1. religion and spirituality
2. christianity
3. catholicism

February 27, 2015
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 1
| A Voice of Tennessee Catholic Life since 1937 | www.dioceseofnashville.com
Recent gifts show
versatility of Catholic
Community Foundation
Andy Telli
E
ddie and Kathleen Pearson were at Mass one Sunday
listening to the Gospel reading taken from St. Matthew 25:35-40. It is the passage in which Christ speaks
of feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, visiting the
prisoner and finally says, “Whatever you did for one of these
least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
“It just really spoke to me and my wife,” said Pearson.
He had been thinking of setting up a donor advised fund
through the Diocese of Nashville’s Catholic Community
Foundation of Middle Tennessee and decided that would be
the right tool to help parishes, churches and ministries that
serve the poor and needy.
“I really believe it can make a big impact and help a variety
of organizations,” said Pearson, the chief operating officer of
Healthstream and a member of the CCFMTN board of directors.
The Pearsons’ decision to set up the Pearson Family Matthew 25:35-40 Fund, and a second fund established by a
Hendersonville family to honor their late brother, are two
examples of how the Catholic Community Foundation can
Continued on page 13
Deacons bring back
message of solidarity
from Zimbabwe
Theresa Laurence
A
fter a “life altering” trip to Zimbabwe last month, Diocese of Nashville deacons Brian Edwards and John
Calzavara are back, ready to share stories about the
struggles and triumphs of some of the world’s poorest people,
and how local Catholics can act in solidarity with them.
“We really are tied together, more so than we realize,” Deacon Calzavara said.
Deacon Calzavara, of Holy Family Parish in Brentwood, and
Deacon Edwards, of St. Edward Parish in Nashville and Pope
John Paul II High School, several months ago were chosen as
Catholic Relief Services Global Fellows. They now belong to
national pool of more than 50 priests, deacons and seminarians
who have witnessed first-hand the plight of the poor and marginalized overseas and can preach about global solidarity and
the work of CRS.
During their trip to Zimbabwe in late January, Deacons Calzavara and Edwards traveled with a group of nine, including six
deacons, one priest and two CRS staff members who acted as
guides for the journey. Along the way, they stayed at a Dominican convent, met with local bishops to discuss the struggles
and successes they are experiencing in their dioceses, explored some of the natural beauty of the land, and visited sites
Continued on page 14
Photo by Andy Telli
Rite of Election
Deacon Bob Mahoney of Holy Name Church in Nashville presents the Book of the Elect
to Bishop David Choby during the Rite of Election held Sunday, Feb. 22, at St. Henry
Church. Catechumens and candidates who will enter the church at the Easter Vigil
Mass were presented to the bishop during the rite. Watching is Father Gervan Menezes.
See photos on page 13.
Parishes help shield homeless from cold … page 12 | Tim Forbes named St. Matthew principal ... page 23
2 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Believe in the Gospel
Photo by Andy Telli
Lilly Anna Cote, 6, the daughter of Kari and Brian Cote, receives ashes on Ash Wednesday from Father Gervan Menezes at the Cathedral of the
Incarnation. She is a kindergarten student at Overbrook School in Nashville and she and her family are parishioners at the Cathedral. Ash Wednesday
launched the liturgical season of Lent as Catholics prepare themselves for Easter.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 3
Eucharistic
adoration
Students at St. Henry School in Nashville
and St. Henry Pastor Father Mike Johnston
kneel before the Eucharist in adoration. The
event was the school’s 10th annual Faith
Rally. Students took time throughout the day
to pray before the Eucharist. The Faith Rally
is held at St. Henry each year as part of
the school’s annual celebration of Catholic
Schools Week. During the week, the
school also had an eighth grade volleyball
competition, a Parent Appreciation Day
when faculty and staff handed out pastries
to parents during the morning drop-off, and
a Service to Others Day.
Necrology
The Diocese of Nashville asks for your prayers for vocations, for our priests and for the
following deceased clergy of the Diocese of Nashville:
Rev. Abram Joseph Ryan
Februar y 28, 1905
Rev. R. Sterling McGuire
March 8, 1994
Rev. Joseph L. Boehmer
Februar y 29, 1928
Rt. Rev. Msgr. Francis J. Reilly
March 9, 1981
Rev. John E. Campbell
March 5, 1954
Rev. John N. Cain
March 15, 2002
Subscription Order Form
Please send this form with your payment of $26 to:
Tennessee Register, 2400 21st Ave. S, Nashville, TN 37212-5302
New Subscriber
Renewal
Change of Address
Name: _____________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________
City: ___________________________ State: ______ ZIP: ___________
Parish: ______________________________________________________
For change of address, please include old address.
Bishop Choby hurt in fall
B
ishop David Choby was in good
spirits after being injured in a
fall in the chancery office parking lot on Wednesday, Feb. 24.
Bishop Choby fell, hitting his left
shoulder and elbow on the parking
lot. He was taken to Saint Thomas
West Hospital where X-rays found that
he has a fracture of the proximal humerus bone close to the shoulder on
the left arm. He spent the night in the
hospital, and said Thursday morning
that the medical staff had been able to
control the pain from his broken arm
with medication and that he rested
well overnight.
After consultations with his cardiologist and an orthopedic surgeon, plans
Hendersonville Knights
to host Silent Auction
T
February 27, 2015 | Volume 78, Number 5
Publisher Most Rev. David R. Choby
Editor in Chief Rick Musacchio
Managing Editor Andy Telli
Staff Writer Theresa Laurence
Administrative Nancy Mattson
Production Debbie Lane
Advertising Byron Warner
MAIN OFFICE
The Catholic Center
2400 21st Avenue, South
Nashville, TN 37212-5302
(615)783-0750
(615) 783-0285 FAX
(800) 273-0256 TN WATS
[email protected]
he Knights of Columbus Msgr.
William S. Bevington Council
9132 will host a silent auction to
raise money for charity on Saturday,
March 28, and Sunday, March 29, at
Our Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville.
Hundreds of items will be offered
for sale to the highest bidder with all
the proceeds going to charities. The
auction will feature such items as: one
week use of a condo in the Naples, Fla.,
area, a Ducks Unlimited collector’s
edition of a limited number print, certificates and products from area busi-
Diocese of Nashville website – www.dioceseofnashville.com
The Tennessee Register® (USPS 616-500) is published bi-weekly by the Tennessee Register,
Inc., 2400 21st Avenue, South, Nashville, TN 37212-5302. Periodicals postage is paid at
Nashville, TN 37212 and additional offices. Subscriptions: $26.00 per year in the U.S., $27.00
foreign. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to the Tennessee Register, 2400 21st
Avenue, South, Nashville, TN 37212-5302.
were made to stabilize the break with
a metal plate and screws. The surgery
was scheduled for Saturday.
Bishop Choby said he very much
appreciates the concern that has been
expressed by many, and the interest
of those calling to check on his condition. Out of consideration of the other
duties of the nursing staff at Saint
Thomas Hospital and of his office staff
at the chancery, he asked that the
primary means of notification of his
condition be via e-mail.
He asked people to continue to pray
for a speedy recovery.
Bishop Choby’s schedule is undetermined at this time while he
recovers.
Ecological, Economical, Ethical
(615) 391-3434
www.LandscapeServicesInc.com
nesses, and many other valuable items.
Among the charities supported by
Council 9132 are: the Jason Foundation, which combats teen suicide; the
building of group homes for adults
with intellectual disabilities in Sumner
County; the Child Welfare League of
America; Food for Families; the Room
In The Inn ministry serving the homeless; meals for the homebound; the
M.R. Foundation; and the St. Vincent
de Paul Society.
The auction items will be on display
for bidding in the social hall of Our
Lady of the Lake Church 5:30-8 p.m.
Saturday, March 28, and 8:30 a.m.-1
p.m. Sunday, March 29.
The council is still accepting new or
nearly new items, as well as certificates
for services or products from businesses, for the auction. Council members will be available to pick up the donations through March 27. To donate
an item or to arrange to have it picked
up call: Dennis Conley at (706) 8774040, Tom Mikulski at (615) 585-7768
or Tom Ashton at (615) 452-3196. 
4 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Register launches annual subscription renewal drive
W
hether exploring how Catholics in Middle Tennessee
are living out the Corporal
Works of Mercy or how the Catholic
community was affected by the Civil
War and the pivotal Battle of Nashville, the Tennessee Register’s writers
and photographers strive to bring you
stories that matter. With every story we write, our aim
is to chronicle the life of the Diocese
of Nashville as well as give readers a glimpse of life in the universal
church, all while trying to illuminate
the teachings of our faith in a deeper
way.
