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Blessed Mother Teresa's Relics

'Surprise visit from Mother'

Story by Steve Euvino
This story has been edited for Web space. 
Entire story  can be read in the print edition dated July 25, 2010.


GARY — An unexpected visit from one’s mother can be cause for alarm.
That is, unless the woman is Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Relics of the humanitarian foundress of the Missionaries of Charity and candidate for sainthood made an unexpected stop in the Diocese of Gary July 17.


Bishop Dale J. Melczek is the principal celebrant at a Mass at which relics of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta were on display at St. Mark in Gary, July 17. (Tim Hunt photo)

Joined by priests of the diocese, Bishop Dale J. Melczek celebrated Mass at St. Mark Church, where he blessed the relics — a lock of Blessed Teresa’s hair, blood, a rosary, crucifix, and her sandals.

Although Missionaries of Charity sisters do not grant interviews, Sister Marcella, the order’s regional superior, did describe the stop in Gary as a “surprise visit from our Mother.”

The relics are making their way around some of the order’s 50-plus convents in the U.S. and Canada, including 17 in Sister Marcella’s region, because of the ongoing centennial celebration of Blessed Teresa’s birth, Aug. 26.

They were only in Gary one day, after which they were taken to Chicago. They are to be returned to Calcutta by July 30. Despite news coming quickly and 90-plus degree weather, several hundred people filled St. Mark for the Mass, after which they were permitted to venerate two of the relics. Also, Missionaries of Charity Sisters, who have served this diocese from the former St. Mark convent since 1999, accepted the faithful’s prayer petitions to be taken to Calcutta. Some of the people had met Blessed Teresa on earlier visits to this country. Others assist the Missionaries of Charity’s ministries in this diocese, including a soup kitchen and other community service. Others, such as Dr. Lou Miceli, worked with the sisters in Haiti following the Jan. 12 earthquake. This visit of the relics, Miceli said, “really means that I have an example to follow. ‘Give yourself to Christ’ — those aren’t just words. I’m embarrassed and encouraged at the same time. I hope to get over my embarrassment and hope to be encouraged to do more.”

Bishop Dale J. Melczek censes relics of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta on display at St. Mark. The relics are part of the centennial celebration of Blessed Teresa's birthday. (Tim Hunt photo)

Missionary of Charity Sister Maria Agnes becomes emotional during a Mass to honor Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta and to display her relics at St. Mark. (Tim Hunt photo)

In his homily, Bishop Melczek noted that Jesus calls each person according to that person’s gifts and vocation to be “Christ’s light to people in our communities and our world — we have no better example that Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.” He continued, “Today we recall her example and seek her intercession so we might be faithful to our vocation as she was to hers.” The bishop likened Blessed Teresa’s childlike simplicity and confidence in God to that of another woman — Jesus’ mother, Mary. “We come together as a people of faith for [God’s] gift of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta to us,” Bishop Melczek said. “We’ve all been touched in various ways by her example and intercession.” The bishop called the Missionaries of Christ’s presence in this diocese a “special blessing to us.”

A priest holds a relic of Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta following a Mass and display of her relics at St. Mark. (Tim Hunt photo) A woman touches her rosary to a rosary which belonged to Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta during a display of her relics at St. Mark. (Tim Hunt photo)

Blessed Teresa, who received more than 700 awards and honors for her ministries, died Sept. 5, 1997 at age 87. At the time of her death, her religious order had 3,842 sisters serving in 594 homes in 120 countries. The order also includes male religious. Pope John Paul II declared Mother Teresa “blessed” on Oct. 19, 2003. Mary Magaña, one of many waiting in line to venerate to relics and deliver a prayer intention, said, “I admire her so much for her work among the poor. Hopefully we can learn from her to grow in service to one another.” (For more stories around the diocese, subscribe to the print edition)

 

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Catholic radio host prepares MP3
players for troops, wounded soldiers
By Mark Pattison Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It has been a year in the making, but the first 1,000 MP3 players prepared by the host of a Catholic radio program are making their way to Catholic troops and wounded soldiers. They're not just any MP3 players, though. They're "filled with Catholic content," according to Cheri Lomonte, host of the Gabriel Award-winning radio program "Mary's Touch" and the force behind a project she calls "Frontline Faith."
 


It's been a year in the making, but the first 1,000 MP3 players prepared by the host of a Catholic radio program are making their way to Catholic troops and wounded soldiers. (CNS/photo illustration courtesy Frontline) (July 21, 2010)

The intent of the distribution program is to provide Catholic inspirational messages and recordings to tide Catholic soldiers over between the infrequent visits of a Catholic chaplain to battle zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Lomonte, in a July 20 telephone interview with Catholic News Service from Austin, Texas, said her radio program had a guest who helped bring wounded soldiers to Lourdes, France. Lomonte said she asked the guest, "What can we do to help?" The answer she got was: "Make sure they don't get to this point. Do something before they get to this point."

Previously, Lomonte had distributed MP3 players to some of Austin's homeless. "We put appropriate things on the player, including snippets from the 'Mary's Touch' radio program," she said.

