Community members at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church in Los Angeles turn out to unload a truck of supplies from Kansas on Jan. 28, 2025. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Greg Trum
CNA Staff, Feb 3, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).
Catholics in Kansas last week drove a truckload of supplies more than 1,600 miles to Los Angeles to bring some relief to the faithful there who have been devastated by recent wildfires.
Deacon Greg Trum and his wife, Barb, told CNA they were moved to help residents of Los Angeles while putting Christmas decorations away in the storage space of their Leawood, Kansas, home.
“Barb said, ‘Hey, if something’s been in the storage area for a year and we haven’t needed it, it needs to go,’” Trum said, adding that his wife further expressed that she wished they could get some of their belongings to victims of the Los Angeles fires.
Trum’s response? “We could probably load up a truck and do something.”
The Trums asked their pastor, Father Brian Schieber at St. Michael the Archangel Catholic Church, if they could organize the parish to donate supplies. They contacted Paul Escala, the superintendent of Catholic schools in Los Angeles, to determine what parishioners in that city might need. The effort ultimately focused on students and others at St. Elizabeth Catholic School in Altadena.
They put the word out to the St. Michael community. “The response was overwhelming,” the deacon said. “Immediately people started bringing things in.”
Deacon Greg Trum (right) and Mike Klover get ready to head to Los Angeles with a truckload of supplies. Credit: Photo courtesy of Greg Trum
The effort began at the St. Michael the Archangel parish school. Trum said the principal told the several hundred children of the school: “If you woke up and had nothing, what would you need? Bring that to these kids.”
“We got a ton of school supplies, cleaning supplies, toiletries, and bedding,” Trum said. “It was originally somewhat focused on the school. But once we knew we were going to overwhelm the school [in Los Angeles] with the supplies, we opened it to family needs.”
Organizers quickly saw that the volume of goods being donated by the parish would require a truck to transport it. Trum was able to secure transportation at a bargain rate.
“I was in the commercial tire business,” he said. “One of my customers was Penske Truck.”
“I didn’t want to get gouged,” Trum said with a laugh. “I called them up and told them about it and said, will you give us a deal?”
According to the deacon, the company responded: “We’ll give you a really good deal — we’ll give you a truck!” All it cost the church was gas, Trum said.
A fellow parishioner, Mike Pollock, oversaw the logistics of boxing up and organizing the supplies. The deacon ultimately rode out with another friend and fellow Catholic, Mike Klover.
On the way out, they stopped at a Catholic parish in Topeka that had heard about the effort and wanted to add supplies to the truck. The city was directly on the route to Los Angeles, so the drivers stopped and loaded up more donations.
After that, “the only room we had on our truck was our two suitcases,” the deacon said. “Mother Mary was definitely in charge, making sure things went well.”
Left to right: Mike Klover, Los Angeles Catholic Schools Superintendent Paul Escala, and Deacon Greg Trum at Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 28, 2025. Credit: Photo courtesy of Greg Trum
Both the St. Elizabeth church and school survived, but many members of the parish and school lost their homes in the surrounding area.
The duo traveled a total of 1,653 miles to get to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Pasadena, where the supplies would be dropped off for the nearby St. Elizabeth Parish.
“We had a 3:30 appointment, and we were there at 3:15,” Trum said. Many members of the community turned out to help unload the truck, including Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Brian Nunes.
Trum and Klover stayed overnight two nights with the religious sisters at the Sacred Heart Retreat House in Alhambra before heading back to Kansas.
For Barb Trum, the experience was the fruit of a dedication to Christ and the Virgin Mary. “We have a very deep devotion to the Blessed Mother,” she told CNA. “You have to stay very close to the sacraments every day, whether it’s daily Mass, the Eucharist, reconciliation, or adoration.”
She urged the faithful to “have an open heart to do God’s work and build up the kingdom of God.” She pointed to the Gospel directive in which the faithful are told “if you have two things you’re supposed to give one to someone who needs it.”
“When Jesus calls, we respond,” she said. “That’s what we did.”
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CNA Staff, Nov 6, 2020 / 04:56 pm (CNA).- Catholic Relief Services is working to aid relief efforts for those impacted by Hurricane Eta, which tore through Central America this week, killing at least 100 and leaving thousands more displaced.
“Catholic Relief Services is coordinating with Caritas Nicaragua and Trocaire to provide some 600 displaced people in evacuation shelters with food, water, and supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the agency said.
The organization is also working in Guatemala, “delivering food, hygiene supplies like toothpaste and soap, and sleeping materials to families who have lost their homes in the most hard-hit areas.”
Hurricane Eta made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane in Honduras and northeast Nicaragua on Tuesday, with winds reaching 150 miles per hour, before moving on to pound Guatemala with heavy, causing landslides and flooding.
The storm has causes serious damage, downing power lines, uprooting trees, and ripping roofs off houses. Parts of Nicaragua and Honduras were forecast to get 25-35 inches of rain, the Associated Press reported.