As the award-winning Tennessee
Register observes Catholic Press
Month this February, we are asking
you to renew your subscription to this
valuable publication that has been
the “voice of Tennessee Catholic Life
since 1937.”
The Register is one of the most decorated publications in the American
Catholic press. At last year’s Catholic
Media Convocation, the paper won
eight awards, including three first
place awards for individual members
of the staff.
The subscription rate remains unchanged this year at $26 for 26 issues.
For that small sum, the Tennessee Register will be delivered to your home
every two weeks, filled with stories
from the Vatican, from the smallest
parishes in the Diocese of Nashville
and everywhere in between.
An envelope to renew your subscription will be included in the Feb.
13 and Feb. 27 issues of the paper.
Subscription renewal packets will be
sent to all parishes this month as well.
If you lose your renewal envelope,
contact your parish or call Nancy
Mattson at the Register office at (615)
783-0750 to get another. You can pay through your parish by
dropping your subscription renewal
envelope in the collection basket at
Mass. If you mail payment directly to
the Register office, be sure to specify
the parish where you are registered
so that your parish will get credit for
your payment. According to diocesan policy, a
minimum of 70 percent of households
in each parish must receive the Tennessee Register. If less than 70 percent
of families pay for their own subscription, the parish must make up the
difference. Please drop your subscription renewal in the mail or collection basket
today so you can stay informed and
do your part to support the diocese’s
most important communications tool,
the Tennessee Register. 
COMMUNITY CALENDAR
March
1 Sunday
† St. David
French Mass, 5 p.m., Holy Name Church,
521 Woodland St., Nashville. There will be
a dinner after Mass.
2 Monday
† Bl. Charles the Good
Lenten Young Adult Solidarity Supper
Series, 6-7:30 p.m., Holy Name, 521 Woodland St., Nashville; enter door on S. 6th St.
Share a simple supper (provided) and the
Gospel. Info/RSVP: aimee.shelide@gmail.
com or 615-426-6047.
Foundations of Faith Community Classes
for registered nurses, March 6, 7, 20, 21;
7 a.m.-5 p.m., Saint Thomas West Hospital.
Cost: $100. Register by Mar. 2: STHS.com.
Info: [email protected] or (615)2226603 or www.sthealth.com/fcn.
St. Edward Fish Dinner, 5-8 p.m., St.
Edward Church, 188 Thompson Ln., Nashville. Tickets: $9 adults, $6 children 12 and
under. Wine sold separately.
7 Saturday
11 Wednesday
† St. Constantine
† St. Abban
The Bible and Prayer: a bible study from
Dr. Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center, 7-8:30 p.m., Cathedral, Fleming Center,
2015 West End Ave., Nashville. Led by Joan
Watson. Registration required: joan.watson@
dioceseofnashville.com or (765) 427-6712.
Lenten Young Adult Solidarity Supper
Series, 6-7:30 p.m., Holy Name, 521 Woodland St., Nashville; enter door on S. 6th St.
Share a simple supper (provided) and the
Gospel. Info/RSVP: aimee.shelide@gmail.
com or 615-426-6047.
Divorced, Separated, or Widowed Support Group, 7 p.m., St. Stephen, 14544 Lebanon Rd., Old Hickory. Info: (615) 883-5351.
GriefShare, 6:30 p.m., St. Philip, 113 Second Ave. S., Franklin. A scripture based
seminar and support group for people who
are grieving a death. Info: (615) 479-9504.
† Sts. Perpetua and Felicity
Catholic Men of Faith Conference, 8:30
a.m., St. Philip Church, 113 Second Ave. S.,
Franklin. Info/registration: www.catholicmenoffaithconf.com.
12 Thursday
† St. Fina
Nashville Catholic Business League
Prayer Breakfast, Cathedral, 2015 West
End Ave., Nashville. Mass at 7 a.m.; breakfast
and program 7:30-8:30 a.m. in Fleming Center. Info: www.catholicbusinessleague.org.
GriefShare, 6:30 p.m., St. Philip, 113 Second Ave. S., Franklin. A scripture based
seminar and support group for people who
are grieving a death. Info: (615) 479-9504.
Disciples Called, Apostles Gifted
Workshop, 8:30 a.m., St. Stephen, 14544
Lebanon Rd., Old Hickory. Discern your
spiritual gifts or charisms. Free. RSVP:
Francie (615) 758-2424.
3 Tuesday
First Saturday Art Crawl, 6-9 p.m., St.
Mary Church, 330 5th Ave N., Nashville.
† St. Matilda
Father Ryan Legacy Gala, 6 p.m., Omni
Nashville Hotel. Info: legacygala.fatherryan.org/.
Natural Family Planning Class (Creighton method), 9 a.m., Immaculate Conception Church, 709 Franklin St., Clarksville.
Info/registration: (931) 645-6275.
† St. Katharine Drexel
Lenten Mission, Envy, 6:45 p.m., St. Edward Church, 188 Thompson Ln., Nashville. Join Father Mark and Father Dan
to learn more about the nature of sin, its
deadly effects, and ways to overcome it.
4 Wednesday
† St. Casimir
The Bible and Prayer: a bible study
from Dr. Scott Hahn and the St. Paul
Center, 7-8:30 p.m., Cathedral, Fleming
Center, 2015 West End Ave., Nashville.
Led by Joan Watson. Workbooks are $10.
Registration required: [email protected] or (765) 427-6712.
Divorced, Separated, or Widowed Support Group, 7 p.m., St. Stephen, 14544 Lebanon Rd., Old Hickory. Info: (615) 883-5351.
5 Thursday
† St. John Joseph of the Cross
Serra Club of Williamson County Potluck Dinner with Speaker, 6 p.m., St.
Philip Church, 113 Second Ave. S., Franklin.
6 Friday
8 Sunday
† St. John of God
Tridentine Liturgy, 4 p.m., St. Catherine,
3019 Cayce Lane, Columbia.
9 Monday
† St. Frances of Rome
“Sanctified Seeing: Visual Art as Praying and Praising,” 6:30 p.m., JPII High
School, 117 Caldwell Dr., Hendersonville.
Dr. Robin M. Jensen will explore the various ways that visual art supports and enriches our worship and prayer life.
GriefShare, 6:30 p.m., St. Philip, 113 Second Ave. S., Franklin. A scripture based
seminar and support group for people who
are grieving a death. Info: (615) 479-9504.
10 Tuesday
† St. John Ogilvie
† St. Colette
Mass for Vocations, 7:15 a.m., Father
Ryan High School, 700 Norwood Dr., Nashville. Sponsored by Serra Club of Nashville.
Nashville Area Retrouvaille Program,
Mar. 6-8. A marriage recovery program for
struggling couples who are considering
separation or divorce. For confidential info:
(800) 470-2230, nr [email protected], or
www.HelpOurMarriage.com.
Lenten Mission, Lust, 6:45 p.m., St. Edward Church, 188 Thompson Ln., Nashville. Join Father Mark and Father Dan
to learn more about the nature of sin, its
deadly effects, and ways to overcome it.
16 Monday
14 Saturday
Fourth Degree Exemplification Mass
and Banquet, 1:45 p.m., Our Lady of the
Lake, 1729 Stop 30 Rd., Hendersonville.
Candidates must be Third Degree Knights,
certified in good standing. For info, contact your Faithful Navigator or your Grand
Knight. If your Council does not have the
information: [email protected].
St. Patrick’s Day Party, 6 p.m., Cathedral, 2015 West End Ave, Nashville. Live
entertainment, silent auction, and classic
fish fry menu. Tickets: $35 each (tables of
10 are $300). Info/tickets: (770) 789-3355.
Funds support Knights of Columbus Council 544 charities and the Cathedral.
Catholic Underground, 7-10 p.m., St.
Mary Church, 330 5th Ave. N., Nashville.
Holy Hour, prayer, music, confessions, and
refreshments in the basement.
15 Sunday
† St. Louise de Marillac
Tridentine Mass (The Extraordinar y
Form of the Mass), 1:30 p.m., Assumption Church, 1227 Seventh Ave. N., Nashville. Info: (615) 256-2729.
Seven Dolors of the BVM Fraternity of
the Secular Franciscan Order Meeting,
2 p.m., St. Philip Church, 113 Second Ave.
S., Franklin. Info: Deacon Simeon Panagatos (615) 459-2045.
Creole Mass, 5 p.m., Holy Name Church,
521 Woodland St., Nashville.
17 Tuesday
† St. Patrick
Lenten Mission, Gluttony, 6:45 p.m., St.
Edward Church, 188 Thompson Ln., Nashville. Join Father Mark and Father Dan
to learn more about the nature of sin, its
deadly effects, and ways to overcome it.
