HUNTERSVILLE — Local author and abuse survivor Elza Spaedy feels led to do something to help women who have suffered sexual abuse. The St. Mark parishioner has written about her journey to healing in her book “Freedom Through Christ – A Memoir of Healing in the Aftermath of Sexual Abuse.”
She is now collaborating with others to create a non-profit organization to assist sexual abuse victims.
“Late in 2019 while finishing writing my book, I began to feel God’s gentle nudge that I was to do more for victims of abuse,” Spaedy remembers. “At this point I kept thinking He meant I should work hard on spreading the word about my book to as many people as possible, to assist them in their own healing.”
Spaedy recalls that last April, “in the middle of all the craziness and stresses brought on by COVID-19, is when I started having a strong desire to do more. This desire was always strongest while praying. It led me to believe this was another one of God’s beautiful plans for my life.”
Her discernment led her to establish Healed and Restored, a non-profit organization that Spaedy hopes will help young women struggling with life-controlling issues like eating disorders, self-harm and the devastating effects of physical and sexual abuse, including sex trafficking that is so prevalent in our world today.
“God knows it takes a victim of abuse to truly understand what this does to a person,” Spaedy says. “By the grace of God I have been healed and have found a purpose for all my pain and suffering. My purpose is to be used by God as His instrument in the healing all His beloved daughters who have gone through similar traumas.”
The mission of Healed and Restored will be to provide a premier care home in the Charlotte/Lake Norman area for women aged 13-30 suffering from traumatic experiences.
“Through programs rooted in mind, body, spirit and soul care, women will be transformed and experience God’s tremendous healing power and embrace their identity as a beloved daughter of God – ultimately taking steps toward becoming the best version of themselves,” Spaedy explains.
Holistic programs grounded in Christianity will include counseling, spiritual exercises, movement therapy, and outdoor restoration experiences, she says.
Spaedy already has seen much interest in Healed and Restored and has noticed that people who have come forward with a desire to help all have very different skills and unique talents that she says will bring tremendous value to the overall program.
“There’s no denying God has His hands in all of this, including handpicking four amazing women – Catherine Farley, Juliet Hirsch, Sharon Kucia and Alexandra Stanley – all of whom have been my friends for years and each belonging to a different parish in our diocese, who are my core team who have been helping me establish Healed and Restored in our area,” she says.
God “has been arranging the circumstances in my life and preparing me in order to accomplish His work within me and through me. Just another reminder of how God never gives us more than we can handle, and He always provides all that we need (including all the people who will help us) accomplish any mission He sets before us.
He only asks that we persevere in faith and trust,” she explains.
Spaedy has lots of plans already under way for 2021 to guide her in this effort. In the spring Healed and Restored will launch its first fundraising event. Spaedy also plans to begin offering workshops for young women, embark on a capital campaign to raise the funds necessary to build a 10-bed home for young women, establish an ambassador program, and continue forming a board of directors.
She hopes to see the full realization of her dream in two to three years’ time. Spaedy also prays that someone in the Charlotte/Lake Norman area will come forward to donate the land needed to build a house for the program to house the women.
Says Spaedy, “It’s a big dream, but I truly believe this program will have an enormous ripple effect in our diocese and beyond. It will transform lives in a very concrete way.”
— SueAnn Howell. Senior reporter
Want to be involved?
For more information about Healed and Restored, go online to www.healedandrestored.org or contact Elza Spaedy directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
CHARLOTTE — The 2021 CRS Rice Bowl Program begins on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 17. CRS Rice Bowl provides Catholics across the United States with the opportunity to assist the global human family through daily prayer, weekly fasting and almsgiving.
Participating parishes and schools should receive CRS Rice Bowl items this month. CRS will automatically send parishes and schools the amount of materials sent last year if the parish or school did not respond to a CRS notice to update their order information. A parish or school that wants to confirm its upcoming CRS Rice Bowl shipment or order additional items can call the CRS toll-free number at 1-800-222-0025.
Parishes and schools that wish to participate for the first time can also call CRS toll-free at 1-800-222-0025 or go to www.crsricebowl.org or www.crsplatodearroz.org to place an order for the number of Rice Bowl items desired.
First-time or additional CRS Rice Bowl materials ordered by Jan. 25 should arrive in parishes and schools in time for distribution prior to the start of CRS Rice Bowl on Ash Wednesday. Participating parishes and schools will provide direction on regarding how Rice Bowl boxes are being distributed.