But this project would prove to be a more exacting effort. The MP3 for use by troops are "packed with Catholic things," Lomonte said -- seven hours' worth. "They could listen to a Mass, they could listen to a rosary."

The Mass is a Memorial Day Mass celebrated by Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services at St. Matthew Cathedral in Washington. The rosary is a "Warrior Rosary" conceived by Lynda MacFarland, the wife of a career military man, using the sorrowful mysteries. Other programming on the MP3 includes "Centurions of Rome," a presentation made by the late Archbishop Fulton Sheen at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y.; children's letters to soldiers read by the children themselves; an examination of conscience; interview features from "Mary's Touch"; and two-and-a-half hours of stories about faith in military life, including "The Grunt Padre" about a priest who ministered to infantry soldiers and a tale of a soldier who carried the Eucharist into battle.

The military archdiocese is distributing the MP3 players through its chaplains. But that can take some time, with a shortage of Catholic chaplains in the military. "Our troops do not get to see a priest for sometimes seven to eight months," Lomonte said. "That would be like you and me not being able to receive the Eucharist until Valentine's Day, or sometime in the spring. ... How can our troops go without the Eucharist for that long when they need it the most?" It costs about $24 to buy the MP3 player, load it and prepare it for shipment. The funds raised have allowed for 1,000 players to be readied for distribution. "We have 330,000 Catholics in our military, and our long-term goal is to have an MP3 player called 'Frontline Faith' to every member in our military who wants it," Lomonte said.

The MP3 players aren't just for combat zones. "One of the first places we send this to is our hospitals," Lomonte said. "They have nothing. Our chaplains hand them out." Lomonte noted that the suicide rate among active-duty soldiers is at an all-time high. "They're deprived of their spirituality," she declared. "At a time when they need some kind of spirituality, this will help them. ... That's why we're doing this."
- - -
Editor's Note: More information about the MP3 player project for the troops is available at www.frontlinefaithproject.com.
END
07/21/2010 4:10 PM ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops


Daughter with disabilities took
Washington woman down unexpected path

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- When her daughter Kate was born with a complex set of significant disabilities known as CHARGE syndrome, Peg Kolm believed that the only things the church had to offer her could be summarized by the "three B's -- they would baptize her, they would bury her and they would put us at the back of the church." But then she discovered the U.S. bishops' 1978 pastoral statement on people with disabilities, which she describes as "very powerful in its vision of the church as a community that welcomes everyone, one flock under a single Shepherd."


Camp volunteers Mary Pat Michaels and Katie McNeal join their respective campers Debra Lucier and Diane Ricketts during a sing-a-long at Toni's Camp in Rutledge, Ga., in early May. The camp is sponsored by the Atlanta Archdiocesan Disabilities Ministry. (CNS photo/Michael Alexander, Georgia Bulletin) (July 22, 2010)

Kolm's experiences finding a place for her daughter Kate, now 19, led to her current posts as director of the Office for Ministry with Persons with Disabilities in the Archdiocese of Washington and development director of the National Catholic Partnership on Disability.

She and her husband, Rich, are parents of "two great kids -- one very tall and one very short," Kolm said. Richard, 22, recently graduated from college, while Kate faces "enormous challenges," including vision and hearing impairments, heart problems and difficulties with eating and speaking.

CHARGE syndrome is a rare genetic disease named for its various effects -- coloboma of the eye, heart defects, atresia of the nasal choanae, retardation of growth and/or development, genital and/or urinary abnormalities and ear abnormalities and deafness.

Children such as Kate "never existed before" the past two or three decades, because they owe their survival to new technologies, Kolm noted. But they and other people with disabilities "force community," she added. "Kate has forced us to be in a community we didn't expect."

A member of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Washington, Kolm is spearheading a new initiative called Affirming Life, designed to train Catholics at the parish level to provide pastoral support for the parents of unborn children who receive a prenatal diagnosis of a disability or fatal defect.

In a recent letter urging participation in the initiative, Father William Byrne, secretary for pastoral ministry and social concerns in the archdiocese, called clergy, parish ministry leaders and health care workers "our first responders" in providing support for those parents.

"When given the resources and specialized training needed for such unique circumstances," parish and health care leaders "can be the beacon of hope and support these parents need in such a difficult time," he added.

Like any parent, Kolm said she often thinks about the legacy she will leave her children, what she will pass on to them.

But with Kate, she feels that there is a "reverse legacy -- she's given me more than she's gotten."

"She's made me grow," Kolm added. "She's created opportunities for me."
END
07/23/2010 11:19 AM ET
Copyright (c) 2010 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops


 
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E-mail addresses for Pope Benedict
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The Vatican created a series of new e-mail addresses so people around the world could send a message to the new pope.   Well-wishers can send Pope Benedict XVI an e-mail using any one of the six different addresses set up by language.  English (benedictxvi@vatican.va), Spanish (benedictoxvi@vatican.va), German (benediktxvi@vatican.va), as well as Italian, French, and Portuguese e-mail addresses were activated and made public the morning of April 20, just 16 hours after the new pope was elected.

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