18 Wednesday
† St. Cyril of Jerusalem
The Bible and Prayer: a bible study from
Dr. Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center, 7-8:30 p.m., Cathedral, Fleming Center,
2015 West End Ave., Nashville. Led by Joan
Watson. Registration required: joan.watson@
dioceseofnashville.com or (765) 427-6712.
Catholic Scout Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Jet
Potter Center, Hillsboro Rd. Nashville.
Info: [email protected].
Divorced, Separated, or Widowed Support Group, 7 p.m., St. Stephen, 14544 Lebanon Rd., Old Hickory. Info: (615) 883-5351.
19 Thursday
† St. Joseph
Serra Club of Williamson County Mass,
Program, and Coffee, 9 a.m., St. Philip
Church, 113 Second Ave. S., Franklin.
Natural Family Planning Class, 6:308:30 p.m., Christ the King, 3001 Belmont
Blvd., Nashville. Info: hehoneycutt@gmail.
com or (615) 308-7722.
Mass of the Two Hear ts, 5 p.m., Cathedral, 2015 West End Ave Nashville. In
honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and
the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Schedule:
5 p.m. rosar y and confession available,
5:30 p.m. Holy Mass with Consecration of
families to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Info:
(615) 646-5553.
ADORATIONS
Visit www.dioceseofnashville.com
for regularly scheduled adorations.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 5
LENTEN PENANCE SERVICES
19 Thursday
9 Monday
LENT
March 2015
2 Monday
St. Ann, 7 p.m., 5101 Charlotte Ave.,
Nashville, (615) 298-1782.
3 Tuesday
St. Henr y, 7 p.m., 6401 Harding Rd.,
Nashville, (615) 352-2259.
10 Tuesday
St. Philip, 7 p.m., 113 Second Ave., S.,
Franklin, (615) 794-8588.
11 Wednesday
Cathedral, 3:30-5:15 p.m., 2015 West End
Ave., Nashville, (615) 327-2330.
St. Joseph, 7 p.m., 1225 Gallatin Pike S.,
Madison, (615) 865-1071.
St. Ignatius, 7 p.m., 601 Bell Rd., Antioch,
(615) 367-0085.
23 Monday
St. Frances Cabrini, 7:15 p.m., 300 S.
Tarver Ave., Lebanon, (615) 444-0524.
24 Tuesday
St. Matthew, 7 p.m., 535 Sneed Rd., W.,
Franklin, (615) 646-0378.
St. Luke, 7 p.m., 10682 Old Nashville
Hwy., Smyrna, (615) 459-9672.
St. Paul the Apostle, 7 p.m., 304 W. Grizzard St., Tullahoma, (931) 455-3050.
Holy Name, 7 p.m., 521 Woodland St.,
Nashville, (615) 254-8847.
Christ the King, 7 p.m., 3001 Belmont
Blvd., Nashville, (615) 292-2884.
12 Thursday
25 Wednesday
St. Christopher, 7 p.m., 713 W. College
St., Dickson, (615) 446-3927.
Our Lady of the Lake, 7 p.m., 1729 Stop
30 Road, Hendersonville, (615) 824-3276.
Cathedral, 3:30-5:15 p.m., 2015 West End
Ave., Nashville, (615) 327-2330.
4 Wednesday
Holy Family, 7 p.m., 9100 Crockett Rd.,
Brentwood, (615) 373-4696.
Cathedral, 3:30-5:15 p.m., 2015 West End
Ave., Nashville, (615) 327-2330.
Sacred Heart, 7 p.m., 305 Church St., Loretto, (931) 853-4370.
5 Thursday
18 Wednesday
St. John Vianney, 7 p.m., 449 N. Water
St., Gallatin, (615) 452-2977.
Cathedral, 3:30-5:15 p.m., 2015 West End
Ave., Nashville, (615) 327-2330.
St. Rose of Lima, 7 p.m., 1601 N. Tennessee Blvd., Murfreesboro, (615) 893-1843.
Good Shepherd, 7 p.m., 2021 Decherd
Blvd., Decherd, (931) 967-0961.
St. Edward, 7 p.m., 188 Thompson Lane,
Nashville, (615) 833-5520.
St. Vincent de Paul, 7 p.m., 1700 Heiman St., Nashville, (615) 320-0695.
26 Thursday
St. Stephen, 7 p.m., 14544 Lebanon Rd.,
Old Hickory, (615) 758-2424.
If your parish is not listed, then it will
not hold a service or it has yet to schedule a service. For more information,
contact your parish office.
Lenten
Regulations
T
he following Lenten times of penance are in accordance with the
Code of Canon Law for the Latin
Church and with the directives of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
These regulations bind all Latin Rite
Catholics of the United States of America except as noted.
• All are obliged by law to abstain
from meat on Ash Wednesday, Feb.
18, all Fridays of Lent, and Good Friday, April 3, from the age of 14 years
throughout life. The law forbids the
use of meat, but not of eggs, the products of milk, or condiments made of
animal fat.
• All are obliged by law to fast – limiting oneself to one full meal and two
lighter meals in the course of the day
– on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday,
from the day after their 18th birthday
until the day after their 59th birthday.
The combined quantity of food at the
two light meals should not exceed the
quantity of food taken at the full meal.
The drinking of ordinary liquids does
not break the fast.
• All are generally obliged to do penance during the entire season of Lent.
In addition to fast and abstinence, the
obligation may be discharged by other
good works, such as voluntary abstinence, prayer, self-denial, almsgiving
and acts of charity. 
Catechetical Formation Program
COURSE 2 (SPRING 2015) Offered 3 ways! Your choice!
SATURDAY SESSIONS:
Select ONE location most convenient. All sessions are held on a
Saturday, 8:45 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. (No cost. Lunch provided.) Mass offered at 8:00 a.m.
See the website for details and the agenda.
Please register online: www.dioceseofnashville.com
March 21, 2015
St. Rose of Lima Church
1601 N. Tennessee Blvd.
Murfreesboro, TN 37130
May 2, 2015
Cathedral of the Incarnation
2015 West End Ave.
Nashville, TN 37203
TUESDAY EVENINGS SESSIONS:
Come and Adore
Or choose to participate in Course 2 over two Tuesday evenings.
Sessions are held on Tuesday nights, 6:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Please register online: www.dioceseofnashville.com
Make weekly adoration part of your plan to grow in your relationship with
Christ this Lent. The Aquinas College Corpus Christi Adoration Chapel is open
24 hours a day, 7 days a week. New Adoration Times are available for 2015.
For more information, contact [email protected] or choose
your weekly adoration time by going to http://adorationpro.org/aquinas
April 14 and April 21, 2015
Aquinas College, 4210 Harding Road, Nashville, TN 27205
ONLINE SESSION:
Or choose to participate in Course 2 online for a small fee of $25.
Please register online: www.aquinascollegecatechetics.org
Enrollment: February 9 - March 4, 2015
Begins: March 2, 2015 Ends: April 27, 2015
Distinctly Dominican
4210 HARDING PIKE
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE 37205
615.297.7545
www.aquinascollege.edu
CREED “The Trinity”
MORALITY“Confirmation”
SACRAMENTS “Life In Christ”
PRAYER“Revelation” METHODS “Using Scripture to Pray and Teach”
6 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Ukrainian Catholic leader invites
pope, says visit could bring peace
Carol Glatz CNS
V
ATICAN CITY. The head of
the Ukrainian Catholic Church
invited Pope Francis to visit the
war-torn nation, saying it would help
bring peace.
“It would be a prophetic gesture that
would show the power of prayer and
Christian solidarity, give us courage and
hope and build a better future for everyone,” said Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, major archbishop of Kiev-Halych.
On behalf of Catholics, Orthodox
Christians and “people of goodwill” in
Ukraine, the archbishop personally
invited the pope, telling journalists Feb.
23 that such a visit would “bring peace
to that part of Eastern Europe soaked
with the blood of so many martyrs for
the unity of the church.”
The archbishop was in Rome following an “ad limina” visit Feb. 16-21 in
which bishops from Ukraine’s Easternand Latin-rite traditions reported to the
pope and the Vatican on the state of
their dioceses.
Archbishop Shevchuk spoke to journalists about the bishops’ Feb. 20 meeting with Pope Francis.
He said the pope “truly listened to
us with a paternal heart,” asking to
hear about how the Ukrainian people,
including their “Orthodox brothers and
sisters,” were facing the current conflict and crisis.
After their closed-door talks with the
pope, Archbishop Shevchuk said “our
bishops felt not only welcomed, but
also encouraged and above all reaffirmed that we have taken the right
position” during the recent turmoil in
Ukraine – that is, the position of “being
at the side of one’s people, having the
smell of sheep, listening carefully to the
voice of our people – this is what the
Holy Father asks us to do.”
