Monday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

August 27, 2012, Volume VI, Number 35

FEAST OF SAINT MONICA

Monday of the Twenty-First Week in Ordinary Time

Saint Augustine – August 28, 2012

Passion of Saint John the Baptist – August 29, 2012

Saints Joseph of Arimethea and Nicodemus

Feast of Saint Gregory the Great – September 3, 2012

Celebration of Labor Day – United States – September 3, 2012

Labor Day Blessing

Heavenly Father,

maker of heaven and earth,

we praise you for your glory.

Bless + us as we continue to do our work,

and bless all that we do for you.

Help us to carry out all our activities

for your honor and glory

and for the salvation of your people.

Guide us in all we do,

and help us build your kingdom

and come to our reward

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Question of the Week

For the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 2, 2012

“From within people, from their hearts, comes evil thoughts….All these evils come from within and they defile.” How does evil enter your heart? How do one’s thoughts change from goodness and kindness to “greed, malice, deceit”? Is there a connection here to original sin? How do you create a clean heart?

NCCL News

The theme for 2012 Catechetical Sunday is "Catechists and Teachers as Agents of the New Evangelization." The Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis has prepared a variety of materials to assist catechists and Catholic school teachers to better understand and embrace Pope Benedict XVI's invitation to be evangelists. The resources will assist parishes in celebrating Catechetical Sunday, not only in September, but also throughout the 2012-2013 year. These materials are provided free of charge in both English and Spanish. These resources can be found at Catechetical Sunday 2012 Resources( There are less than four weeks until Catechetical Sunday, be sure to order your materials from NCCL.

Spanish Translations NOW Available

We are featuring a Teaching Resource by Fr. Leo Walsh, STD, Pastor, St. Benedict Parish, Diocese of Fairbanks on the topic Proselytism and Evangelization: Important Distinctions for Catholic Catechists. You can download the PDF ator by simply clicking on the title above. If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser

As in past years, NCCL will sell printed copies of prayer cards, family commitment cards, posters, and certificates in English and Spanish. Check the NCCL website for more information on ordering your Catechetical Sunday materialsThis year’s reflection journal was written by Michele Harris and is entitled Open the Door of Faith. Sample pages are available on the NCCL Homepage ().The 2012 NCCL pin addresses the Trinitarian nature of our faith in its triangular design along with the pages of the Word of God open to the world where the cross of the Word made flesh rises from the Living Word. The Spirit of God in each of us is the agent of the new evangelization and is ready to go forth as catechist and teacher. Set on an ivory background (not the light blue pictured in the image), the gold cross and white enameled Scripture pages and dove are striking.Help your organization and order your materials from NCCL. There are ONLY THREE WEEKS LEFT to order.

In the meantime, check out the Catechetical Sunday 2012 FREE Resources( include

• Theological Reflection
• Catechist-in-service
• Teaching Aids
• Parish Resources (excellent parish bulletin inserts)

If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser This week we would also like to highlight three (3) additional resources.

1. Bulletin Inserts:

Found It!by Barbara Humphrey McCrabb, MDiv, Assistant Director for Higher Education, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. You can download the PDF ator by simply clicking on the title above. If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser

1. Faith in Action:

These are articles by young adults engaged in the Church’s work of evangelization. This week we featureKatie Muller, MA, Theology, Graduate of Echo Faith Formation Leadership Program, University of Notre Dame, Director of High School Youth Ministry for St. Paul Catholic Church and Middle School Religion Teacher, St. Petersburg, Florida in a first person piece entitled All Are Welcome. You can download the PDF ator by simply clicking on the title above. If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser

1. Leadership Institute website:

Track III - New Evangelization features ten webinars. You can check out all of them at or by clicking on Track III above. If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser week we are featuring an in-depth follow-up to our featured Bulletin insert. It is entitledAn Evangelizing Laity by Susan Timoney, STD, Assistant Secretary for Pastoral Ministry and Social Concerns for the Archdiocese of Washington. You can listen to this webinar at . If neither works, please copy and paste this URL in your web browser

An Evangelizing Laity

The New Evangelization presents both parishes and individual lay Catholics the opportunity tostrengthen our identity as evangelizers and to recognize three distinct groups of people with whom we share the Good News. This presentation presents a parish-based vision for the New Evangelization and tools for implementation.

