March 12, 2012, Volume VI, Number 11
FEAST OF SAINT MAXIMILIAN
Monday of the Third Week of Lent
March 17 – Saint Patrick
Question of the Week
For the Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 18, 2012 (Laetare Sunday)
“people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. …whoever lives the truth comes to the light,….”What do you hide? What are your secrets? What do you not want others to know? Are these evil? What about the things you want people to see, the things you do in the open. Are the things done in front of others good things? What “works may be clearly seen as done in God”? Might that be called evangelization?
NCCL News
Mother of NCCL Rep. Council Member Pat Clement is Born to Eternal Life
Dr. Patricia E. Clement, D.Min., Minister of Christian Formation at St. James Catholic Church and a member of the Representative Council informed us that last week, her mother, Sharon Clement, quite unexpectedly had a gall bladder attack which developed into serious pancreatitus, and she died before they could get the inflammation under control. The funeral was Tuesday. She requests that we keep her family, especially her father Greg, in our prayers. Her mother was his primary caregiver, as her father is the one who has been sick and is feeble. Notesof condolence and prayers can be sent to Pat at 510 W. Poythress St., Hopewell, VA 23860 or emailed to her at .
Here is a short obituary. Be sure to notice the last line which I bolded and underlined.
Sharon Ferguson Clement passed into heaven in the presence of loved ones on Friday, March 02, 2012 at the age of 83.Proceeded in death by her parents: Phillip Colgan Ferguson and Martha Virginia Sharon. Sharon Clement is survived by her beloved husband, Gregory Vance Clement; sister, PhillisWatterworth; sons: Chris V. Clement (Laurie) and Steve Clement (Holly); daughter: Patricia Clement; 4 grandchildren; and a host of relatives, family and friends. She was a native of Woodward, Oklahoma, and the first female lector of St. Clement of Rome Parish, Metairie, LA. Should you wish to sign the Guestbook, please go to
The Catholic Relief Services Collection Helps ‘Jesus In Disguise’
The Catholic Relief Services Collection prioritizes families, values their fundamental role in society and strives to protect them. The national date for this collection, which touches over 100 million lives through the six worldwide agencies it supports, is set for the weekend of March 17-18.
“The Catholic Relief Services Collection keeps Jesus’s message of caring for the least of these in the forefront through the good works done for Catholics worldwide. Even though times are hard, I encourage Catholics throughout the United States to continue to donate and support this important collection,” said Bishop Kevin J. Farrell of Dallas, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on National Collections.
The theme of the Catholic Relief Services Collection is “Jesus in Disguise: How will you help?” This year the focus continues to be on the family. The collection helps families by providing basic humanitarian aid and life-skills training to those in need, protecting poor families all over the world, advocating for policies that strengthen families abroad, and resettling and welcoming refugees forced from their homes.Additional information on The Catholic Relief Services Collection can be found at .
Catholic Laity Urged to Bring Faith-Based Convictions to Public Square
In the keynote address at the annual Public Policy Convention of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan of New York stated that Catholics have a duty as American citizens to bring faith-inspired convictions to politics, and they can never allow politics to trump principles articulated by the bishops in their role as official teachers. Informed political action is a particular charism of the laity, he said.
Cardinal Dolan said Catholic involvement in the public square is based on Catholic social teaching, which articulates bedrock principles and the actions that logically follow from them. "We root for the underdog in Catholic social justice," he said.
In his address, Cardinal Dolan said the centuries-old principle of solidarity teaches "we're all in this mess together" and are called to work for the common good, Cardinal Dolan said. "We are called to construct a society of virtue and responsibility where human dignity is sacred and human life is revered. Thus, informed political action is a duty. It is not some tawdry distraction."
Catholic teaching is based on natural law, "which is hard-wired into us as part of our moral DNA" and provides the basics of right and wrong, which human beings disregard at their peril, he said. Natural law does not belong to any religious group alone, but is "available to everybody by reason and discoverable by reflection and long experience based on common sense," he said.
"Human laws must always flow from and never contradict natural law. Politics and policy can never trump principles," Cardinal Dolan said.
"Jesus always had radar for those at the side of the road," which is the basis for the preferential option for the poor, he said. "Responsibility trumps rights and we are never free from the duty to serve others, particularly those in need." God instilled rights in the human person that must be cherished and guarded by society and government, Cardinal Dolan said. "The highest must be freedom of religion, because all others come from this belief that there is someone outside of us giving us those other rights," he said.