“Ukraine is the victim” in this war
with Russia, and “often Ukrainians feel
abandoned, betrayed by politicians,
big diplomats by the powerful of this
world.” But he said their meeting with
the pope left them feeling that “the
Holy Father is with us, he gives witness
to us that God is always on the side
of those who suffer,” he said. “We go
home full of hope.”
In a written address that was handed
out to the bishops, the pope asked
them to focus on the social and human
tragedies unfolding in their country
and avoid politicizing their role as
church leaders. He asked the bishops
to work together and be a clear moral
voice calling for peace and harmony as
well as strong defenders of families, the
poor and weak.
The pope assured the bishops of his
prayers and concerns about the “serious conflict” in their nation and the numerous innocent victims and suffering
it has caused.
“In this period, as I have assured
you on many occasions directly and
through cardinal envoys, I am particularly close to you with my prayer for
the deceased and for all those affected
by the violence, with prayer to the Lord
that he may soon grant peace,” he said.
Pope Francis said he continues to appeal to “all sides concerned” to respect
international law and carry out their
agreements, especially a recent ceasefire deal.
“In these circumstances, what is
important is to listen carefully to the
voices that come from the places where
the people who are entrusted to your
pastoral care live” because it is by listening to one’s own flock that they will
be able to help uphold the community’s
values of “encounter, collaboration, the
ability to settle controversies,” he wrote.
Archbishop Shevchuk said the path
the pope was indicating was “right – to
be at the side of your people and listen
to the voice of the people,” and that it
was the same approach the bishops
have been taking the whole time by addressing social injustices and not supporting any political party.
When it came to ecumenical dialogue
aimed at peace, he said it has been very
difficult to get the Russian Orthodox
Church’s Moscow Patriarchate to help
advocate an end to the violence.
He said this has caused the many
Russian Orthodox in Ukraine to question “how come these brothers of the
same church, or as Pope Francis says,
of the same baptism, come to our land
to kill us?”
“If pastors are not able to listen to
the voice of their flock and respect
the sensitivity of their faithful, well, it
becomes more difficult. If the church
hierarchy takes the side of those with
power against their own people, they
lose their credibility,” he said.
The archbishop said the bishops’ visit
to the pope and the Vatican Secretariat
of State was an important opportunity
to tell them “the truth” about the ongoing crisis: that it is not a civil war but “a
foreign invasion, a war imposed on us
from the outside.”
They told Vatican officials that some
of the terms that had been used – for
example, when the pope said Feb. 4
the conflict was a “fratricide,” a war
between Christians baptized in the
same faith – had been extremely painful to the people of Ukraine because it
echoed the rhetoric in the Russian position on the conflict.
He said Christian values can be manipulated by Russian authorities “for
political motives,” adding that no state
policy or propaganda that “sacrifices
millions of human beings for geopolitical aims respects Christian values.”
He said he told the pope how more
than 2 million people have been displaced by the fighting, among them
140,000 children. He said more than
6,000 people, mostly civilians, have
been killed to date and another 12,500
people physically wounded.
“The pope was touched by these numbers,” especially by how many children
are being affected.
Through Caritas Ukraine, the church
is helping more than 40,000 people a
day, he said. The people have opened
their hearts to the church as a “stable
point of reference” during so much confusion and misguidance, he said.
The church has become a true “field
hospital” as so many people are suffering spiritually and psychologically from
anxiety, depression and post-traumatic
disorder, which has become as real a
threat to human lives as “the Russianbuilt missiles,” he said. 
NEWS BRIEFS
Catholic News Service
Survey: 133 percent
increase in attacks on
religion in past three years
WASHINGTON. A new report from
the Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas,
shows that incidents of “religious hostility” have more than doubled in the
United States over the past three years.
The report, “Undeniable: The Survey
of Hostility to Religion in America, 2014
Edition,” chronicles a series of more
than 1,300 court cases recently handled
or monitored by the institute, a nonprofit
legal group that represents plaintiffs
who feel their religious liberty has been
violated.
“The freedom to openly exercise
your faith is under intolerant, growing,
damaging attack,” reads the opening
statement. “If this hostility is not identified, defeated and deemed socially unacceptable, then we will forfeit the benefits
of religion and freedom. We will risk
watching our freedom and our American
way of life destroyed.”
Justin Butterfield, editor-in-chief of the
survey, told Catholic News Service: “A
lot of people think that this only happens
in China or North Korea. We published
‘Undeniable’ to get people to realize that
religious persecution is something that
happens here in the United States.”
The new edition of the report has four
main sections: attacks on religious freedom in the public arena, in academic settings, against churches and ministries,
and in the military.
The thing to remember is that not only
are these attacks on liberty becoming
more numerous, but the types of cases
we’re seeing are getting worse,” said Butterfield. “I never would have imagined
that a presidential administration would
argue in favor of protecting religious belief but not religious action and practice,
but that’s exactly what the government
did in the Hosanna-Tabor case.”
Religious leaders
urge action to combat
climate change
WASHINGTON. Religious leaders from
across the faith spectrum gathered Feb.
20 at the Capitol to seek action to combat
climate change and to mitigate its effects,
whether it be at the federal level or in
local communities.
The ongoing buzz about the forthcoming encyclical from Pope Francis on the
environment was addressed by Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami,
chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee
on Domestic Justice and Human Development.
“This is the first time a pope has addressed the issue of the environment and
climate change with an encyclical – and
for us Catholics and not only for Catholics, this is a big deal,” Archbishop Wenski
said, noting, “Encyclicals are an important
way for popes to exercise their teaching
office.”
Archbishop Wenski added, “Although
I am not privy to what the pope will say, I
think he will insist that the ‘natural ecology’ is inseparably linked to ‘human ecology.’ In other words, we have to recognize
the interrelatedness of the various social,
economic, political or environmental crises that confront the human family today.”
The archbishop made the comments as
part of a panel sponsored by the National
Religious Partnership for the Environment and held in a meeting room at the
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington.
Pope: Don’t let meatless
Fridays be selfish,
soulless, seafood splurge
VATICAN CITY. Real fasting isn’t just
restricting food choices, it must also
include cleansing the heart of all selfishness and making room in one’s life for
those in need and those who have sinned
and need healing, Pope Francis said.
Faith without concrete acts of charity
is not only hypocritical, “it is dead; what
good is it?” he said, criticizing those who
hide behind a veil of piety while unjustly
treating others, such as denying workers
fair wages, a pension and health care.
Being generous toward the church,
but selfish and unjust toward others “is a
very serious sin: It is using God to cover
up injustice,” he said Feb. 20 during his
homily in a morning Mass celebrated in
the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
The pope’s homily was based on the
day’s reading from the Book of Isaiah in
which God tells his people he does not
care for those who observe penance passively – bowed “like a reed,” lying quietly
in a “sackcloth and ashes.” Instead, God
says he desires to see his people crying out “full-throated and unsparingly”
against injustice and sin, “setting free the
oppressed, breaking every yoke; sharing
your bread with the hungry, sheltering
the oppressed and the homeless.”
In the reading, God also points out the
hypocrisy of the faithful who fast, but
treat their workers badly and fight and
quarrel with others.
Pax Christi program
in Cite Soleil helps youths
become peacemakers
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti. Mentor Elison wants peace for the little kids, if for
no one else, in Cite Soleil.
The 19-year-old aspiring doctor wants
the kids to feel safe when going to
school, to have a safe haven when they
get home. That’s not always the case in
Cite Soleil, the sprawling poverty-mired
300,000-strong community on the northern edge of the Haitian capital where
violence is common and armed groups
often fight over turf in gun battles and
through intimidation.
Elison finds no attraction in that.
“Peace is very important for many
things, but it’s primarily important for
youth like me growing up and living in
Cite Soleil,” he said. “Peace is something very important, and I want to be
associated with it.”
He has decided to promote peace by
how he lives using the skills he has
learned through SAKALA, a peacebuilding program for youth sponsored by
Pax Christi Haiti.
Elison’s quest began eight years ago
when he first showed up at SAKALA,
which had organized a soccer team
and a dance program to give children
positive alternative activities. He played
soccer and joined the dance troupe and
mingled with kids from other Cite Soleil
neighborhoods. He said he realized,
“We are all one.” 
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 7
An unconventional career path: Hollywood, Rome, D.C., home to Albany
Patricia Zapor CNS
A
LBANY, N.Y. Among the residents of the Sisters of Mercy
motherhouse, Sister Mary Ann
Walsh is something of an unwilling
rock star.