— Joseph Purello
BELMONT — The Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation recently awarded grants totaling $1,087,700 to 25 non-profit organizations.
Grants were awarded to organizations in the areas of education, health care and social services, and award recipients spanned 11 counties: Avery, Buncombe, Catawba, Cleveland, Franklin, Gaston, Henderson, Mecklenburg, Union and Watauga counties in North Carolina, and York County, S.C.
The following organizations received awards:
Education
- Boys & Girls Club of Henderson County, Hendersonville: $40,000 for general operating support
- CrossRoads Corporation for Affordable Housing & Community Development, Charlotte: $25,000 for operating support to provide academic and social emotional supports to middle school students from Grier Heights and Alexander Graham Middle School
- United Way of Asheville & Buncombe County Inc.: $55,000 to provide salaries and benefits of Community Schools Coordinators
- Western Youth Network Inc., Boone: $35,000 to support the Mentoring Program
Health Care
- All Souls Counseling Center, Asheville: $45,000 to pay the contractual fees for licensed therapists
- Community Care Clinic of Franklin: $24,700 to provide a portion of the contractual salaries of a case manager and clinician
- Community Care Clinic Inc., Boone: $50,000 to provide a portion of the salary or contractual hours of a family nurse practitioner
- Florence Crittenton Services, Charlotte: $50,000 to fund salaries for Maternity Program staff
- York County First Steps, Rock Hill: $50,000 for salary, benefits and operating expenses of one nurse home visitor
- York County Free Clinic, Rock Hill: $45,000 to provide the salary of a nurse practitioner
Social Services
- Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy, Charlotte: $50,000 for operating support contributing to staff salary, benefits and other costs
- Charlotte Family Housing: $50,000 in operating support contributing to the salaries of social workers
- Children’s Attention Home Inc., Rock Hill: $50,000 for the salary and benefits of a masters-degree level social worker
- Cleveland County Community Development Corp., Shelby: $35,000 for the salary of one FTE HUD-certified housing counselor
- Community Action Opportunities, Asheville: $40,000 to support the Life Works Self-Sufficiency Program
- Community Link, Charlotte: $60,000 to provide operating support for the Homeless to Housing and Asset Building programs
- Eastern Catawba Cooperative Christian Ministry Inc., Newton: $40,000 to fund the salary and benefits of a case manager
- International House of Metrolina, Charlotte: $50,000 to provide operating support contributing to Immigration Law Clinic staff salaries
- Loaves & Fishes, Charlotte: $48,000 for the salary of a social worker
- Our Voice Inc., Asheville: $35,000 to provide salary and benefit support for the Project WestNC program director
- Pat’s Place Child Advocacy Center, Charlotte: $55,000 for the salary of one FTE family advocate/forensic interviewer
- Rebuilding Together of Greater Charlotte Inc., Charlotte: $35,000 for emergency home repairs in the Lakeview neighborhood as a part of the Building A Healthy Neighborhood program
- Renaissance West Community Initiative, Charlotte: $50,000 for salary and benefits of a Life Navigator
- Turning Point Inc., Monroe: $45,000 to provide the salaries and benefits of a bilingual case manager and a domestic violence counselor
- With Friends, Inc., Gastonia: $25,000 for the salary of a youth worker
The Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation awards grants on behalf of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas. Mercy’s ministries are inspired by the legacy and commitment of their founder, Sister Catherine McAuley, to serve those who are poor, sick and uneducated.
Since 1996, the foundation has awarded 2,073 grants totaling more than $92.8 million to organizations assisting unserved or underserved populations in the areas of education, health care and social services.
— Anne Conradsen, Sisters of Mercy of North Carolina Foundation
CHARLOTTE — Deacon Lon Phillips has received faculties and been assigned as a permanent deacon at St. Matthew Parish, effective Jan. 6, Bishop Peter Jugis has announced.
Now retired, Deacon Phillips and his wife Janis recently relocated to Charlotte to be closer to their children.
A Milwaukee native, Deacon Phillips said “God called me home to His Church” when he was 40. As a Catholic convert, he became involved in liturgical ministry and found himself in awe of the Mass and a possible vocation.
One Palm Sunday, about 15 years after he became Catholic, a friend asked, “Have you ever considered the diaconate?” Deacon Phillips shared with this friend his inner thoughts and discernment of the diaconate. He entered diaconate formation in 2004 and was ordained on Sept. 6, 2008, for the Diocese of Palm Beach, Fla., by Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito.
