CHARLOTTE — Hundreds of people singing the joyful strains of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" helped ring in Christmas during midnight Mass Dec. 25 at St. Patrick Cathedral.
The cathedral was filled with parishioners of all ages for the midnight liturgy, which was celebrated by Bishop Peter Jugis.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis reminded those gathered that God "wants to draw us into the circle of His salvation and His love," and he encouraged them to draw close to God through the infant Jesus this Christmas.
"Throughout all of salvation history, He has been reaching out to us trying to draw us closer to Himself, and in Bethlehem He accomplished that in a most powerful way," Bishop Jugis said.
God, who created us and knows our weaknesses and our deepest longings of the heart, came to us in the form of an infant so that we would be able to love Him more easily, he said.
"Just think of the genius of this! What do human beings really love?" Bishop Jugis continued. "He knows that we love babies. How can you not love a baby?"
Just then – as if on cue – a baby in the congregation began to laugh and coo, to everyone's delight.
"In order to draw us to Himself, and to draw us more closely to His love, He comes as an infant child. The Son of God comes as a little child – and we are naturally drawn to Him."
"How can you resist loving Him? How can you resist loving a baby, when the baby is God?
"The tenderness, the love and the affection that we have for the infant in the manger is ultimately tenderness, love and affection (we have) for the Son of God, Jesus."
Throughout His public ministry, Jesus continues to encourage us to draw near to God, reminding us of His love for us and calling us to repent of our sins. Jesus gives us His own Body and Blood in the Eucharist, He sends us the Holy Spirit, and He reminds us that He is with us until the end of time.
"How can we run away from that love, first demonstrated to us in the Child at Bethlehem?"
"Christmas is the feast of God's love – God coming to live with us, to save us, God coming towards us. And at Christmas, we are drawn to love God in return," he said.
God's love should transform us and move us to reconcile with others and let go of past grievances, Bishop Jugis said.
"God is calling you close to Himself again this Christmas through the love you have now for the infant Jesus. So spend some time looking into the eyes of that infant Child in the crib, and love Him. Because that is God's design for bringing you to experience His love," he said.
"May God bless all of you and your families this Christmas and keep all of you in His tender loving care," he prayed.
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, editor. Photos by John Cosmas, correspondent.
BELMONT — Deacon John “Zeke” Panzica has been assigned to Queen of the Apostles Church in Belmont by Bishop Peter J. Jugis, effective Nov. 28.
Deacon Panzica and his wife recently located to the Charlotte area from the Diocese of Rockville Centre in New York. He was ordained May 18, 2013.
Estate gift is largest in the history of the Catholic Church in North Carolina
ARDEN — An unexpected windfall has come to St. Barnabas Church through the generosity of a couple that quietly left the parish $3.6 million after their deaths. It is the single largest estate gift in the history of the Catholic Church in North Carolina.
Dennis Kushler passed away last October at the age of 84. He and his wife Mary had been members of the Arden parish since retiring to the area in 2003. Mary Kushler died in 2014, and after Dennis Kushler’s death, the parish learned that the Kushlers had made arrangements in their will to leave an endowment of more than $3.6 million to the church they called home.
It is the largest estate gift in either the Diocese of Charlotte or the Diocese of Raleigh, according to diocesan officials – including any gifts to the dioceses or any diocesan entity.
The Kushlers’ endowment will provide the parish with an estimated $175,000 annual income initially, and it will grow over time.
It is a general purpose endowment, so the money can be used to help in whatever way the parish decides.
Not much is known about the Kushlers, as they came to St. Barnabas Church in their retirement years after having been registered members of Immaculate Conception Church in Hendersonville. They had no children and had been married for 20 years.
Father Adrian Porras, pastor of St. Barnabas Church, celebrated both Kushlers’ funeral Masses at St. Barnabas Church.
“We at St. Barnabas are so fortunate to receive such a significant endowment from the Kushlers,” Father Porras said. “Dennis and his wife Mary were members of St. Barnabas for some time. Unfortunately, because of health reasons they were not very active in the parish when I arrived in 2008. Nevertheless, their amazing generosity to our parish is deeply appreciated.”
Jim Kelley, director of development for the Charlotte diocese, is grateful for the Kushlers’ unexpected gift to the parish of nearly 1,000 registered households in the Asheville metro area.