A native of Albany, Sister Mary Ann
moved last summer back to the motherhouse where she first entered the
novitiate 50 years ago at age 17. The
return from Washington, where she’d
lived for nearly 30 years, came as she
simultaneously began a new job as U.S.
church correspondent for America
magazine and learned that she had an
aggressive form of cancer, with few options for treatment.
Living and working among about 30
sisters – most, but not all, retired – Sister
Mary Ann has come home both to her
hometown and to life in the religious
community. She left Albany in 1983 to
work in Rome as a Vatican correspondent for what was then called National
Catholic News Service. From there
it was on to Washington and jobs as
reporter and media editor for Catholic
News Service and in media relations for
the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The highlights that stand out for her,
however, aren’t the important people
she met as much as the quieter things:
having some kids present St. John
Paul II with a pair of sneakers at World
Youth Day; enabling a terminally ill
child to meet the pope there; receiving
an album of beautiful professional photos from a long-ago student whom she
encouraged to pick up a camera.
Like most of the Sisters of Mercy
who entered the novitiate in the mid1960s, Sister Mary Ann started as a
schoolteacher, one of the few career options for a girl from a poor family who
wanted to help others. She stepped into
a second-grade classroom while finishing her studies at the local College of
St. Rose, where she got bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in English. She soon
moved on to teach middle and high
school, but her love of writing led to a
summer job at The Evangelist, newspaper of the Albany Diocese.
“That was a radical step,” she said. “It
shocked my community. My mother
was just astounded that ‘you could do a
job like that when here you had a good,
secure job as a teacher.’”
It was just the first of many nontraditional jobs, especially for a nun, the only
daughter of Irish immigrants with little
education. But nobody was surprised
that she pursued writing as a career.
“I told my friends, this is either going
to kill me, because they’ll tell me no
and I can’t pursue my first love, or it’ll
kill me because I’ll find out journalism
isn’t all I thought it was,” she said. “But
I absolutely loved it. I loved all you
could do.”
That summer led to a full-time report-
CNS photo by Bob Roller
Mercy Sister Mary Ann Walsh is pictured in this 2003 photo holding a book
she edited. The book is titled “John Paul II: A Light for the World.”
ing position. At The Evangelist she
wrote a column and did stories from
the state capitol and Attica Prison. She
twice received an award from the New
York Bar Association for coverage of
criminal justice.
And she talked her way into a spot
on the papal press plane when St. John
Paul made his first visit to the United
States in 1979.
She arranged with Religion News Service to use their name – and thus get
a spot representing a wire service – in
exchange for RNS having access to her
copy. She was the only reporter from a
diocesan newspaper on the plane.
“I had a good editor, who’d let you do
that kind of thing,” said Sister Mary
Ann, downplaying the initiative that
often defined her reporting.
That same editor from The Evangelist,
Father Kenneth Doyle, brought her to
Rome, when he was bureau chief there
for CNS.
Although not the first woman reporter at the CNS Rome bureau, she
was the first – and so far only – nun.
Father Doyle said when her hiring
was announced “there was somebody
over there in quite an important position – a priest – who called her the
uppity nun. That’s what she had to
counteract.”
He said Sister Mary Ann exhibited
a kind of doggedness. “She never
stopped in pursuit of what she wanted
to find out. She was aggressive but in a
kind way.”
She also used the bonds of religious life
to her advantage, paying attention to the
sisters who worked behind the scenes at
St. Matthew's Women's Club, Franklin, TN
Lambs to Lions
Consignment Sale, Mar. 7-8
To consign or volunteer, please visit https://smwc2012.ivolunteer.com/
Sale Sat. Mar. 7, 9-2 pm • Half Price Sale Mar. 8, 12-2 pm
Questions? Email: [email protected] or Call: 615-620-1058
the Vatican and getting story tips from
them. She arranged for fast turn-around
translations of documents issued in Italian by paying the sisters 2 cents a word
more than the prevailing rate.
She also went on several papal trips
– that’s where she got to know St.
John Paul – and into the middle of warravaged Lebanon to write about the
isolation of the Christians there.
That trip had both her family and her
religious superior nervous.
“I told them at the last minute,” she
said. “I thought if anything happens to
me they’d be really embarrassed they
didn’t know. So I called and told them
the travel route, Greece, Cyprus, Beirut.
“The superior said, ‘Oh that’s just
great, Greece, Cyprus, Beirut!’ I said,
‘Don’t worry about it, I’ve got a bulletproof vest.’ She said, ‘And you wear that!’
I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve just been
ordered to wear a bulletproof vest.’”
Her experience in Rome helped prepare her for her next reporting gig, as
the CNS media editor.
“Rome taught me how to cover Hollywood,” she said. “They’re both complete bureaucracies.”
“You’d call Hollywood for something
and you’d get some anti-Catholic little
bigot,” she explained. “They’d say,
‘Well, Sister, could you put that in writing?’ So I’d hang up and call back until I
got myself a Catholic schoolgirl or boy
and I’d make the same request. They’d
say, ‘Oh Sister, we’ll be happy to send
that to you.’”
For the Hollywood media relations
staff, Sister Mary Ann proved a sometimes confusing participant in the press
events where TV studios roll out their
new shows.
“I said, the Gospel is filled with stories, so I’m looking at this story that
you’re telling,” she said by way of
explaining what she was doing there.
“That was a new concept for them.”
At one event, someone asked a star
how he handled the pressures on him,
said Sister Mary Ann. Wordlessly, he
started to reach into his pants pocket.
“One reporter, said, ‘Oh, he’s going to
pull out drugs.’ He pulled out a rosary.”
The press handler went nuts, she
said. “‘Quick everybody, change seats.’
So I sat next to the guy who pulled out
a rosary to keep himself calm.” After
that, the watchword among the media
reps was “find the Catholic for Sister,”
she recalled.
Though she wasn’t particularly starstruck by anyone she met on the media
beat, one of Sister Mary Ann’s favorite actors she got to know was Chris
Burke, the star of “Life Goes On,” centered on a teen with Down syndrome.
She also snagged interviews with Raul
Julia, Gene Hackman and Bruce Willis.
And she became good friends with
ABC and National Public Radio correspondent Cokie Roberts and the
late Tim Russert, a fellow upstate New
Yorker and longtime host of “Meet the
Press.”
Roberts weighed in while traveling
abroad to help Sister Mary Ann find an
oncologist to consult.
It was Russert who gave her a bit
of advice that got her through World
Youth Day, her first foray on the
spokesperson side of reporting.
“He said, ‘You own the pope, so you’re
in charge.’”
At one point during World Youth Day,
she was getting grief from unhappy
reporters.
“I kept thinking, ‘I own the pope.’ By
the time they walked out they were
patting me on the shoulder saying, ‘We
can work this out, Sister, we can work
this out.’ And I thought, of course we
can,” she said. Russert’s advice that
“it’s my ball, I make the rules” has
stood her well.
But the side of Sister Mary Ann that
managed complex and sometimes
delicate media situations and that
sometimes got TV stars, White House
staffers and one Colorado sheriff up in
arms, has been one that her friends and
family don’t necessarily see.
One of her nieces, Maura Sommer,
told CNS she was pretty grown up before she realized the beloved aunt who
took her to McDonald’s for “shamrock
shakes” on her St. Patrick’s Day birthday was someone known around the
world.
“When she moved to Rome, she
would send us pictures of herself with
the pope or things like rosaries that
had been blessed by the pope,” Sommer said. “We thought everyone got
these from their aunts. When we took
those to show-and-tell at our Catholic school, the nuns were really impressed.”
Sommer said when she thinks about
the hard-scrabble circumstances her
grandparents came from, she’s even
more astonished at where Sister Mary
Ann has been. A visit to the remnants
of the Irish villages where her Walsh
grandparents were born hammered
home for Sommer the humbleness of
the upbringing of her father, uncle and
aunt.
“Here’s this person who’s being
stopped around the world and asked
for her opinions, a woman, a nun,” said
Sommer. “And she came from little
more than a pile of rocks.”
“We all know what it’s like to be a
woman in the workplace now, but she
did it on her own, with nobody pushing
her,” said her niece. “Yet she’s nothing
but kindness and good intentions. She’s
plugging along, making a difference.” 
8 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Holy Name to host Lenten Solidarity Suppers for young adults
Briana Grzybowski
D
uring Lent, the young adult
group at Holy Name Church is
hosting a bi-weekly dinner and
Scripture study series.
Catholics ages 20-45 are welcome
to participate in the parish’s Lenten
Young Adult Solidarity Supper series.
The program they are using is from the
international organization Catholic Relief Services, which promotes solidarity
with poor and marginalized populations
around the world.
