CHARLOTTE — Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte is expanding its services with the help of a new Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) grant from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The $500,000 yearly grant, received Oct. 1, has allowed Catholic Charities to hire and train two case coordinators to facilitate the program, said Sandy Buck, Regional Director for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte.
The federal VA’s SSVF program awards grants to private non-profit organizations and consumer cooperatives that can provide supportive services to very low-income veterans and their families living in or transitioning to permanent housing.
Catholic Charities will provide eligible veterans and their families with housing location services, case management and assistance in obtaining VA and other benefits.
The program serves very low-income veterans and their families who are homeless or are in danger of becoming homeless, Buck said. The primary goal is to establish housing, she explained.
Catholic Charities has subcontracted with Veterans Bridge Home to provide outreach and assessment services. They will also work with other Charlotte-area agencies to identity and find housing for the veterans. According to Buck, there are more than 300 known homeless people in the city who may be eligible for this aid.
“Our ultimate goal is to eliminate homelessness,” Buck said.
After the veteran has a safe place to live, then their focus moves to case management, access to health care, personal financial planning, transportation, child care if needed, legal services and assistance obtaining other benefits, Buck said.
“Catholic Charities is a case management agency,” Buck said, “so this is an expansion on what we already do. The funding from Veterans Affairs allows us to do that. We are excited we can assist our veterans in providing these extra services.”
Now that Catholic Charities has the staff in place, the program is beginning to take on cases.
Catholic Charities’ goal is to serve 120 veterans and their families during this initial grant year, Buck said, focusing on those in need in Mecklenburg County at first. As the grant is renewed next year, the goal is to expand to other counties in the Diocese of Charlotte, she noted.
“Catholic Charities is working to expand the services we can provide,” Buck said. “We’re excited we can start assisting our veterans in providing these services.”
— Kimberly Bender, Online reporter
CHARLOTTE — As the Charlotte area Chapter of Lay Dominicans marks its 10th anniversary in the Diocese of Charlotte, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapter recently welcomed five new members and celebrated the formation advancement of 15 members – ranging from inquirers, to those making their full or perpetual promises, all sharing in the charism of the Order founded in 1216 by St. Dominic.
For 800 years the Dominicans, or Order of Preachers, have been committed to the salvation of souls and have maintained loyalty to the Church. Truth is promoted through the four pillars of prayer, study, community and apostolate. There are three orders of the Dominican fraternity: first order, the Dominican friars; second order, the cloistered Dominican nuns; and third order, religious (priests and sisters) and secular (laity).
The new members and advancements were received during a Rite of Reception and Promises held at Mass Sept. 28 at St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte. Since the chapter’s first Rite of Reception and Promises in 2010, the Rite is the highlight of the chapter’s year.
Newly admitted pictured here with the Charlotte chapter, completed the first year of formation (a 12-month inquiry requirement); Susan Evans, Suzette Mahoney, Cecelia McGloughlin, Glenn Yellico and Diona Mathews (not pictured).
Newly advanced Dominican Laity making the Temporary Promise after completion of the second year of formation (a 12-month candidate requirement): Leia Anastacio, Scott Aumuller, Catherine Bernardo and Carol Bireley (not pictured); Renewal of Temporary Promise (after completion of the three-year temporary promise): Laura Kobet; and Full Promise (for life) after completion of the five-year (inquiry, candidate, temporary) requirement: Donna Gunter, Patricia Kent, Kati Roy (not pictured), and Regina and Robert Whaples. Also pictured with the newly advanced is Father Matthew Kauth of St. Joseph College Seminary, a life member who serves as Spiritual Assistant for the chapter; and other members Mary Snow, Megan Whiteside, Dan Lucero, Glenda Stephenson, Brenda Stephenson, Tom Mathis, Sandra Coughlin, J.R. Richardson, Mitzi Fields, Judy Shallcross, Matthew Dimock Sr. and Mark Dorsett.