He was first assigned to his home parish, Ascension Parish in Boca Raton, Fla., where he was also employed as director of parish operations. His ministerial responsibilities at the parish focused on serving at the altar, conducting preparation classes for baptisms and weddings, facilitating and assisting with RCIA classes, and training liturgical ministers. Also, at the diocesan level,
Deacon Phillips formed a team and taught faith formation and training at the School of Christian Formation and conducted workshops for liturgical ministers.
— Deacon John Martino
'Human life is valuable beyond quality and means'
CHARLOTTE — About 200 people braved a dreary January day to publicly witness to the beauty and sanctity of all human life, during the 15th annual March for Life Charlotte Jan. 15.
The peaceful outdoor march and prayer vigil in Independence Square featured many families with young children, members of the Knights of Columbus, local clergy and college seminarians from St. Joseph College Seminary in Mount Holly. Besides parishioners from Charlotte-area Catholic churches, members of All Saints Lutheran Church in Charlotte also took part in the public event, which was limited due to COVID-19 precautions.
The annual March for Life Charlotte recalls the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v Bolton that legalized abortion. The march and special Mass for the Unborn, offered at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte, are meant as a time of prayer to call attention to the more than 61 million lives lost to abortion and the need to change people's hearts.
Father Noah Carter, pastor of Holy Cross Church in Kernersville, delivered the keynote address after the march from outside the Diocese of Charlotte Pastoral Center to Independence Square in uptown Charlotte.
Arguments for abortion have expanded over the decades as our culture has become increasingly individualistic and focused on material comfort above all else, said Father Carter, who called it a "societal epidemic of irrational individualism." Read his full remarks.
Beyond the modern pro-abortion movement's roots in racism and eugenics, championed by Planned Parenthood's founder Margaret Sanger, the current pro-abortion mindset says that "if a child is unwanted, his or her life (is) somehow less than a wanted child because its life would be one of greater difficulty and trial," Father Carter said.
"However, I am not aware of any guarantee that one has a right to a life without suffering or distress. There is no guarantee that says that one has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness without having to overcome difficulties and obstacles. No, we here know that the right to life is absolute in and of itself. It means that a child has the right to be brought to term, delivered and then cared for lovingly."
"Human life, indeed, is more than quality and length, but something to be valued in itself," he said. "Human life at the moment of conception is about relationship. No matter the situation of the family or the circumstances of the conception, human life produces irrevocable relationships that define and undergird its sanctity.
"First and foremost, there is the relationship of the child with the God who has seen to its formation. Secondly is the relationship between the child and its mother, a relationship of caring and nurturing, a relationship of guardianship and responsibility. These relationships go beyond biology and science."
"My friends," Father Carter continued, "our work in the pro-life movement is to show forth the powerful reality that human life is valuable beyond socio-economic situations. It is valuable beyond quality and means. The value of human life is about forming bonds of love and caring. And that is what makes our work and advocacy so important today.
"Not only do the abortion laws need to be changed, but we must also weave our pro-life message into a movement that changes the heart of our country."
Signs, marches and demonstrations only go so far, Father Carter noted: we have to move beyond divisiveness and stereotypes to build relationships of mutual respect and dialogue.
"We must invest ourselves in our local communities, in our neighborhoods, and in our local governments in order to show those who have the power to change the course of our country that the pro-life movement is founded upon love and that acknowledgment of the goodness of an unborn life is beneficial to the common good," he said. "It begins by forming relationships that are based upon the question: 'How can we reflect in our community, township, neighborhood, the values that we hold dear as Americans?' If we are all on our own and not engaging with those who live around us, we don’t think much about enshrining values. Instead, we simply worry about what’s going to get me ahead and secure my comfort."
That work "must begin in our communities and with our neighbors," he said, and it must include partnering with like-minded pro-life advocates outside the Catholic Church.
Also speaking at this year's march was Cassaundra Baber, the founder of Momdacity, a pro-life effort that aims "to provide every woman with the tools and information she needs to make an informed choice about motherhood in America," according to her online blog. "Our goal is to change the culture in America to believe every mom no matter her circumstances is capable of being a mom."
"I am the story that (abortion advocates) don't want you to hear," she told marchers.
A high-achieving college student, she was raped at the age of 18 and became pregnant. She chose life for her unborn son and now thanks God for the blessing of her child.
"He is the best thing I have ever experienced and I’d experience his traumatic conception a billion times more if it meant his life in mine," she said.
"Abortion supporters tell you that women who have been raped need abortion. It is a lie! The abortion industry has never, ever asked me or women like me what we think about abortion."