The idea came from Aimee Shelide
Mayer, who is in charge of leading the
young adult ministry at Holy Name.
“I’m originally from Nashville, but
I’ve spent time away from here doing
young adult ministry in Wisconsin and
at the University of Notre Dame in
Indiana. My husband and I just moved
back to Nashville and joined Holy
Name Parish in November.
“I got involved in leading the young
adult program there, and was trying to
come up with some sort of program for
the season of Lent,” she said. “I talked
to representatives from Catholic Relief
Services at the SEEK 2015 conference
this past January, and they told me
about their faith formation resources
for Lent. I thought it was a good idea,
talked about it to (Holy Name Pastor)
Father Edwidge Carré, and he approved.”
The Lenten Guide from Catholic
Relief Services includes Scripture readings, prayers to promote solidarity with
the world’s most vulnerable people,
recipes from nations across the globe,
questions for discussion and reflection,
and stories of people who have been
positively impacted by Catholic Relief
Services’ work in their native countries.
Meetings will be held 6-7:30 p.m.
March 2, 16 and 30.
There are three main components to
each gathering. The first half hour, participants will share dinner. Afterwards,
they’ll study and discuss the readings
from the previous weekend’s Mass.
They’ll also incorporate the stories and
activities found in the CRS study guide.
“For the first half hour, we’ll ease into
things with dinner and fellowship. And
then we’ll have a look at the weekly
readings from Mass. I want the Scripture study portion to be a sort of lectio
divina, where we listen closely to God’s
word and reflect upon a phrase or passage that stands out to us,” Mayer said.
“I’m also hoping to show video clips
of the stories from those who have
been helped by Catholic Relief Services. It’ll tie in well when we discuss
almsgiving,” Mayer said.
She hopes to have a decent-sized
turnout at each meeting. “I’m hoping
at least 10-15 people show up to these
gatherings. I don’t think too many
people know about this, so hopefully
the word will get out before our first
event,” she said.
Mayer hopes that this program will
strengthen participants’ solidarity with
each other and with the global Catholic
community; and that it will help them
understand the purpose of Lent in a
more profound way.
“Many of the people in our group are
new to Nashville, new to Holy Name,
and new to Catholicism,” she said. “I
hope this series will help them have
a greater sense of belonging to the
parish and to the Church at large. I
also hope that they’ll understand why
we get involved in fasting, prayer and
almsgiving during Lent. I think it’ll give
people a greater awareness of what
Lent is all about.” 
Panel looks at ways to bridge divides among groups in shared parish
Beth Griffin CNS
N
EW YORK. Delicate negotiation and open communication
are keys to bridging divides
among Catholics at parishes shared
by distinct cultural groups that retain
their own ministries and worship
styles.
Brett C. Hoover, author of a new
book on the subject, said more than
one-third of parishes in the U.S. serve
ethnically, linguistically and culturally
diverse communities.
Shared parishes are challenged by
cultural and power differences, but
united by faith, expressions of biblical
hospitality and efforts to overcome
sticking points. “It’s not about the
Trinity or transubstantiation; it’s about
the parking or the parish directory,”
Hoover said.
Hoover is assistant professor of
theological studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and
author of “The Shared Parish: Latinos,
Anglos and the Future of U.S. Catholicism.” He spoke Feb. 19 at a panel discussion sponsored by the Center for
Migration Studies in New York.
Shared parishes are those in which
two or more distinct cultural communities maintain separate Masses
and ministries while sharing the same
facilities and usually the same leadership, Hoover said.
As the U.S. church grows more diverse, largely through immigration,
the percentage of parishes that offer
Masses in more than one language
also is growing. Hoover said 90 percent of parishes Hispanics attend
“might be” shared now, up from 75
percent in 1999.
The phenomenon includes other cultural groups in parishes transformed
by movement away from urban centers and population shifts associated
with economic changes, as well as immigration, Hoover said.
Shared parishes are not part of a
larger plan within the church, Hoover
said. “It’s what happened to accommodate immigration with limited resources.”
Shared parishes institutionalize the
separation of distinct groups, but also
offer safe spaces for them to gather,
Hoover said. Both newcomers and
established parishioners experience
grief from the changes that bring
them together.
They may also be anxious and uncertain because they “don’t know how
to read one another’s reaction,” he
said. As a result, they avoid one another and formalize the avoidance by
negotiating room use and parking lot
timing.
He said there is “emotional fraughtness” and anger related to grief.
Avoidance also happens when information does not flow between and
among the groups, Hoover said.
In some cases, each of the groups
foresees displacement and “they see
themselves as not possessing as much
influence and power in the culture as
they’d like. This leads to defensive positions,” he said.
“God speaks to us in strangers and
if we don’t welcome them, we don’t
get the message,” Hoover said. Communication is important and some
“people from the dominant culture get
converted to activism when they learn
of other’s stories.”
Scalabrini Father Walter Tonelotto,
pastor of Our Lady of Pompeii Church
in New York, said pastors and lay
leaders must work together to ensure
shared parishes are vibrant.
His parish in the Greenwich Village neighborhood encompasses five
groups: an aging Italian community, a
newer group of young expatriate Italian professionals, longtime Filipino
worshippers, Brazilians who come
from throughout the metropolitan region, and Hispanics who work in local
restaurants but live elsewhere.
The groups have significantly different needs and it is an ongoing
challenge to work together, Father
Tonelotto said. The first steps are to
welcome everyone with a smile and
offer liturgy in their language.
“But parishes today cannot be limited to liturgical activities,” he said.
They have to use new media, organize
activities and invite people to social
and cultural events.
Our Lady of Pompeii used its Web
page and other social media to promote an exhibit of Giotto paintings at
the parish. It promotes rosary events
in parishioners’ homes through the
same media and organizes a multicultural food feast, Father Tonelotto said.
“If a parish does not go out and
present different aspects, it becomes
insignificant. If every parish had a
Facebook account, we could reach
millions of people each day,” Father
Tonelotto said.
“My main work is liturgical. We have
to empower laypeople, meet together
at the parish council, ... give enough
space to each group and unite without
killing initiative,” he said.
Maria del Mar Munoz-Visoso, executive director of the Secretariat for
Cultural Diversity in the Church at the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops,
said integration of parallel communities within a parish entails a process of
welcoming, belonging and ownership.
The process is impeded by stereotypes,
discrimination and racism, she said.
“Parallel communities can become
eternal rather than intersecting. It’s
important to strengthen them, because people integrate better from a
position of strength, and then build
bridges. Some parts will never intersect, but the process brings the community together,” Munoz-Visoso said.
“Attention to cultural diversity is
more than a practical matter. It’s a
need to grow the knowledge, attitude
and skills to carry out the mission of
the church,” she said.
Shared parishes require cultural
humility, Hoover said, which includes
understanding “life is a long project of
learning and we have to always learn
from one another.”
Flexibility, humility and curiosity are
important qualities for potential pastors of shared parishes, Hoover said.
Ideally, the pastor would be passionate
about the faith, interested in learning
about another culture, and flexible
“about seeing my way is not someone
else’s way.”
“In our country, we tend to identify
Catholicism with American Catholicism, even though there are culturally different ways of approaching
it,” including popular expressions of
religion, he said.
“When human beings are faced with
cultural differences, we make moral
judgments. What you think might be
a moral problem, might be a cultural
difference,” Hoover said.
The Center for Migration Studies
is an educational institute devoted to
the study of international migration,
to the promotion of understanding between immigrants and receiving communities, and to public policies that
safeguard the dignity and rights of
migrants, refugees and newcomers. 
Fidelity Home Loans, LLC
NMLS#894768
Rates Are Back At A Historical Low!!
If your current rate does not start in the 3s, you are paying too much
and could be saving thousands of dollars over the life of your loan by
refinancing.
Call today about “No Closing Cost Loans”,
bi-weekly mortgage, and HARP loans.
If you are looking to buy a home, let me get you
pre-qualified to start shopping for that new home.
Visit my Website at: www.fidelityhomeloans.net
Certified Mortgage Banker
Bob Nolte
CMB
Phone 615-377-0769 • Fax 615-377-0774
NMLS #160882
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 9
As migration pattern changes, Mexican women adjust methods of service
David Agren CNS
L
A PATRONA, Mexico. Norma
Romero Vasquez watched a freight
train roll by her residence on a recent Saturday, and she checked to see if
any migrants were perched on top.
“There’s one,” she yelled, motioning
for a friend farther up the line to pass
food and drink to the lone rider.
The migrant, sunburned and wearing shorts and a hoodie, grabbed the
bagged lunch with an outstretched hand.
He was the only one to pass that day.
It’s drastic decline from six months
earlier, when hundreds of Central Americans huddled aboard northbound trains
in attempts to reach the U.S. border.
