CHARLOTTE — St. Joseph Vietnamese Church will host its annual Tet Festival Jan. 27-29, celebrating the start of the Lunar New Year.
The festival to welcome in the “Year of the Rooster” will include live music, traditional Vietnamese food and games, as well as performances by the parish’s own Hidden Dragon Lion Dance team.
The festival will be held from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, Jan. 27; 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28; and 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 29. Admission is free.
— Catholic News Herald
The Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) remains one of the U.S. Catholic Bishops primary efforts to fight poverty at the grassroots level.
The annual CCHD national collection, held in November, is a source of both national and local funds to support organizations addressing the root causes of poverty in America.
Seventy-five percent of collected funds support CCHD’s National Grant Program, while 25 percent of the funds stay in the Diocese of Charlotte to support local CCHD poverty fighting efforts. This past spring, 12 local CCHD grants totaling $39,000 were distributed to non-profits located in nine cities of the diocese: Belmont, Brevard, Charlotte, Gastonia, Greensboro, Hickory, Shelby, Waynesville and Winston-Salem.
In the Diocese of Charlotte, the Local CCHD Grant Program is sponsored by Catholic Charities. Information about this grant program can be found on Catholic Charities’ website at www.ccdoc.org/cchdcrs.
Grant funded projects address poverty (and/or related social concerns) at its root causes. Non-profit organizations that give people who are poor a voice in how to address their struggles with poverty are especially encouraged to apply.
Grants provide funds of up to $5,000. The deadline for completed applications to be submitted via email, for consideration in the 2017 round of grants, is Feb. 15.
All non-profit applicants and their projects for which funds are sought are reviewed according to stated grant guidelines and eligibility criteria, including a review of the conformity of the organization and proposed project with Catholic social and moral teachings.
Applications from non-profits which are not Catholic entities of the diocese must be accompanied by a letter of endorsement from a pastor or deacon familiar with the non-profit’s work.
— Joseph Purello
CHARLOTTE — All Catholics are invited to mark the 44th anniversary of Roe v. Wade on its actual date with a special candlelight walk in uptown Charlotte Sunday, Jan. 22.
Sponsored by C-PLAN, the event will begin with 5 p.m. Mass at St. Peter Church, followed by a silent half-mile walk by candlelight to the federal co
urthouse to pray for an end to abortion. The walk will begin promptly at 6 p.m. in front of the church.
St. Peter Church is located at 507 S. Tryon St. in Charlotte. Parking is available in the underground garage next to the church.
For details, go to www.prolifecharlotte.org/event/candlelight-walk-for-life,
CHARLOTTE — Participants in the annual National Catholic Office for the Deaf Pastoral Week Jan. 13-17 had an unusual and beautiful opportunity to worship together at Mass Jan. 15 at St. Matthew Church. Deaf priests and some hearing priests trained in American Sign Language signed throughout the Mass, even signing parts of the Eucharistic Prayer.
During the one-hour Mass, sign-language interpreters were positioned on each side of the sanctuary, interpreting the Mass and leading deaf and hearing-impaired parishioners in signing the Mass parts and songs.
Monsignor Mauricio West, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte, served as the main celebrant. Eleven priests attending the conference concelebrated Mass.
More than 100 members of the National Catholic Office for the Deaf from around the U.S. and Canada attended the Mass at St. Matthew Church and also the conference held at the Charlotte Crowne Plaza Executive Park Hotel in south Charlotte. The annual conference gives laity and clergy the opportunity to gather and receive valuable training and resources for deaf ministry in their dioceses and parishes.
St. Matthew Church has offered deaf ministry for its parishioners for more than 10 years under the leadership of pastor Monsignor John McSweeney.
“We are honored to host this national group,” Monsignor McSweeney said. “A very important aspect of our Masses at St. Matthew is the signing for the deaf. We are delighted that St. Matthew is able to host this event.”
