Month: August 2018

Orange, Calif., Aug 23, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Returning from Bishop Robert Barron’s conference held this week on preaching, several priests said the experience was a grace-filled time to focus on one of the most important roles with which they are tasked.

The inaugural Word on Fire National Conference for Priests was held Aug. 20-22 in Huntington Beach, Calif., fewer than 20 miles southwest of Orange. Sponsored by the Napa Institute and led by Bishop Barron, an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles, the gathering of more than 300 priests focused on homiletics.

“It was very helpful,” Fr. Matthew Magee of the Archdiocese of Denver said, to hear Bishop Barron “talk about [how] the first office, the primary office we have as priests, is to preach.”

Fr. Magee told CNA it was wonderful to have re-instilled the “importance of the gift of preaching … and to open up our hearts to experience what that is from a different perspective, and then to be able to collaborate with other priests about what that means for our ministry.”

The conference was meant to help priests guide parishioners through the Bible, to preach Christ-centered homilies, to present the gospel as a yes to life and to love, and to use beauty in preaching.

Along with Bishop Barron, another presenter was Dana Gioia, the California Poet Laureate and a former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Fr. Joe McLagan, also of the Denver archdiocese, said Gioia “gave a talk on beauty which was quite good … he used several, about five, different pieces of literature to coalesce into the fact that beauty needs to be brought back into the world,” and how the words of preaching can do that.”

Bishop Barron’s talks focused on theory of preaching, as well as philosophy, theology, and scripture, and finally practicalities. He also shared insights from the late Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, whom he served as a priest for nearly 20 years.

“It’s putting preaching back to a level of importance that some people can relegate it from,” Fr. McLagan said.

Fr. Eric Zegeer, a priest of the Archdiocese of Miami who will be teaching homiletics this autumn, is studying for a doctorate in preaching.

“I found it still very informative and helpful,” he said, “so at any level of study in homiletics, or experience, there’s a lot to get out of it.”

Fr. Zegeer also described the conference as a consoling time of priestly fraternity.

“The fraternity and fellowship … was a great source of consolation, a wonderful experience of fraternity. It was a grace-filled, restful, and prayerful few days.”

Fr. Jason Keas of the Diocese of Colorado Springs called it “a God-anointed time … to gather as brother priests to focus on the word of God and our mission, to kind of get back to the basics of the teachings of the Church.”

“It was great to gather as priests, to build each other up, to encounter the Word, to be a support to one another.”

He said it was wonderful to consider the gift of the intellectual life and the importance of studying scripture to find Christ.

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San Antonio, Texas, Aug 23, 2018 / 02:13 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Before being allowed to celebrate Mass for families housed at a migrant detention center in south Texas, a local priest was made to sign a confidentiality agreement promising that he would n… […]

Newark, N.J., Aug 23, 2018 / 10:10 am (CNA).- Seton Hall University has announced an independent review of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment against seminarians. The university is sponsored by the Archdiocese of Newark, and is home to Immacula… […]

Bismarck, N.D., Aug 23, 2018 / 03:01 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Earlier this year, St. John parish in Lansford, N.D., was formally transferred from the Diocese of Fargo to the Diocese of Bismarck. The bishops of both dioceses said Mass at the church on Sunday to mark the change and to celebrate with parishioners.

“The fraternal love of Catholics of North Dakota is symbolized in this wonderful parish,” Bishop David Kagan of Bismarck said during his homily at the Aug. 19 Mass.

“There’s a beauty to this demonstrating the friendship and respect between two bishops who were friends and priests of the Fargo Diocese before being named bishop … This historical day is a sign of our mutual love and respect for one another and abiding love and faith in our Almighty God.”

Priests of the Bismarck diocese had been serving the parish since 1949.

Sonia Mullally wrote in the August issue of Dakota Catholic Action that “After the change, which officially took effect on May 20, approximately 255 square miles were added to the Bismarck Diocese.”

Lansford is located in Bottineau County, 140 miles north of Bismarck.

When the Bismarck diocese was established in 1909 out of territory of the Fargo diocese, Fargo retained Bottineau County.

After the transfer of St. John’s parish and its territory, most of the county remains part of the Diocese of Fargo.

The Diocese of Bismarck serves western North Dakota, while the eastern half of the state is included in the Fargo diocese.

“In truth, not much changes for the members of St. John. As usual, they will see Fr. Adam Maus at the altar each week. Many of them possibly didn’t even realize that they were a Fargo Diocese parish being served by their neighboring diocese,” Mullally wrote.

The change is rooted in the acknowledgement in 1949 by the pastor of St. Andrew parish in Westhope, Bottineau County, that as he aged, he could no longer manage the travel to Lansford, “especially during the long North Dakota winters.”

The then-bishops of Bismarck and Fargo agreed that priests of the Bismarck diocese “would take over providing for the pastoral and sacramental needs of the parishioners of St. John in Lansford.”

For more than 60 years, priests from Minot served St. John’s; more recently, the pastoral care has been taken over by those at St. Jerome in Mohall.

The anomaly was noted by Bishop Kagan in 2012.

At the time, he was also serving as apostolic administrator of the Fargo diocese, following the transfer of Bishop Samuel Aquila to the Archdiocese of Denver.

When Bishop John Folda was appointed to Fargo the next year, Bishop Kagan informed him of the situation.

“A few years later, a more formal conversation began and got the ball rolling to make St. John an official parish of the Diocese of Bismarck,” according to the Bismarck diocese.

The discussion took 18 months, and paperwork for the transfer was submitted to the Congregation of Bishops. The congregation approved of the change in boundaries Jan. 13.

Lansford became a station in 1902, with Masses said in homes. St. John’s was build in 1906, and dedicated the following year. A new church was built in 1963.

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Portland, Ore., Aug 23, 2018 / 12:34 am (CNA).- Catholic Charities Oregon is hoping to expand a program that offers financial classes and coaching for low-income workers in the state.

The Save First Financial Wellness program is part of the Family Suc… […]