Nowadays, “They’re mostly arriving
on foot,” said Romero, whose team of 14
women, known as “Las Patronas,” still
serve them and even offer a spot to sleep.
For 20 years, Las Patronas have tossed
meals to migrants riding atop trains
passing through their hamlet of cane
and coffee farmers in Veracruz state,
175 miles southeast of Mexico City.
Las Patronas named themselves for
their hometown – La Patrona – and Our
Lady of Guadalupe, the national patroness. The women started out with scant resources, but their work has won national
awards and international attention. Their
work also has contributed to changes
in attitudes toward migrants in Mexico,
where people have not always welcomed
their southern neighbors, despite the fact
CNS photo/David Agren
Bernarda Romero passes out bags of bread and pastries to migrants passing
through La Patrona, Mexico, on a northbound train Sept. 25. Romero is one of
the founders of Las Patronas, a group of ladies in Veracruz state who have fed
Central American migrants passing through their farming village since 1995.
that the country sends so many its own
citizens to the United States.
“There are more people aware now
... that a migrant is not a person coming here to do harm. It’s someone who
is trying to get ahead and help their
family,” Romero said, adding that some
of those riding the rails will contact
her after arriving to give thanks, even
though they never met.
“They look for us and ask, ‘Why would
you give us something to eat?’ I always
say to them, ‘Because you’re my brother.’”
Priests and religious attending the
Feb. 14th 20th anniversary celebration called the women examples of
Christian charity and compassion, who
always shared what they had, even in
times of hardship.
“They’re a reference, when speaking
of migration and service to migrants,”
said Father Prisciliano Peraza Garcia,
director of a migrant shelter in Altar,
near the Arizona border.
“These people know that what little
they have, they have to share it,” said
Bishop Raul Vera Lopez of Saltillo, who
celebrated an anniversary Mass along
the railway lines in La Patrona. “The
solidarity that exists between the poor
is something extraordinary.”
After the anniversary Mass, the
women cut cake and answered a crush
of requests from reporters – such is
the sensation of 14 peasant women who
have become minor media celebrities
in Mexico.
Las Patronas started in 1995, when
Romero recalls being asked by migrants
walking the railway lines for food,
though she confessed not knowing
anything about migration and confused
the people atop the trains with joyriders.
The opportunity to serve migrants, she
said, was an answer to prayer.
“I said, ‘Please show me the road
so that I can serve you,’” she recalled
praying.
The women prepared meals in pots
over open flames and passed out
bagged food to outstretched hands.
When food was hard to find, the
women picked mangos.
Their work started being noticed,
leading to donations from students, universities and local businesses, which
would send over day-old pastries and
bottled drinks.
Las Patronas won the 2013 National
Human Rights Award, and Romero rebuked President Enrique Pena Nieto in
person for a recently approved energy
reform and an ongoing neglect of the
countryside. But Romero downplays
the attention she receives and credits
her colleagues and God for their accomplishments.
“This project is not only mine. It’s
God’s,” she said. “It is not something
we expected, but it completely changed
our lives.”
Changes in Mexican immigration
enforcement are preventing migrants
from climbing onto the northbound
train – known as La Bestia for the way
it maims riders – through a government initiative known as the Southern
Border Project.
The initiative aims to make the southern border safer, according to the Mexican government, and establishes order
in an oft-neglected part of the country.
The plan was presented after the child
migrant crisis last summer, when
thousands of unaccompanied Central
American minors tried to travel through
Mexico to reach the United States.
“The child migrant crisis was a watershed moment,” said Father Alejandro
Solalinde, director of the Brothers of
the Road migrant shelter in Oaxaca
state, for the way it brought increased
enforcement, along with detentions and
deportations.
Critics, including Father Solalinde
and the operators of Catholic-run
shelters, say the plan makes migration
more dangerous by forcing migrants
onto new routes, where they are easily extorted or kidnapped by criminal
groups as they attempt to avoid the
authorities.
“The Southern Border Project is not
about making immigration safer,” he
said. “It’s about making it invisible.”
Father Solalinde sees most migrants
now arriving on foot, with 90 percent
reporting some sort of injury or having
fallen victim to crime along the way.
Since the Southern Border Project
was introduced, Franciscan Brother
Tomas Gonzalez Castillo has seen only
a minor drop in numbers arriving at
his shelter near the Mexico-Guatemala
border. But he has seen attempts by
migrants to avoid the authorities and a
new crop of smugglers starting to offer
services – even if they don’t offer anything of value.
“We’re receiving people that were lost
in the jungle,” said Brother Gonzalez,
director of the shelter La 72 in Tenosique, in Tabasco state.
The directors of shelters in southern
Mexico recently discarded a policy
of limiting stays by migrants to three
days, “because they arrive extremely
tired,” Brother Gonzalez said.
Honduran migrant Jose Daniel Sanchez Barahona, 18, arrived in La Patrona after walking most of the distance
from Palenque, 375 miles away in Chiapas state. He said he once jumped off
the train after criminals carrying baseball bats demanded $100 to stay aboard.
Many of the migrants traveling with
him “turned themselves in to immigration officials,” he said.
With fewer migrants riding the rails,
Romero has shifted her approach. She
opened a shelter to attend to those
walking the railway line and arriving on
bus and now feeds around 50 migrants
per day on the trains – down from the
more than 1,000 meals Las Patronas
used to prepare daily.
She plans to continue with her project, but hoped to see the day “people
did not have to migrate.” 
10 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
FAITH|WORSHIP|WITNESS
Support the Collection for the
Catholic Communication Campaign
Catholic Communication Campaign | Office of National Collections
3211 Fourth Street NE | Washington, DC 20017-1194 | www.usccb.org/nationalcollections
© 2014, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. All rights reserved.
Photos: © Jack Hollingsworth, Corbis; © Erik Isakson, Fotosearch; iStockphoto.
Please be generous.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 11
Texas judge blocks immigration changes; administration to appeal
Patricia Zapor CNS
W
ASHINGTON. A little more
than one day before an expansion was to take effect in a deferred deportation program known as
DACA, a federal judge in Texas issued
a preliminary injunction blocking the
Obama administration’s effort.
In a 123-page memorandum released
by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott late in the
evening Feb. 16, U.S. District Court
Judge Andrew Hanen granted the request of Texas and 25 other states to
temporarily block a planned expansion
of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to certain people who were ineligible for the original 2012 program.
The expansion of DACA was to be
rolled out Feb. 18, but Jeh Johnson,
secretary of Homeland Security, said
Feb 17 that the implementation would
be delayed while the administration appeals.
Meanwhile, organizations that have
been helping people prepare to apply
for the programs said they would
continue that work, in anticipation of
what they hope will be a reversal of the
injunction.
In Nashville, Donna Gann, program
coordinator for Catholic Charities of
Tennessee’s Immigration Services
department, has been maintaining a
spreadsheet with the contact information of people who have called the office in recent months, asking, “Can you
Tennessee Register file photo by Theresa Laurence
Terry Horgan, program manager at Catholic Charities’ Hispanic Family
Services office in Nashville, assists Sandra Martinez organize her paperwork
to apply for the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
program, which offers relief from deportation to certain young adult
immigrants. DACA experienced a setback last week when a federal judge
issued an injunction blocking the Obama administration’s effort to expand
the program.
help me?” Once Gann determines that
if callers are eligible for relief under
one of these programs, she saves their
information and promises to call them
as soon as they can move forward.
“Right now we have about 150 names
Need help with one of these
investment situations?








Recently retired or changed jobs and need to rollover my 401(k)
Assets are spread out and need to simplify financial affairs
Getting ready to retire and need to live off our portfolio
Recently widowed and need help managing a trust
Need a second opinion on our portfolio risk and expenses
Sold business and need help managing proceeds
Don’t have time to create and manage our portfolio(s)
I’m a fiduciary of a trust, endowment, foundation or retirement plan
Call John J. Glennon at 615.312.7130
• Managing Director, Avondale Partners, LLC
• Financial Advisor since 1982
• Only Middle Tennessee Member of the
Elite IRA Advisor Group
• Volunteer, Diocese of Nashville, for more than 25 years
John Glennon is a registered representative of Avondale Partners, LLC
Securities offered through Avondale Partners, LLC Member FINRA / SIPC
For a FREE copy of
“Thinking Differently – Investing & Retirement”
contact John at 615.312.7130 or [email protected]
3102 West End Avenue, Suite 1100 | Nashville, TN 37203 | 615.312.7130
[email protected]
on the list, and it grows every day,” she
said.