Eta has weakened into a tropical depression but is expected to grow into a tropical storm, with both Cuba and western Florida in its projected path.
Catholic Relief Services said its teams on the ground reported significant destruction in Honduras, where more than 500 people have been displaced.
In Nicaragua, the damage is still being assessed, with the hardest-hit area, the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, housing Miskitu and Mayangna indigenous communities.
In northern Guatemala, heavy flooding has damaged roads, buildings, and bridges. Some 25,000 people are being moved into emergency shelters. The government has declared a state of emergency.
“The situation is more serious than we expected,” said Nicole Kast, head of Catholic Relief Services’ programming in Guatemala. “The last few weeks of heavy rains means the soil was already saturated and rivers close to overflowing. In some places we saw a month’s worth of rain in 10 hours.”
“Local infrastructure has collapsed, leading to landslides, bridges being washed away and thousands of families isolated and in need of support,” she continued. “CRS is working with our partners to try to reach the most vulnerable as quickly as possible.”
Eta is the latest major storm in one of the busiest hurricane seasons on record.
In late August, Hurricane Laura moved across Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Cuba before pounding the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 hurricane, particularly devastating Southwest Louisiana. The storm killed at least 77 people and caused more than $14 billion in damages. The Gulf Coast was hit again by Hurricane Delta six weeks later.
Earlier this week, Typhoon Goni hit parts of the Philippines, with 195 mile-per-hour winds. At least 20 people died and 10,000 homes were either damaged or destroyed.
Phoenix, Ariz., Sep 16, 2019 / 01:47 pm (CNA).- The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of two Christian artists who argue that they should not be forced to create custom artwork for same-sex weddings in opposition to their religious beliefs.
The Adoration Chapel at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. / Photo Credit: Aaron Miller, Miller Design & Marketing
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 20, 2023 / 05:00 am (CNA).
“Awesome. Awesome.”
That’s how Anna Sudomerski, the communications coordinator at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beaufort, South Carolina, describes the parish’s eucharistic adoration program.
St. Peter’s is among the parishes in the United States that are hosting perpetual eucharistic adoration with the Blessed Sacrament exposed 24 hours a day.
Since Church law dictates that exposition of the Blessed Sacrament requires at least one adorer present at all times, this means the parishes that opt for this extraordinary form of worship must coordinate a major year-round effort to ensure at least one volunteer is present before the Eucharist every hour of the day.
Eucharistic adoration, whether exposed or reserved in the tabernacle, is an ancient custom of the Church dating back to its earliest centuries. Yet its practice today occurs among flagging faith in the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, with U.S. Catholics signaling a growing reluctance to believe that Jesus is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament.
Yet multiple parishes around the country in recent years have maintained vibrant adoration initiatives, including St. Peter’s, which began its perpetual adoration in the early 1990s.
Sudomerski said the St. Peter’s adoration program started at the parish’s original historic church in downtown Beaufort. With the construction of a new church building in 2006, adoration moved to a purpose-built chapel there.
For years, Sudomerski said, the adoration program was run by team captains who each supervised a specific stretch of hours within a given 24-hour period.
“They were in charge of certain times, like from midnight to 6 a.m., in case the adorer could not make it, so the captain would have to find a substitute or cover the hour themselves,” she told CNA. “We had four team captains covering midnight to 6, 6 to noon, noon to 6, and 6 to midnight.”
She said the church’s adoption of the sign-up software Adoration Pro “made it a lot easier for people to sign up.”
“From there, ever since, we’ve done several campaigns,” she said. “One to pass out interest forms to see who would be interested in what hour. We just finished another campaign because Father thought the Eucharist is the most important thing that we have. We’ve done callouts, mailings.”
Light of the World Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado
Kathryn Nygaard, the communications director at Light of the World Catholic Church in Littleton, Colorado, outside of Denver, said the parish has maintained an adoration program since 2007.
“There are two parishioners who are the main adoration chapel coordinators and they do an incredible job,” she said. “In addition, there are 24 ‘hourly coordinators’ to assist with making sure substitutes fill in during open hours and communicating with the adorers in their specific hour.”
“There are approximately 270 people involved in adoration, as either regularly scheduled adorers or as substitutes,” she said. The church hosts two “renewal weekends” in February for adorers to re-up for the coming year; regular announcements are also made at weekend Masses to attract more interest.
Adorers at Light of the World use the church software Flocknote to communicate with one another, Nygaard said. “Most requests for substitutes are filled within 1-2 days,” she noted.
Bishops aim to ‘start a fire’ of eucharistic renewal
The U.S. bishops last year launched the National Eucharistic Revival, meant to “start a fire” of eucharistic devotion among Catholics in the United States. The initiative was first conceived following the 2019 Pew poll showing low numbers of Catholics with a belief in the Real Presence.