Leadership Institute-2012 September Q&A Live

The first 2012 Leadership Institute Live Question & Answer Session is scheduled for:

September 11, 2012 1:00 - 2:00 p.m. [EDT]

Please click on the link to register:

Featured panelists and webinars:

• Very Rev. James A. Wehner, STD "Overview of the Theological Foundations of the New Evangelization"
• Rev. Matthew Williams, M.Div. & Stephen Colella "Go and Make Disciples: The Next Steps"
• Dr. Susan Timoney, STD "An Evangelizing Laity"
• Rev.Eduardo C. Fernández, SJ, STL, STD "Humbly Walking With God’s People"
• Facilitator: Michael E. Steier, DMin (USCCB Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis)

All the webinars can be found at the USCCB website under the Leadership Institute – Track III: The New Evangelization

QUESTIONS: Contact Michael Steier via email at:

The Leadership Institute is jointly sponsored by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Conference for Catechetical Leadership, and the National Catholic Educational Association.

NCCL Membership Drive: THANKS and Keep It Up

Give yourselves a hand. Out trial memberships have grown to 47 and the newest twelve help tobring our diocesan representation to twenty-six (26) different dioceses. Keep up the great work and encourage a colleague to take advantage of this free offer. It would be great to get at least one new member from each diocese.

Thank you for responding so quickly and sharing the message with other catechetical leaders. Let’s not stop now. Keep inviting. We want a new trial member in every diocese. In case you need the links, here they are:

• Membership Flyer 2012 color(Word)
• Membership Flyer 2012 color (PDF)
• Membership Flyer 2012 color- Spanish translation (Word)
• Membership Flyer 2012 color- Spanish translation (PDF)
• FREE Trial Membership application form (Word)
• FREE Trial Membership Application Form (PDF)

Pope Calls Laity to Responsibility in the Church

Pope Benedict XVI says the laity should be seen as truly "co-responsible" for the Church and not just “collaborators with the clergy. "Co-responsibility requires a change in mentality, particularly with regard to the role of the laity in the Church," the Holy Father said. Laity should be considered "persons truly 'co-responsible' for the being and activity of the Church," he stated.

Hence, he called for a committed laity who are united, each making his own "specific contribution to the Church’s mission, in accordance with the ministries and tasks each one has in the life of the Church, and always in cordial communion with the bishops." Recalling that Lumen Gentium spoke of the laity-clergy relationship as "familiar," the Pontiff said it is "important to deepen and to live out this spirit of profound communion in the Church, which characterized the early Christian community, as the book of the Acts of the Apostles attests."

"Feel the commitment to work for the Church’s mission to be your own," he exhorted, "through prayer, through study, through active participation in ecclesial life, through an attentive and positive gaze at the world, in the continual search for the signs of the times." Benedict XVI encouraged "serious and daily" ongoing formation, saying the laity are "called to be courageous and credible witnesses in every sphere of society, so that the Gospel might be the light that brings hope in difficult situations, in troubles and in the darkness that men today so often find along the path of life."

"To guide others to an encounter with Christ by announcing his message of salvation with language and ways understandable in our own day marked by rapidly transforming social and cultural advances, is the great challenge of the new evangelization," he added. "[...] At this stage in history, work in the light of the Church’s social teaching to become a laboratory of 'globalization of solidarity and charity,' in order to grow with the entire Church in the co-responsibility of offering a future of hope to humanity, by having the courage to make even demanding proposals."

Perspectives from Parish Leaders: U.S. Parish Life and Ministry

In 2009, the Emerging Models of Pastoral Leadership project, a Lilly Endowment Inc. funded collaboration of five Catholic national ministerial organizations, commissioned the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University to conduct a series of surveys in parishes nationwide. The first of these was a single informant survey sent to parishes to develop a portrait of parish life in the United States today. This survey was in the field from March 2010 to December 2010 and included a total of 846 parishes (margin of sampling error for the survey is ±3.3 percentage points).

The second survey, the focus of this report, includes responses from 532 parish leaders (i.e., parish staff, finance and pastoral council members, other parish leaders; paid and volunteer; those in pastoral ministry and those with other duties) in 246 of the parishes from the first survey (margin of sampling error of ±4.2 percentage points). This survey was in the field from May 2011 to April 2012.

The findings from the second phase of the Emerging Models Project’s parish survey are available on the Project’s website at This phase of the research focuses on the survey of parish staff members.

Study: Less Religious States Give Less ToCharity

States with the least religious residents are also the stingiest about giving money to charity, a new study on the generosity of Americans suggests. The study, released Monday by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, found that residents in states where religious participation is higher than the rest of the nation, particularly in the South, gave the greatest percentage of their discretionary income to charity.