The Dominican Laity adopt a spiritual life that includes daily Morning and Evening Prayer from the Liturgy of the Hours, daily rosary, study, contemplation, and where available, daily Mass and monthly confession. Working all this into a lay schedule does not occur overnight – particularly for those who have families to care for, work responsibilities, parish and civic volunteer commitments, and who also honor other devotions of the Church.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapter was formed in 2009. Chapter members belong to 16 different parishes in the Diocese of Charlotte, and inquiries are always welcome.
There is a five-year formation process, which increases the likelihood of adjustment, transforming steadily to a routine that accommodates Dominican requirements and yet aligns personal lives, daily needs and obligations. To proceed through the formation process, a candidate must be in good standing with the Church for two years and be at least 18 years old.
The chapter, comprised of 30 members, meets monthly. The next inquiry class will be held from 8:30 to 9:25 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at St. Thomas Aquinas Church’s community building, located at 1400 Suther Road in Charlotte.
— Sandra W. Coughlin
More online
At www.charlottelaydominicans.org: Read more about the Our Lady of Perpetual Help Chapter of Lay Dominicans and inquire about membership
Good stewards
A Sundance Power Systems crew works to install 272 solar panels atop the Diocesan Pastoral Center on South Church Street in Charlotte Nov. 18. (Photos by SueAnn Howell | Catholic News Herald)CHARLOTTE — Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” continues to inspire parishes and schools in the Diocese of Charlotte to take action, as energy-saving solar panel arrays go up in November and December on the roofs of two of its buildings in Charlotte.
“Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home” is the appeal from Pope Francis addressed to “every person living on this planet” for an inclusive dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our world. The pope calls the Church and the world to acknowledge the urgency of our environmental challenges and to embark on a new path of awareness and action.
The Diocese of Charlotte is taking the pope’s words to heart.
“In an effort to follow the lead of Pope Francis, we are seeing parishes and schools across the diocese respond to the pope’s plea to be good stewards of our planet and our resources,” says Anthony Morlando, diocesan director of properties and risk management. The latest efforts involve installing rooftop solar panel arrays to save a significant amount on energy costs.
It all started in 2015 with St. Eugene Church in Asheville. The church installed a 46-kilowatt solar panel array on the roof, aiming to cover nearly 20 percent of the church’s annual energy usage. Inspired by St. Eugene’s effort, St. Gabriel Church in Charlotte and the Diocese of Charlotte Properties Office began investigating the benefits of solar power – and they saw that the time is right to take the next step, working with Duke Energy to explore its solar rebate program for non-profits.
The N.C. Utilities Commission has mandated that Duke Energy must increase the amount of sustainably generated power within its service area, and solar rebates have made solar initiatives more affordable, putting them within reach for smaller companies and non-profit organizations.
“In an effort to lead by example, we began looking into the possibility of placing a 100-kilowatt solar array on the roof of the Diocesan Pastoral Center,” Morlando says. “Shortly after beginning our efforts, St. Gabriel Church contacted us requesting to meet to discuss their wish to install a 230-kilowatt array on the roof of St. Gabriel Parish Center/School. Working together, we sent out a request for proposals to several North Carolina-based solar installers for each project, and after a thorough vetting, selected Sundance Power Systems for the install.”
On Nov. 1, a crew from Sundance Power Systems began installing 272 solar panels on the roof of the Pastoral Center and expect to finish the work in the next two weeks. The solar panels are projected to cut the building’s energy costs by 20 percent.
The $150,000 solar panel project at the Pastoral Center was funded in part through a $75,000 Duke Energy grant, and diocesan leaders expect the panels to pay for themselves within eight years. The panels have a 25-year lifespan before they will need to be replaced.
Diocesan properties manager Randy Gettys is spearheading the project at the Diocesan Pastoral Center.
“I think that alternative energy is the future, but before promoting the program further to others, we’re implementing these current projects to accurately vet the success of proposed results of energy savings,” Gettys explains.
Gettys envisions the diocese having alternative energy set-ups all across western North Carolina within the next decade.
Alternative energy isn’t just better environmental stewardship; it’s good stewardship in general, Morlando and others say. The savings on a parish’s or school’s energy bills is “opportunity revenue.”
