and Newell Presbyterian churches in the Room in the Inn ministry, providing shelter to 14 homeless people on Monday evenings. This is the 16th year the parish has taken part in Room in the Inn. Last winter, they sheltered 274 people.
"My wife Carol and I got involved with Room in the Inn about eight years ago as volunteers, providing pillow treats (goodie bags) given to each neighbor that spends the night. We did it as a way to help those less fortunate – much as you make a donation to a charity," says Deacon Diaz.
"It was not until I became involved through the diaconate formation that it became more than just a 'donation.' During the years of formation, my involvement grew to working each evening from set-up at 4 p.m. until the sleepover people arrived, usually by 8 p.m. This time included time eating dinner with the neighbors, which gave us time to meet them as people and not just as homeless."
Partnering with three other churches in the ministry gives Deacon Diaz, a Catholic convert, particular satisfaction, he says.
Lawrence Hauser, who has coordinated the ministry at St. Mark Church since 2013, has a particular empathy towards the neighbors he welcomes to the parish's shelter each Tuesday evening.
"I have a 44-year-old son who was diagnosed with a mental disorder at the end of the first semester of his senior year of college," Hauser explains. "My wife and I experienced him being on the streets for about 10 years. He is doing well now, but my wife and I are thankful for how many people reached out to him."
Hauser calls Room in the Inn "a personally rewarding and revealing experience" for the parish's 100 regular volunteers.
"I am sure I can speak for all volunteers: we have all been blessed by the neighbors," he says.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
CHARLOTTE — A former seminarian has been accused of sexual abuse and assault while serving in youth ministry at Sacred Heart Church in Salisbury.
John Brian Kaup has been named in a civil lawsuit filed by an unnamed female parishioner and her parents, who allege that he raped the 17-year-old the night of Dec. 25, 2013, on church grounds.
Salisbury police investigated the matter in 2016 with no criminal charges filed.
The civil lawsuit, filed Feb. 2 in Mecklenburg County Superior Court, also alleges that Kaup, about 27 at the time, continued to have sex with the teenager until mid-2014, not long before she left for college.
After Kaup left the seminarian program in May 2014, Father John Putnam, who had been pastor at Sacred Heart Church, and not knowing of the allegations, hired him to work as the youth minister at St. Mark Church in Huntersville, where Father Putnam had been transferred as pastor. Kaup worked there until the summer of 2016.
The Diocese of Charlotte and Bishop Peter Jugis are co-defendants in the civil lawsuit, which claims that they were negligent in their oversight of Kaup.
According to the lawsuit, the unnamed plaintiff and her parents are seeking a total of at least $150,000 in actual and punitive damages from Kaup, the diocese and the bishop.
Kaup is no longer employed by the diocese or in ministry in the diocese, according to diocesan spokesman David Hains. Beyond that, Hains said, "we cannot discuss ongoing litigation."
— Catholic News Herald
‘We are joyful disciples”
‘We are joyful disciples”WASHINGTON, D.C. — The National Shrine of the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception is Our Mother’s house. Each year, God’s children return to the stunning church which serves as the home base for the annual March for Life Prayer Vigil to end the tragedy of abortion.
On Jan. 27, thousands of North Carolinians, prolife pilgrims from the Dioceses of Charlotte and Raleigh, joined Charlotte Bishop Peter Jugis for the N.C. Mass to pray for an end to the injustice of abortion.
Looking out over the sea of faces young and old, Bishop Jugis reminded the faithful that they had come as joyful disciples of the Lord to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Lord and to ask Him to bless all of their efforts to protect and save the lives of innocent unborn children.
“We are joyful disciples. Make sure that you always remain as joyful disciples of the Lord and joyful witnesses to the Gospel of life,” Bishop Jugis instructed. “It is the love of Christ ultimately which conquers the evil of abortion. We have Jesus’ promise that He is with us.”
He reminded those gathered what Jesus told His disciples before He ascended into heaven after His resurrection from the dead: ‘Know that I am with you always, even until the end of the world. I am with you always.’ The disciples returned to Jerusalem with joy.
This is the promise He makes to us, Bishop continued. “What is more, as He ascended into heaven, Jesus raised His hands and blessed the disciples as He departed from them. And that is the image Jesus leaves with us. His hands forever raised in blessing us and remaining always with us even until the end of time.
Bishop Jugis said that makes us therefore joyful disciples of the Lord. Joyful witnesses to the Gospel of life.
“The evil of abortion is great but the love of Christ is greater and more powerful,” he explained.
“You have come to the best place possible to help you in your work for the unborn and that is the Holy Mass. Do not underestimate the power of the Eucharist. Christ is alive. Christ, who promised to be with us always is here and we must keep our attention always fixed on Him because it is He whom you are serving for the sanctity of human life.”
In the readings selected for the Mass, from Genesis 1:24-27 and Mark 10:13-16, Bishop Jugis highlighted the message of God with regard to the sanctity of life and how the ‘little ones’ are important to Jesus. He is watching out for them.
“We draw our strength and our inspiration from Jesus and our strength from the Eucharist in Adoration and in holy Communion. Never underestimate the power of the Eucharist in all of your work on behalf of the unborn to bring about change. It’s Jesus’ work,” he stated.
Bishop Jugis stressed that it is essential for all of us to be visible, public witnesses to the sanctity of human life.
“We must continue to tell our society that legalized abortion is unjust, a grave injustice to the little ones,” he said.
“We must continue to ask the question, “What about the human rights of the innocent child in the womb? Why is the right to life of the child in the womb not taken seriously? When are we going to correct this grave injustice?”
Bishop Jugis believes we must constantly place this issue before the conscience of our society in every way possible, to continue to ask the question and continue to try to speak to the conscience of our society.
“May the good Lord bless all that you do, as joyful witnesses of the Lord and joyful witnesses of His Gospel of life,” he said at the end of his homily.
At the conclusion of the Mass, thousands of marchers from the Diocese of Charlotte and the Diocese of Raleigh loaded up on buses and made their way to the March for Life.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