Catholics have an obligation to bring values into public dialogue, the cardinal said. Politics is a noble call and patriotism is a virtue exhibited not only on the battlefield. "We serve not only our faith but our country when we bring a religiously faith-formed conscience to the public square," he said. Cardinal Dolan said it is unwise to yield to the temptation to be frustrated by politics and leave it to others, because that leaves a vacuum that will be filled by "the religion called secularism." Secularism has a creed, dogma, adherents and a strong belief that "our religion should not be involved in the public square," he said. "They'll be happy to take over for us and we can't let that happen."
"We can be political without being partisan. We ought to bring values and convictions to politics. We will not be misled by people who say we shouldn't be involved," he said. Church-state separation is not a separation of religion and morality and politics, and Catholics are not trying to impose doctrine on others, Cardinal Dolan said.
Pope Benedict XVI: New Evangelization Also Begins With Confession
Confession can help Catholics build lives filled with hope and holiness, which are needed for effective evangelization, Pope Benedict XVI said. "New evangelization, therefore, also starts from the confessional," he told confessors and other participants attending a course sponsored by the Apostolic Penitentiary -- a Vatican court that that handles issues related to the absolution of sin. New evangelization "draws its life blood from the holiness of the children of the church, from the daily journey of personal and communal conversion to adhere ever more deeply to Christ, he said in his address March 9. There is a strong link between holiness and the sacrament of reconciliation, he said. The true conversion of a person's heart that has opened itself to God's transformative power of renewal "is the driving force of every reform and it translates into a true evangelizing force," the pope said.
The sacrament of reconciliation reminds people of God's limitless capacity to "transform, illuminate all the dark corners and continually open up new horizons," he said. Through confession and God's mercy, the repentant sinner becomes a new person who is "justified, pardoned and sanctified," who can become a grace-filled and more authentic witness to God's love, he said. "Only he who lets himself be deeply renewed by divine grace can carry in himself, and therefore proclaim, the Gospel news," he said.
Bishops: Federal Budget Should Affirm Human Life And Dignity, Put The Needy First, Reflect Shared Responsibility To Promote The Common Good
Congress should base decisions on the federal budget on whether they protect or threaten human life and dignity, whether they put the needs of the hungry, the homeless and the unemployed first, and whether they reflect the shared responsibility of government and other institutions to promote the common good of all, especially “workers and families who struggle to live in dignity in difficult economic times,” said the two U.S. bishops who lead the justice and peace efforts of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
“In the past year, Congress and the Administration have taken significant action to reduce the federal deficit, while attempting to protect programs that serve poor and vulnerable people,” wrote Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, California, and Bishop Richard Pates of Des Moines, Iowa, in a March 6 letter. “Congress will continue to face difficult choices about how to allocate burdens and sacrifices and balance resources and needs. We fear the pressure to cut vital programs that protect the lives and dignity of the poor and vulnerable will increase. As Catholic bishops, we have tried to remind Congress that these choices are economic, political, and moral.”
Bishop Blaire and Bishop Pates chair the USCCB Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development and the Committee on International Justice and Peace, respectively.
The bishops voiced support for moves to strengthen programs that help the poor and vulnerable, such as Pell Grants and improved workforce training and development. They also opposed moves negatively impacting poor families such as increasing the minimum rent that can be charged to families receiving housing assistance and a proposal to eliminate funding for the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. The bishops also made the case for protecting programs that help the poor internationally.
“As pastors, we see every day the human consequences of budget choices. Our Catholic community defends the unborn, feeds the hungry, shelters the homeless, educates the young, and cares for the sick, both at home and abroad. We help poor families rise above crushing poverty, resettle refugees fleeing conflict and persecution, and reach out to communities devastated by wars, natural disasters and famines,” the bishops wrote. “The moral measure of this budget debate is not which party wins or which powerful interests prevail, but rather how those who are jobless, hungry, homeless or poor are treated. Their voices are too often missing in these debates, but they have the most compelling moral claim on our consciences and our common resources.”