“We’ve known since 1998 that the Kushlers were going to do something for the Church with their estate, but we didn’t know exactly what they were going to do,” Kelley said. “We are so grateful for this transformative gift.”
The endowment will be administered through the Diocese of Charlotte Foundation. Established in 1994, the foundation has grown to encompass 243 endowments and more than $39 million in total assets.
To date, more than 900 people have indicated that they are making gifts to the Church in their estates, anywhere from the thousands to the millions of dollars, Kelley said.
“We are finding more and more people in the diocese are remembering the Church and the diocese in their estates,” he said. “They want to leave a legacy to their faith.”
Endowments, he noted, provide an ongoing source of support, as the principal funds remain intact and the recipient entity receives funds from the income.
“What Mr. and Mrs. Kushler did will have an impact on that parish forever,” he said.
“We encourage people to commit to stewardship as a way of life. It involves people giving their time, their talents and their treasure in service to the Church. An estate gift enables people to give of their treasure after their death,” Kelley said.
For more information about establishing an endowment or providing an estate gift, contact Ray-Eric Correia, diocesan director of planned giving, at 704-370-3364 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
CHARLOTTE — “It’s a marvelous gift.” That’s how Jeannie Wray describes the past 10 years she’s spent as executive director of MiraVia, a ministry devoted to helping women in crisis pregnancies.
Wray joined MiraVia (then called Room at the Inn) in 2006 at the invitation of former director Cindy Brown. The ministry needed a fundraiser and Wray, who was working at a museum at the time, was intrigued by the opportunity.
“I just happened to run into Cindy at a restaurant in Rock Hill. I happened to mention to Cindy that I was retiring in a year and if she knew of anyone who needed a good fundraiser to let me know. She said, ‘Well, I do! At least, we will in a year.’ So that’s where it started.”
Wray succeeded Brown as executive director in 2007.
In 2007, Wray led a capital campaign to build the first maternity home for college student mothers, a particularly vulnerable population that often feels they have to choose between their college educations or their unborn children.
The Benedictine monks of Belmont Abbey agreed to lease MiraVia four acres needed for the ambitious project to help college-aged pregnant women to choose life and build independent, healthy lives for themselves and their children, without having to drop out of college.
“We could not have done that project without that gift,” Wray said.
Opened in 2012, the 10,000-square-foot maternity home next to Belmont Abbey College can house up to 15 young women with an unplanned pregnancy who want to complete their college education and care for their babies. To date, MiraVia has housed 13 mothers and 10 children on the campus of Belmont Abbey College, free of charge. And since its founding in 1994, MiraVia has helped nearly 7,000 women and their children.
Wray recalls some of her greatest challenges with MiraVia came during the fundraising, development and building of the MiraVia home.
“Navigating state requirements and working with architects was a huge undertaking,” she said. “We raised $2.3 million in basically a recession. We reached out to our supporters, who were wonderfully generous. There were a couple of donors who passed away and left us a gift in their wills.”
She is thankful for the community support, especially the Knights of Columbus, who raised $500,000, and the parishes across the diocese who made gifts to MiraVia.
“The Lord provided!” she exclaimed.
One of her fondest memories is of a Mass celebrated on the first Lent they were in the maternity home, in the small chapel at MiraVia. Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari, chancellor of Belmont Abbey College, and some of MiraVia’s donors joined Wray, MiraVia staff and the young women and their babies to thank God for His blessing of the new facility.
“It was incredibly moving,” Wray recalled. “That was a wonderful experience. I will never forget that.”
Wray also remembers fondly the milestones the babies have achieved during their time in her care.
“I remember when each of the babies came home, their first steps…and the first time they called me by name,” she said with emotion welling up in her voice.
“I’m really proud of every one of our young women who completed their degrees,” she said. “They work hard to be good mothers. In the face of all of their difficulties, they understood the gift (of MiraVia) and worked hard to achieve their goals.”
She says she is a much stronger Catholic thanks to her work with the pro-life ministry. “I am much more prayerful. There is so much power in prayer! Every turn, every difficulty – our prayers have been answered. I know the Lord has an enormous army of angels watching over MiraVia. I feel so protected by the Divine here.”
Wray said she wants MiraVia’s success to inspire others.