As part of the three-year program, parishes around the country have been encouraged to launch Eucharist-focused programs and events to draw parishioners into a deeper relationship with Jesus through the Blessed Sacrament.
Next year, the bishops will host a National Eucharistic Congress featuring multiple high-profile Catholic speakers along with what is expected to be a crowd of about 80,000 Catholics. Pope Francis in June called next year’s national congress “a significant moment in the life of the Church in the United States.”
St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska
At St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska, worshippers have been keeping perpetual adoration there for more than 62 years — since Feb. 14, 1961, according to a live clock on the parish’s website.
The exposed Blessed Sacrament at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church in Columbus, Nebraska. Credit: Tim Cumberland
The parish on its website says the roots of its adoration program go back to 1949 and expanded thereafter. The program now includes worshippers from other nearby parishes who come to participate in adoration.
Parishioner Tim Cumberland told CNA the church is “blessed to have about 550 people in the program.”
“A few years ago, we went to an automated process of managing our perpetual adoration program, using the Adoration Pro software,” Cumberland said. “This has greatly improved our ability for our adorers to find subs online when necessary. A request for a substitute is usually filled within minutes.”
Kim Waller said the 25-year-old adoration program at Holy Infant Catholic Church in Ballwin, Missouri, still uses a coordinator-led sign-up program instead of an online sign-up. Like many programs, Holy Infant breaks down management of the adoration schedule into hourly segments.
“The 24 hourly coordinators form the backbone of perpetual adoration,” she said. “They ensure that there is at least one adorer present in the chapel at all times. The hourly coordinator reviews the sign-up list weekly to ensure that their committed hourly adorer fulfills his/her commitment and contacts the adorer if she/he has not been to adoration as committed for two consecutive weeks.”
A new team of coordinators just took over in January, Waller said. “The last several years, the ministry was administered by a couple who since have passed within six months of each other,” she said.
St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina
Donna Pierce told CNA she helped launch the 24/7 adoration program at St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina, roughly 30 years ago.
“I think we have about 10-15 people who have maintained their Holy Hour since it began, and currently we have 318 weekly adorers and about 60 substitutes, not counting the many people that pop in the chapel when they can,” she said.
Pierce said a priest from a perpetual adoration apostolate helped the parish launch the program. “He told us that having perpetual adoration is actually much easier to run than a 40-hours or other time frame,” she said. “Adorers incorporate their hour into their schedule, so you don’t have to keep signing up from scratch.”
The exposed Blessed Sacrament in the St. Claire Chapel at St. Mary Help of Christians in Aiken, South Carolina. Credit: Lori Rainchuso
She said the parish maintains participation in the program by way of biannual talks at Masses (which Pierce described as “our fall and Lent blitzes”). These efforts usually result in upwards of a few dozen sign-ups.
On the website for the National Eucharistic Revival, the bishops say that the current year of the program is focused on “fostering eucharistic devotion at the parish level, strengthening our liturgical life through the faithful celebration of the Mass, eucharistic adoration, missions, resources, preaching, and organic movements of the Holy Spirit.”
Catholic evangelist Tim Glemkowski in a video for the revival urged parish leaders to “prioritize personal encounters with Jesus in the Eucharist” over the course of the year.
“The heart of this invitation … is to create space in our parish calendar this year for people to come and encounter Jesus in the Eucharist personally,” he said. “This could mean parishes that don’t have perpetual adoration start that opportunity, or opportunities for eucharistic processions, or different devotional experiences.”
Pierce said that starting the St. Mary program decades ago was a daunting prospect, but she went ahead with it by putting her trust in God.
“It was terrifying when Msgr. [Thomas] Evatt asked me to be head coordinator to start it so long ago — I was 30 years old with a toddler and working part time,” Pierce said. “So I made a deal with God. He would have to be responsible for sustaining it, and we would just be his instruments.”
“How many, many times he made it obvious he was running it!” she said.
Graces for eternity
St. Bonaventure’s website, meanwhile, predicts that the graces of perpetual adoration will redound not just in the present but for eternity.
“Someday far, far from now, there will be a magnificent heavenly banquet where all of the adorers in the St. Bonaventure adoration program will be reunited,” the parish’s website says.
“Won’t it be wonderful,” the website continues, “for all of us who have been in the program to share stories of how many of our lives, and the lives of those we touched as a result, were radically changed by this personal and enduring encounter with Our Lord!”
What a totally wonderful story. So many times we see a tragedy and “wish” we could help. But we dont know how to begin. It begins with good will and the help of others, taking one step at a time. Making it known help is needed is a place to start. People will likely be prompted to step up. What a good example you gave, Deacon.
What a totally wonderful story. So many times we see a tragedy and “wish” we could help. But we dont know how to begin. It begins with good will and the help of others, taking one step at a time. Making it known help is needed is a place to start. People will likely be prompted to step up. What a good example you gave, Deacon.