The Northeast, with lower religious participation, was the least generous to charities, with the six New England states filling the last six slots among the 50 states. Churches are among the organizations counted as charities by the study, and some states in the Northeast rank in the top 10 when religious giving is not counted. The most generous state was Utah, where residents gave 10.6 percent of their discretionary income to charity. Next were Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. The least generous was New Hampshire, at 2.5 percent, followed by Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

To ensure that states with differing costs of living were judged by the same standard, researchers calculated each state's median discretionary income — the money remaining per household after variable but essential costs such as housing, child care and food are paid for. They then looked at the percentage of discretionary income that the typical household in each state gave to charity.Here is a link to the story The AP release can be found at You can watch a two (2) minute video on the topic at

Survey Reveals Increasing Hostility In US Towards Religion

A report examining court cases from recent years has found that hostility towards religion has grown to unprecedented levels in the United States. The newly-updated Survey of Religious Hostility in America serves as “a testament to the radical shift in our culture’s worldview” on religion, said Kelly Shackelford, president of Liberty Institute, and Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council.
Tony Perkins Kelly Shackelford

On Aug. 20, Shackelford and Perkins announced the release of the updated analysis, describing “more than 600 recent examples of religious hostility” in the U.S., most occurring in the last decade. The survey arose out of Shackelford’s 2004 testimony before the U.S. Senate on the rise in religious hostility in the U.S. Some members of the Senate claimed that the examples given were “simply isolated incidents.” In response, the report was developed, documenting the “very real problem” that the issue poses.

The updated survey reveals that eight years later, “hostility against religious liberty has reached an all-time high,” said Perkins and Shackelford. For more information or to download the report, go to

Boy Garners Attention for Heartwarming Gesture, Sends Medal to Failed Olympian

A Newfoundland boy who sent a letter and his soccer medal to the Canadian men’s 4X100 relay team says he simply wanted to boost their spirits after they were disqualified from an Olympic bronze medal. Elijah Porter’s handwritten note garnered national attention after Justyn Warner, a member of the team, tweeted it Monday.

“I thought I could make him feel better by sending him a letter ... and sending him my own medal.” The letter begins, "I'm Elijah Porter. I'm ten and I live in Newfoundland, Canada. When I heard what happened… I knew it was wrong," speaking about a rule that says a runner can't step on the lane markings. "But, I realized how good you were," he continued. "We're Canadians. We persevere. We create better lives for each other." You can read the story at You can also watch an interview at

Paralympian Credits Family, Catholic School For His Success

On Brian Siemann's first day at Notre Dame High School in Lawrence in 2004, Coach Joe McLaughlin invited the young man who required a wheelchair for his mobility to do something he had never before considered. "You're coming out for the track team," McLaughlin recalled telling the then-perplexed student. Paralyzed from the waist down at birth after a hospital accident, Siemann is a quadruplet, and was joined at Notre Dame by his sisters, Maria, Jessica and Amanda. What happened since then is history in the making.
After competing in the 2011 International Paralympic Committee Athletics World Championships in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Millstone resident has qualified to represent the United States in track and field at the 2012 Paralympic Games, which begin Aug. 29 in London. He is scheduled to compete in at least six races, including the 100 meter, 200 meter, 400 meter, 800 meter and the marathon, which is Sept. 9, the final day of the games.
"It is a huge honor to be representing Team USA," Siemann told The Monitor, newspaper of the Diocese of Trenton. "To me, making the team is not only an honor, but also is a testament to the amount of work that has gone into my training since I began racing." He credits his family -- his parents in particular -- for their around-the-clock dedication, especially on the early morning drives to races or late night drives home from extra practices. But it is his Notre Dame family, he said, that helped spark his racing career.
After McLaughlin made the seemingly impossible suggestion to the then-freshman student, the coach teamed up with fellow staff members and an organization, Project Freedom, and together they raised the $5,000 necessary to purchaseSiemann's first racing chair. With his new equipment, Siemann hit the track and trained alongside the rest of the team.
"Coach McLaughlin and I had no idea what we were doing when we first started. I didn't even know the proper way to push in the racing chair," Siemann confessed, though he said he began to get better each day. "(McLaughlin) didn't see me as a disabled athlete -- he saw me as an athlete with a disability and treated me like he would any of his other athletes."
Despite the rigorous challenge ahead of him, the young athlete knows he has his Notre Dame family rooting for him. "The generous community at Notre Dame provided me with my first racing chair and got me started on this path. Without their support and generosity I would not be where I am today," he said. "When I go to London in a few weeks, I look forward to pushing my hardest and representing the United States knowing that I have the Notre Dame community behind me supporting me in all of my races."