Full text of the bishops’ letter is available online:
New video highlights work of priests, in their own words
Salt + Light Television, Canada’s premier Catholic media ministry, produced this video for Toronto’s annual Ordinandi Dinner for seminarians who will be ordained this year. In the fast-paced video, about a dozen priests (they’ll come at you so quickly you’ll lose count) give their testimonies to what their priesthood means to them. It’s a celebration of ordained life. Take a look at this five minute video Priests: The Hands of Christ in a Broken World (
Science is ‘really one of our best principles for getting to know God’
The astronomer for the Vatican Observatory, Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, says that his study of the universe through science has helped him better understand the person of Christ. Despite people often having the “crazy idea” that science and religion conflict, science is “really one of our best principles for getting to know God.”
During his talk at the Living the Catholic Faith Conference in the Archdiocese of Denver., titled “The Word Became Flesh,” the planetary scientist Brother Consolmagno, explained that modern atheists tend to understand God as being merely a force that “fills the gaps” in our understanding of the universe. “To use God to fill the gaps in our knowledge is theologically treacherous,” he said, because it minimizes God to just another force inside the universe, rather than recognizing him as the source of creation.
Those who believe in God should not be afraid of science, but should see it as an opportunity that God gave humanity to get to know him better. Brother Consolmagno said that he believes in God, “not because he is at the end of some logical chain of calculations,” but because he “experienced what physics and logic can show me but cannot explain: beauty and reason and love.”
Communication of the Faith: “…converting to Catholic.”
It was only one line in a full page article in the March 12th issue of Newsweek entitled How I Escaped. It was a painful first person account of a young woman who refused an arranged marriage and her very life was threatened by her parents. The article stated that “According to the United Nations, 5000 women and girls are murdered around the world each year for ‘shaming’ the family by acting in ways deemed disobedient or immodest.” In the article it states, “I escaped to Vienna with the help of friends. There I started a new life, changing my name and converting to Catholicism.” Those three words caused me to think that it was probably the faith of those friends whose witness to their faith led to her conversion.
Then I read that on March 12-13, the School of Theology at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome will host a Conference on the topic "Communication of the Faith," which will be examined from a specific angle: the connection between word and witness. Paul O'Callaghan, professor of Theological Anthropology at the Holy Cross, and president of the Conference's organizing committee, states that “In an age where cultural changes are so fast and strong, the challenge of ‘communicating the faith’ has become critical.”
O’Callaghan continues, “The role a witness has in communicating the faith is vital: faith is communicated through witness. The fact is that starting with the Council, witness has often been talked about. Everyone knows the quotation made famous by Paul VI: ‘Modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.’ You might even say that a witness is the greatest guarantee of the authenticity of the faith communicated. A witness' life and presence becomes an appeal to the human person as a whole, with each of his faculties and sensibilities. It calls upon the other person directly, entirely, and authentically. It is thus an anthropologically integrating category.”
O'Callaghan notes that “It was thought that witnesses possessed a more penetrating, effective, and respectful dynamic for communicating the faith, in comparison with the hard and naked word.” He goes on to state that “There are often complaints about witness without words--which is thus unintelligible--and of words without witness, that is, without the support of a life that is humanly complete and attractive. Neither the one nor the other is convincing.”
When asked about his expectations for this initiative, O'Callaghan responded, “ With this conference we want to stress an essential element of the Second Vatican Council's message: the apostolate of all Christians, an apostolate made of words and witness for the evangelization of the world.” May we remind all Catholics and especially those called to the esteemed role of catechist, of the importance of words and witness.
New music video project to promote inspirational artists
A new Catholic non-profit project called Music Visions aims to promote music artists who have messages of faith, joy and hope to inspire the next generation. “The social impact of music video via YouTube and other channels is undeniable and yet sadly today’s music video culture no longer respects the dignity of the human person,” music video director and Music Visions founder Manuel de Teffé said March 8.
“Hundreds of millions of young people spend the most formative years of their lives watching music videos which often promote an openly destructive lifestyle,” he pointed out.“No space seems to be left for other artists who, despite their talent, cannot share their music simply for the lack of a well-produced music video. Music Visions would like to change that.” De Teffé explained that the music video is the most popular internet content “by far.” Sixteen of the top 20 most watched YouTube videos are music videos, with more than four billion viewers.
Music Visions said it is seeking talented artists with unreleased songs, sponsors who understand the cultural challenges, and broadcasters interested in “taking a chance on something bold and new.” The organization’s debut video “Beside You” was directed by de Teffé and celebrates “the joy of motherhood” using music by the Italian artist Mario Maneri. Go to