Father Shawn Carey, a deaf priest from the Archdiocese of Boston who serves on the board of directors for the National Catholic Office for the Deaf, signed the Gospel reading at Mass.
“Deaf ministry is important because oftentimes the deaf people feel isolated, they have no access to faith, and they do need faith to have a good life and serve the Lord. They have to. Without that, then they are lost sheep, like an island all alone. But if they have faith, we can encourage them to continue their faith and follow the call of God.”
He expressed that for many years the Catholic Church was unsure of how best to minister to the deaf.
Father Carey, who is deaf, admitted that his vocation had its challenges, as he was initially denied entry to seminary. He was encouraged to persevere when he attended a movie providentially called “Signs,” where the main character becomes a priest at the end of the movie. He knew then he had to continue his journey towards the priesthood. He found St. Patrick’s Seminary in California, which offered a program for deaf men studying to become priests. They had interpreters to help seminarians study for the priesthood.
“Now I am a priest for almost eight years!” he said. He was ordained in 2009 by Cardinal Sean O’Malley at Holy Cross Cathedral in Boston and now serves as the director of the deaf apostolate for the Archdiocese of Boston.
Father Matt Alcombright, pastor of Mary, Mother of Hope Church in Springfield, Mass., is the director of deaf ministry for the Diocese of Springfield. His parish is the home of deaf ministry for the diocese. He is not hearing impaired but is trained in American Sign Language. Father Alcombright served as homilist at the Jan. 15 Mas.
“I was ordained in 2012 and became director of deaf ministry a month after my ordination,” he explained. “Deaf ministry is important to the Church because, as the Church teaches, we are supposed to have one faith, one people, one language – universality – and that includes the deaf.”
“As the Church documents say, it’s ‘full, active and conscious participation,’ so if you have deaf people with no interpreter or nothing for them, there is no participation, there is no consciousness of what is happening,” he said.
“It’s so important as to what the Church wants us to do. The Church wants us to provide these ministries not only to the deaf but those with any kind of disability. We need to provide for them,” he said.
Laureen Lynch-Ryan, a regional board president for the National Catholic Office for the Deaf, helped to organize the annual conference.
“The National Catholic Office for the Deaf hopes to provide support for pastoral workers throughout the nation, so we that can maintain deaf ministry and provide education not only to deaf children but to deaf adults and their families, so we can help them continue to grow in the Catholic faith,” she said.
Local deaf and hearing-impaired parishioners also attended the conference and some served as lectors at Mass.
Ron Kolodziej, a parishioner of Holy Spirit Church in Denver, signed the first reading. Deaf since the age of 5 after contracting the measles, Kolodzielj said he feels called to assist others in hearing the Word of God and growing in their faith. For more than a decade, he has served the deaf and hearing-impaired community in the Diocese of Charlotte, volunteering as an interpreter and also in faith formation ministry.
One of those whom Kolodziej assisted is a young man named Patrick Vellia, whom he has helped since Vellia was a teen. Vellia signed the second reading at Mass Jan. 15.
“Deaf ministry is an important aspect of the Church because it provides communication access to the deaf and hard of hearing members of the Church in a medium that they may receive the Word of God,” Vellia said.
Vellia participated in Life Teen during his high school years and founded the Joyful Hands Ministry at Gardner-Webb University while attending college there. After Mass, the Joyful Hands Choir performed a special song for the congregation.
Jona Maiorano, coordinator of deaf ministry at St. Matthew Church, believes the National Catholic Office for the Deaf has worked diligently to compile or create resources that are accessible to persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and then disseminate that information to parishes.
“They have developed religious education resources that are available to churches or parents for providing religious education to their children” she said. “NCOD also provides churches with training on how to work with their deaf ministries, in addition to providing spiritual opportunities and training for deaf and hard of hearing Catholics that want to be involved in the Catholic Church. Their efforts enable Catholics who are deaf and hard of hearing the ability to live their faith fully.”