“I hope it is a standard that others hope to achieve. I think it’s a ground-breaking program. I hope MiraVia inspires other places to find the resources to duplicate the program. I would like to see one next to every Catholic college in the country.”
People from more than six states have inquired about the program, she noted, and there has also been international interest.
Her plan is to remain with MiraVia through March, to help guide the next executive director and assist with the state re-licensing review that will take place in early 2017.
After she retires, Wray said, she plans to spend time with her family and do some gardening. “I’m going to sleep and go to daily Mass,” she laughed.
“I know people talk about ‘once in a lifetime experiences,’” Wray said. “I know with every step (in my life) that the Lord was preparing me to work with MiraVia to develop this program. It has been an honor to give back to the community.”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
Life of Father Tolton, his family held up as example
Life of Father Tolton, his family held up as exampleHICKORY — Black Catholics must learn and embrace their history if they want to serve Jesus Christ and His Church in a more profound manner when facing the challenges of today.
That was one of the messages from Rev. Canon A. Gerard Jordan of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pa., and Deacon Curtiss Todd of Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte during a Day of Reflection Nov. 19 at the Catholic Conference Center, hosted by the Diocese of Charlotte’s African American Affairs Ministry in honor of Black Catholic History Month.
The annual event drew more than 125 people from parishes in Asheville, Charlotte, Greensboro, Monroe and Winston-Salem.
Pictured: More than 125 people from across the Diocese of Charlotte, including Naomi McDowell Byrd from Our Lady of Consolation Church, participated in a Day of Reflection at the Catholic Conference Center in Hickory, sponsored by the diocesan African American Affairs Ministry. The program featured a talk by Rev. Canon A. Gerard Jordan of Daylesford Abbey in Paoli, Pa., who spoke on the life of Father Augustus Tolton, the Church’s first recognizable African American priest. Father Jordan is pictured below with Our Lady of Consolation Church’s Youth in Action members Jovanka Gonzalez, Catherine Hill, Chimmy Oduh, Amily James and Anthony Duliepre (behind James). (Photos by Patricia L. Guilfoyle, Catholic News Herald)
Father Jordan serves as special assistant to the postulator heading up the cause of sainthood for Father Augustus Tolton, the Church’s first recognizable African American priest.
Father Jordan gave a detailed account of Father Tolton’s life, even enlisting young audience members from Our Lady of Consolation Parish’s Youth in Action group to portray members of the Tolton family as he told his stories.
Using St. Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, 4:7-11, as the theme for his talk, he encouraged participants to look to Father Tolton and his family as an example of Christian witness.
Augustus Tolton was born a slave in 1854 on a plantation near Brush Creek, Mo. His father left to join the Union Army during the Civil War. In 1862, his mother escaped with her three children by rowing them across the Mississippi River and settling in Quincy, Ill.
She insisted on raising her family Catholic in their new home, and the entire Tolton family became active in their parish. Young “Gus” showed great devotion to God at a young age, but he had to leave one Catholic school because of threats of bullying. He found a haven at St. Peter Parish and School, where he learned to read and write and was confirmed at age 16.
He was encouraged to discern his vocation to the priesthood by the local foreign-born white priests. The Franciscans who taught him at St. Francis College (now Quincy University) helped him gain acceptance to a seminary in Rome, since none in the United States would accept him. He was ordained for the Propaganda Fide Congregation in Rome in 1886, expecting to become a missionary in Africa. Instead, he was sent back to Quincy, where he eventually served as pastor in one of the local parishes. There he endured racism, physical threats and abuse from white parishioners and fellow clergy until he moved to the Archdiocese of Chicago in 1889.
In 1894 Father Tolton spearheaded the building of St. Monica Church for the growing number of black Catholics in Chicago. He became widely popular for his service to the poor, his preaching, and his commitment to ministering to Catholics of all ethnicities and backgrounds. Working himself to exhaustion, he died on July 9, 1897, at the age of 43, after suffering heat stroke upon returning home from a retreat for the priests of the archdiocese.
Father Tolton is among four black Catholics celebrated in the African American Catholic community whose sainthood causes have been opened. The Vatican is now reviewing the 3,000 pages of documents from Church and civil archives on Father Tolton’s life, as well as documentation for two reported miracles attributed to his intercession and over 50 sworn testimonials of people who say they received a divine favor through his aid.