She noted two studies regarding rape and abortion conducted in 1979 and 2000 that found nearly 75 percent of women who conceived through rape did not choose abortion, and 88 percent of those who chose abortion later regretted their decision.
"Why? Because life wins!"
"Why isn't the abortion industry sharing the information I just shared with you? They can't risk the truth, they can't risk destroying the narrative that they've created to emotionally manipulate men and women," she said.
To conclude the day's public witness, marchers prayed the Sorrowful Mysteries of the rosary and the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
— Catholic News Herald
‘We don’t have to kill our children’
CHARLOTTE — Cassaundra Baber wants everyone to know that a child conceived in rape deserves to live and that a woman can choose life for her child and be successful in the world.
Baber spoke Jan. 15 at the March for Life Charlotte, addressing those who gathered at Independence Square to witness to the sanctity of life.
Baber was raped her freshman year of college 26 years ago. Just 18 at the time, she never contemplated aborting her son. Her Catholic faith formed her understanding of what a precious gift the new life growing inside of her was – full of potential in God’s plan for their lives.
With the support of her family, she completed her college education, launched her career and raised her son as a single mother. She is proud that he too graduated from college and now has a career as a software engineer.
“When I became a mom, it was a joyful experience,” Baber explains. “God gave me a feisty personality. I have had a successful career and achieved goals. I have the personality not to be a victim. This is an important message: we are not victims. We can be moms and have careers. We don’t have to kill our children.”
Baber, a parishioner of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, has always practiced her Catholic faith – attending Mass, going to confession and praying the rosary – which she attributes to providing the strength she needed in her responsibilities as a single mother.
Baber admits she did not talk about the trauma for 17 years. After her son went away to college, she took time to seek healing. She felt God was calling her to share her story, to educate women about abortion and share the truth about the value of each child’s life no matter the circumstances of their conception.
Last fall, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Baber found herself out of work and felt the pull to begin the work God is calling her to do. She founded “Momdacity,” an outreach effort with a mission “to empower women with the audacity to mother in an anti-mom world with real stories and information untainted by the pro-abortion agenda.”
Baber’s goal is to help informed women make informed choices.
“I want to educate women on what abortion is,” she explains. “We have done a poor job about educating women on their bodies and also about what women can achieve. Planned Parenthood has them in their grips. Most Christians are pro-choice. We have to educate women specifically.”
Baber believes we can’t be afraid of this topic. “We have to tell people abortion is wrong. I am not going to be silent. I am not going to face God and tell Him I was quiet about mass genocide. We must be louder. We must be bolder. No pro-choice movement is going to use my story to justify murder.”
Baber is now speaking to groups and in the future hopes to hold retreats and conferences.
“I hope to have a retreat for moms and their daughters to talk about abortion and motherhood. Our daughters don’t understand because mothers aren’t talking to them about it,” she says.
Ultimately, Baber wants to “show women being a mother is a gift and that plenty of women are mothering successfully” – no matter the circumstances of their child’s conception.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
Learn more
At www.momdacity.medium.com: Learn more about Cassaundra Baber’s mission to inform and empower women about motherhood. For other inquiries, contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 916-917-9142.
‘Together Strong: Life Unites’ March for Life in D.C. goes virtual
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The March for Life Education and Defense Fund has announced the details for the 2021 March for Life to be held on Friday, Jan. 29. “Together Strong: Life Unites” will be the theme of the annual march, which highlights the critical role each person plays in building a culture of life. This year's march will be held virtually. The “Together Strong: Life Unites.” March for Life events will begin with a rally at noon on the National Mall, which will be followed at 1 p.m. by a march to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear testimony from women who regret their abortion. Read more: National Prayer Vigil for Life will be virtual this year
Other D.C. March for Life events
- A Youth Rally and Mass for Life hosted by the Archdiocese of Washington on Jan. 29 will be a virtual event this year. The online event will be held from 8:30 to 11 a.m. For more information and to register, go online to www.youthrallyandmassforlife.org.
- The Paulus Institute for the Propagation of Sacred Liturgy, Washington, D.C., will hold the Eighth Annual Nellie Gray Mass Jan. 29, immediately after the March for Life, at 4 p.m. The Solemn High Mass in the Extraordinary Form (traditional Latin Mass) will be offered at St. Mary Mother of God Church at 5th and H Sts. N.W. in downtown Washington, D.C. Attendance may be limited due to local restrictions. For more information, contact Paul King at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..