The St. Matthew Knights of Columbus hosted a banquet for the conference participants after the Mass.
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
For more information
The National Catholic Office for the Deaf is dedicated to providing pastoral ministry to persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, so they may fully participate in the life of the Church. The NCOD does this by providing resources to bishops for developing and supporting deaf ministry programs, develop and provide religious education materials and provides pastoral training opportunities. To learn more, go to www.ncod.org
Bishop Jugis announces Marian theme for Eucharistic Congress on Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God Jan. 1
CHARLOTTE — The new year brings with it some special Marian anniversaries in the Church, Bishop Peter Jugis noted in his homily at Mass on Jan. 1, the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
“We begin this New Year 2017 as we begin every new year – continuing the Christmas season and honoring Mary, the Mother of God on the Octave of Christmas,” he said during Mass celebrated at St. Patrick Cathedral.
But, Bishop Jugis noted, “This New Year is special because in 2017, we are marking several important Marian anniversaries. So it seems appropriate that on this first day, drawing attention to our Blessed Mother Mary, we should make note of the special anniversaries coming up in 2017.”
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. This year also marks the 100th anniversary of St. Maximilian Kolbe establishing the Militia of Mary Immaculate.
“We know the sufferings, of course, that Maximilian Kolbe underwent during the occupation of Poland,” Bishop Jugis said. “That movement he established as a young priest in 1917, the Militia of Mary Immaculate, was a program of spiritual renewal through dedication and consecration to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since then, it has grown into a worldwide movement of spiritual renewal.”
Because of these two Marian anniversaries, he continued, some have suggested that 2017 should be called “The Year of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
“There will be big festivities going on this year in Fatima, Portugal,” he said. “At Fatima, Our Lady reveals her Immaculate Heart to us. She says, ‘In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.’ We might ask the question: Triumph over what? And, of course, we know the answer: Triumph over all evil.”
Mary’s purity, sinlessness and holiness triumphs over all evil as we see in her Immaculate Conception, he said. God allowed her, at the moment of her conception, to triumph over original sin, crushing the head of the serpent. “In the end she says, ‘My Immaculate Heart will triumph,’ she assures us.”
Bishop Jugis shared that there is another interesting anniversary this year. Thirty years ago on Jan. 1, 1987, St. John Paul II announced a Marian holy year for the Church, to run mid-1987 through mid-1988. To celebrate that Marian holy year, the pope wrote an encyclical about Mary, “Redemptoris Mater.”
“To help us celebrate these special anniversaries this year, we chose a line from Mary’s Magnificat as the theme of this year’s Eucharistic Congress: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,’" Bishop Jugis announced.
“Those words come from the account of the Blessed Mother’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth, the visitation. At her visitation to her cousin Elizabeth, Our Lady, with the Infant Jesus in her womb, is filled with joy and she praises God: ‘My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord.’”
Her words are fittingly echoed in the theme of the 2017 Eucharistic Congress, he continued.
"When we are nourished with the Body and Blood of Christ in Holy Communion and we receive Christ within us, we receive abundant graces, abundant holiness, so that our lives become a living proclamation of the Lord’s greatness, His goodness and His holiness.”
“The Eucharist manifests itself by our living proclamation of God’s goodness and greatness in our lives,” he said.
The first day of the Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte is also a Marian holy day: the feast of the birth of Mary, Sept. 8.
“We begin the Year of Our Lord 2017 begging the maternal intercession and protection of our Blessed Mother. What a great way to begin a new year – asking the Holy Mother of God to protect us and to intercede for us,” Bishop Jugis said.
At the conclusion of his homily, he drew from a beautiful prayer in the Liturgy of the Hours, from the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Bishop Jugis shared that he believes we can all use this verse in living our faith this year under the watchful eye of Our Blessed Mother: “O Jesus, help us to live as worthy sons and daughters of so noble a mother.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