Through his detailed investigation into Father Tolton’s life, Father Jordan said he has been inspired by the priest in his own ministry as the first black in his abbey community just outside Philadelphia.
“It was his knowing and his love for the Gospel that spilled over into my life,” Father Jordan said, enabling him to overcome the racism and other obstacles he experienced on his own journey to the priesthood.
Father Tolton’s spirituality flowed from the Eucharist, Father Jordan noted. “Everything he did started from the altar.”
Today, he continued, black Catholics must be strengthened by the sacraments, especially the Eucharist. Attending Mass, and insisting that one’s children also go to Mass, is about getting spiritual nourishment that “allows us to be renewed so we can make it six more days out of the week,” he said.
Deacon Curtiss Todd from Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte speaks to the group.Daily prayer and the cultivation of silence are also important to deepening one’s relationship with God, he said.
And just as Father Tolton and his family did, black Catholics today must apply their faith in every aspect of their lives, he said. Serving the parish in various ministries such as lectors or parish council members, helping the poor with more than just an occasional hand-out, educating and motivating young people, respecting and remaining close to one’s elders -- these are responsibility of every Catholic, but especially for black Catholics.
“Because (his spirituality) was rooted in the Gospel,” Father Jordan said, Father Tolton “took his success and remained faithful ... Quit teaching your children to be successful. Teach them to be faithful. We have lost that. Y’all want them to be doctors and lawyers and judges and priests and nuns, and you say, ‘Be successful. Make momma and daddy proud.’ Teach them to be faithful no matter where they are in life.”
The Tolton family and the religious who taught the young boy were essential to his becoming a priest despite all the odds, Father Jordan said. He pleaded with people to encourage religious vocations among young men and women today.
“It took a whole community to get this man to Rome to study and endure the bigotry and racism and hardships of life, but he got there – and it wasn’t on his own,” he said.
“Your first church is your household. You’re the pastor. Your very first school is your household. You’re the teacher,” he emphasized.
He said Father Tolton and his family serve as an example to all black Catholic families today, to encourage them to keep moving on their path to holiness. That heritage must be honored by learning about and living one’s faith, he said.
“It was families like his and others who allow us to worship in the church of our choice, the church of our baptism! You’re not there just because your mama signed you up. You’re not there just because you got a house in the neighborhood. You’re not even there because you bought the bricks and mortar that built the place. You’re there because of your ancestors who honored their baptism! Somebody say ‘Amen!’” To which everyone enthusiastically replied, “Amen!”
Father Jordan entreated participants to take what they learn and “use it in your ministry ... or you’ve wasted your time.”
Father Jordan’s account of the life of Father Tolton was “very interesting, very inspiring,” said George Desmond of St. Benedict the Moor Church in Winston-Salem.
The day’s program also included a talk by Deacon Curtiss Todd, former vice chancellor of the diocese, who spoke about black Catholic identity and the need for black Catholics to make their voices heard in the Church and in the wider community. He lamented the lack of diversity in Church leadership, including in the Charlotte diocese, and he chastised black Catholics’ inaction and negligence in fulfilling their baptismal call.
The Catholic Church is not exclusively a white, European domain, Deacon Todd noted, nor has it ever been. He said black Catholics must learn their history – including learning about black saints and the Church’s African popes – so that they may claim their rightful place in the Church today, combat the injustice and racism that are endemic in society, and pass this rich heritage down to the next generation.
The Day of Reflection was “fantastic,” said Mary Abbott, a member of Our Lady of Consolation Church in Charlotte.
“Amazing,” echoed fellow parishioners Naomi McDowell Byrd and Catherine Gomez, who also serves as a board member with the diocesan African American Affairs Ministry.
— Patricia L. Guilfoyle, Editor
Related stories:
Black Catholic popes, saints and leaders
Celebrating Black Catholics yesterday and today
Did you know?
On July 24, 1990, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus of the United States designated November as Black Catholic History Month to celebrate the history and heritage of black Catholics. November is significant because two important black saints are commemorated within the month: St. Martin de Porres’ feast day (Nov. 3) and St. Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13). With All Saints and All Souls’ Day, we also remember the saints and souls of Africa and the African Diaspora.
Learn more
At www.nbccongress.org: Learn more about the National Black Catholic Congress and its upcoming events, download educational resources and get vocation information