“There’s plenty of opportunity revenue,” Gettys notes. “To use that opportunity revenue to feed the poor and to do the outreach that the Church is really good at – to be able to embrace modern technology to do more of what we already do – is just exciting,” he says.
After completing the installation at the Pastoral Center, Sundance Power Systems will start installing solar panels over at St. Gabriel Parish Center/School in Charlotte – with 622 solar panels going up on the roof starting Dec. 9. Weather permitting, the work should take about eight weeks.
St. Gabriel Parish leaders have been eying a solar energy set-up for about five years, says Chris Brown, a parish finance council member who is working on the project. The work has been inspired through the parish’s “Pope Francis Initiative,” begun by recently retired pastor Father Frank O’Rourke. It is the parish’s response to Laudato Si’ and Pope Francis’ appeal to assist the poor and be more mindful of using the earth’s resources. But timing and costs just weren’t working out until about two years ago, Brown says.
“First, Pope Francis made a clear call for all of us to have a renewed discussion about the impact of humanity on the environment. Second, the school roof reached the end of its useful life and solar technology has advanced. Finally, the finances make sense. We are receiving a $75,000 solar rebate from Duke Energy and we were able to partner with the diocese to negotiate lower costs,” he says.
The Charlotte parish will make a net investment of approximately $238,000 after savings and incentives, Brown says. “Going forward, we will buy significantly less power from Duke Energy while having a positive impact on the environment.”
“The payback period is less than 10 years. Over the 25-year life of the installation, we will have created significant financial savings that will allow us to devote funding to other parish priorities,” he adds.
St. Gabriel parishioner Walter Putnam, a former student at St. Gabriel School who is now the senior vice president of real estate with Geenex Solar in Charlotte, worked closely with diocesan leaders to provide technical expertise on the solar panel projects for both the Pastoral Center and the school.
“I witnessed the 2008 stock market crash from a seat in the front row of a finance course at Appalachian State,” Putnam says. “The following semester, I changed my major to study renewable energy. There are many problems and injustices in our world, and I decided to focus my attention on making a difference in the energy sector.”
For the past seven years, Putnam has worked with a developer that builds large solar farms along the East Coast, and says he has “always wanted to bring this reliable, cost-effective technology back home.”
“Timing lined up just right, and a small group of us dug into the details,” Putnam explains. “The deeper we dug, the stronger the financials became, and the project really gained broad-based support and momentum.”
Putnam says he really enjoyed putting his experience and passion to work on a project that will have such a beneficial impact for the local Church.
“What made the difference here is a small group of us donating our time and talent to a worthy cause that we felt strongly about. There are opportunities every day to make the world a better place, and any one of us can do just that,” he says.
St. Gabriel Parish building committee member Tim Dixon, who serves as the parish’s project manager, says the solar panels are projected to produce approximately 345,000 kilowatt-hours per year – about 40 percent of the parish center/elementary school’s annual energy consumption. The parish anticipates saving $25,000 a year on its energy costs.
“This PFI solar project is a win-win, allowing us to care for our common home, per Laudato Si’, conserving our natural resources and saving money,” Dixon says. “We were encouraged by the St. Eugene Parish project and hope our project will encourage other parishes as well.”
Morlando concurs. “We should be proud of all the things we do every day to care for our common home, to be good stewards of our planet and our resources,” he says. “My hope is that these solar projects here at the Diocesan Pastoral Center and at St. Gabriel Parish and School will further illustrate the growing diocesan support for these types of green projects across the diocese.”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
‘Care for Our Common Home’
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Pope Francis’ long-anticipated encyclical on human ecology was released June 18, 2015. Divided into six chapters, “Laudato Si’ (“Praise Be to You”), on Care for Our Common Home,” is a rich exploration of the interconnectedness that exists among God, humanity and creation and it details all the blessings and challenges brought on by such intimate relationships. For Pope Francis, penning the encyclical was “both joyful and troubling.” It was also intensely personal, resulting in a direct plea from the Holy Father to all people for conversion of heart and for action.
“I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet,” Pope Francis writes. “We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.”
As one of the seven tenets of Catholic social teaching, the importance of caring for creation is hardly groundbreaking in terms of Church doctrine. Pope Francis liberally quotes St. John XXIII, St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He also relies on the insights of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Benedict, St. Therese of Lisieux, St. John of the Cross and even Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
What Pope Francis does do that is unique, however, is delve into the complexity and interconnectedness of what he calls an “integral ecology” in a way that is meant to spur the reader to thoughtful reflection and personal action. While such connections bring to mind the doctrine of the mystical body of Christ and John the Evangelist’s imagery of the “vine and the branches,” Pope Francis takes them a step further, directly linking human, economic, political, technological and spiritual activity to environmental and social responsibility.
It’s a lesson critical to all of us and to our future. As the Holy Father highlights, the great temptation of the world today is to remain isolated from one another, whether it be from the unborn child in the womb or from the suffering of third-world migrants.
In many ways, “Laudato Si’” is quintessential Pope Francis, bringing a global perspective to an issue on which many Catholics, particularly those in the West, tend to look through a more narrowed lens.
Just as the Apostle Paul challenged the early Church to travel to the corners of the world, so Pope Francis is asking us to think beyond our own immediate wants and needs, our own comforts and self-interest to the needs of others.
That’s the beauty of “Laudato Si’”: Pope Francis, in countering our self-centeredness and individual-ism, is calling us to a better version of ourselves – and to holiness.
How a Solar Photovoltaic System Works
Photovoltaic (PV) solar panels use a special material to convert the energy from the sun into electricity to power your home or business. Solar panels have no moving parts, which makes them extremely reliable. PV systems installed almost 50 years ago are still generating electricity, and improvements in technology have made solar photovoltaics more reliable than ever.
— Catholic News Service
It Starts with Light Sensitive Cells
PV systems use a semiconductor material (similar to that used in computer microprocessors and memory chips) that is manufactured into photovoltaic cells. Each cell is sensitive to light and produces electricity directly in its presence.
Cells Make Up Photovoltaic Solar Panels
Cells are assembled into PV panels. The type of cell used and the total number of cells per panel determine the overall panel’s rated power output. The total amount of energy used to mine, transport, process and manufacture a functional PV panel from its raw materials is recovered in the first two years of its operation, and thus solar photovoltaics are a sustainable energy technology.
Solar Panels Make Up Solar Arrays
Finally, PV panels are configured into an array of one or more panels. The actual size of your array will be based on your energy needs, objectives and budget. Typical residential arrays may consist of a dozen or so panels, while commercial, industrial and utility-scale arrays may be comprised of hundreds or even thousands of panels. Arrays may be ground or roof-mounted, and are highly scalable. Additional panels and production capacity may be added at any time.
Your Solar Array is Connected to the Grid or Your Site
Power from the PV array is routed to the ‘balance of system’ components that condition the electricity for connection to your utility, or for use on your site. If your system is ‘off-grid’ or ‘grid-tied with back-up,’ additional components including batteries and charge controllers will also be designed into your system.
— Sundance Power Systems
The World Day of the Poor will take place Nov. 17.
This day, an annual observance of the Catholic Church initiated by Pope Francis in 2017, provides an opportunity to “reflect on how poverty is at the very heart of the Gospel.”
In this year’s World Day of the Poor message, Pope Francis reflects on Psalm 9:19, “The hope of the poor will not perish forever.” One can find links to the Holy Father’s 2019 message, in its entirety (in English and Spanish), as well messages for the previous World Day of the Poor messages online at www.ccdoc.org/education.
Looking for a great resource to learn more about poverty in the U.S.?
CCHD has a complementary mission of educating about domestic poverty and its causes at both the national and local level. PovertyUSA.org, an educational resource of CCHD provided in English and Spanish, seeks to educate and promote understanding about poverty in the USA and its root causes.
Visit PovertyUSA.org for resources such as: prayers, a poverty quiz, K-12 educational activities, stories of hope, and an interactive map of the U.S. that illustrates the extent of poverty at state and county levels.