Johnson and legal experts who support the administrative actions said
they were confident that Hanen’s order
would be reversed on appeal and that
the programs are on sound legal footing, within the government’s exercise
of prosecutorial discretion.
A second variation of DACA, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans
and Lawful Permanent Residents,
called DAPA, was to take effect in the
spring but it also will be suspended
until further notice, Johnson’s statement said.
Hanen’s order did not address the
legality of the program but focused on
a government procedure and whether
the administration needed to follow its
requirements for how to promulgate
a “rule change.” The judge’s order affects the two new programs nationwide.
The existing DACA program is unaffected, Hanen said. It allows certain
people who were brought to the United
States as children to apply for deferral
of deportation. In return for registering with the government, undergoing a
background check, showing they are in
school or completed a high school education, and paying a fee, approved applicants receive a work permit, a Social
Security number and the opportunity to
obtain drivers’ licenses.
Also unaffected by the judge’s order
are other aspects of President Barack
Obama’s November orders, related to
the administration’s priorities for enforcement of immigration laws.
Catholic legal assistance agencies
around the country – many working
through parishes and neighborhood
organizations – have been gearing
up to help immigrants apply for the
programs since they were announced
by Obama shortly after the November
elections.
“The unfortunate decision by the
Texas ... court has the effect of confusing, frightening, and discouraging eligible immigrants from applying,” said
Jeanne M. Atkinson, executive director
of CLINIC, the Catholic Legal Immigra-
tion Network. CLINIC has been training people to advise potential applicants
and help them prepare applications.
“We believe this is a temporary setback and look forward to the decision
of the appellate court,” Atkinson said
in a statement. “In the meantime we
are moving forward undeterred with
plans to implement the administration’s
immigration action, which will give
millions of people the chance to live,
work and stay in America with their
families.”
So many times when it comes to immigration reform, the refrain seems to
be “hurry up and wait,” said Gann of
Catholic Charities.
Mercy Sister Patricia McDermott,
president of the Institute of the Sisters
of Mercy of the Americas, said in a
statement that “without this executive
action, 150,000 children annually would
continue to lose a parent to deportation.”
She said deportations not only harm
the person who is removed but that “it
destroys the people they leave behind,
many of whom are innocent children.”
“We know these people as our neighbors, as our friends and as our brothers
and sisters in Christ,” she said.
In a Feb. 17 teleconference, several
attorneys who wrote an “amicus” or
friend-of-the-court brief opposing the
states’ effort to block the programs
said they remain confident that the administration’s orders will withstand the
legal challenge.
“Our recommendation is don’t panic,”
said Debbie Smith, associate general
counsel for the Service Employees
International Union. “Keep preparing
your documentation. Think of this as a
timeout, a bump in the road, it’s not the
end of the game. Justice will prevail.”
She said she expects the suspension of the programs is temporary and
urged people who might want to apply
for any of the deportation deferral programs to “stay tuned in. This is just the
beginning of the fight.”
For now, Gann is telling immigrants
who call her office that even though
things are on hold with the immigration
order, they should still be gathering the
documentation needed to qualify, stay
tuned to the news, and “be ready for
when it does pass,” she said. She is also
reminding people to be wary of possible scams that target the vulnerable
immigrant community, promising that
they can rush paperwork through for a
fee. “We are still trying to educate the
community,” she said.
In another teleconference, White
House Domestic Policy Director Cecilia Munoz observed that Hanen’s
order blocking the programs “was not
a constitutional decision,” and that it
“wouldn’t be the first time such a ruling
was overturned.”
Richard Trumka, president of the
AFL-CIO, said in a statement that his
organization “will continue educating
workers, training union activists and
helping eligible applicants gather the
documents they will need to qualify.”
He said the lawsuit “represents a misguided effort to use a false economic
basis to block the immigration relief
that millions of hardworking, longtime
members of our community deserve.”
Theresa Laurence contributed to this
report. 
12 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Parishes respond to cold by boosting help for homeless
Andy Telli
A
s overnight temperatures have
dropped to dangerously cold levels during February, the Room
In The Inn program and the congregations it partners with, including many
Catholic parishes, have ramped up efforts to provide a warm, safe place for
the homeless to stay.
“What we’ve done for really almost
every night for the last two weeks is
call on our congregations to open up
additional beds,” said Jeff Moles, community development coordinator for
Room In The Inn. “We’ve had a pretty
good response from that. Over the
two-week period, we added over 850
beds over what we would normally
offer.”
As part of the Room In The Inn
program, churches and congregations throughout Nashville host the
homeless overnight during the winter
months, providing a warm, safe place
to sleep, dinner and breakfast, and
transportation from and to the Room
In The Inn campus on Eighth Avenue
South near downtown.
On a typical night, congregations
have about 315 beds available, Moles
said. “On these nights with extremely
cold weather the average has gone up
to 468 beds.”
The Cathedral of the Incarnation
Continued on page 23
Photo by Andy Telli
Nancy Anderson prepares to serve homemade yeast rolls to the guests of the Room In The Inn program at the
Cathedral of the Incarnation. The Cathedral, which normally hosts Room In The Inn guests on Tuesday nights, has
been hosting guests every night for more than a week because overnight temperatures have dipped dangerously low.
Anderson was volunteering with her daughter Leigh Sutherland and her sister Therese Fleetwood.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 13
Photos by Andy Telli
Rite of Election
Catechumens, above left photo, who will receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and
the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil Mass, are presented to Bishop David Choby during the Rite of
Election, held Sunday, Feb. 22, at St. Henry Church. Kathryn Moran, above left, who will enter
the Catholic Church at the Easter Vigil Mass at St. Matthew Church, was one of the cadidates
presented during the Rite of Election. She is accompanied by Margaret Cook who filled in for
Moran’s sponsor Colleen Meffe. For more photos, go to www.dioceseofnashville.com.
Recent gifts show versatility of the CCFMTN
Continued from front page
help people with estate planning while
providing help to the ministries they
are most passionate about, said Ron
Szejner, executive director of the
CCFMTN.
Both funds were
established late last
year, Szejner said.
“They came out of
nowhere, which is
terrific.”
The foundation
Eddie Pearson
offers a variety of
tools for estate planning that gives donors tax advantages
while also allowing
them to stipulate
which parish, institution or ministry
they want to support, even beyond
their death.
Kathleen
The individual
Pearson
funds can be large
or small, Szejner
said. “Most people still think what
we do is only for wealthy people,” he
said. “Even a small gift can be helpful.”
The CCFMTN pools all the funds
and invests them, which means the
fees for managing the funds are less,
Szejner explained. Less money spent
on fees means more money is available to help the ministries that mean
so much to the donors, he added.
With their donor advised fund, the
Pearson family will tell the CCFMTN
board of directors which parishes
and ministries they want to receive
a grant. “We indicate where we want
the money to go and they take care of
all the paperwork and all the administration,” said Pearson, which makes
it much easier on his family than
if they were administering the
fund themselves.
The first two grants from the
Pearson Family fund were to
their parish, Christ the King
Church in Nashville, and to
the Good Samaritan Fund at
Fairfield United Methodist
Church in northern Sumner
County, where Eddie Pearson’s
parents are members.
“I wanted to give back to the place
where I was raised and (honor) the
influence of the people who shaped
me a long time ago,” Pearson said.
And by being able to designate
what kind of ministries they want to
support, Pearson said, he and his
wife can pass along to their three
daughters and their families the
value they place on “giving back to
the community that’s provided a lot
for us.”
A variety of options
Richard Russo was a parishioner at
Our Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville. During his life, he was
heavily involved in the parish’s Room
In The Inn ministry and helping the
homeless.
After he died last year, he left a
modest estate to his family. His
brother, Dr. Donald Russo, and other
members of the family decided to
use the estate to honor Richard by
establishing an endowment to sup-
port the Room In The Inn ministry
at Our Lady of the Lake through the
CCFMTN.
Dr. Russo shared the family’s plans
with friends and relatives, and they
have responded by making their own
donations to the endowment, Szejner
said.
“I’m getting checks from all kinds
of places,” Szejner said. The amounts
vary from $100 to $1,000 or more, he
added.
The Pearson and Russo funds are
just two ways the CCFMTN can help
people support the ministries they
care the most about. Currently the
foundation has just under $7 million
in assets, Szejner said, and the funds
support a variety of ministries, including Catholic Charities of Tennessee,
institutions that help abused women
and expectant mothers; and various
parish ministries.
“We can help people whatever their
passion is about the
Church,” Szejner said.
“We can help them do
it the way they want to
do it.”
“We were able to design our fund based on
how we want it to impact” the community,
Pearson said. “Somebody else could set it
up to support Catholic
schools or the elderly
or the hungry or whatever cause they find
important to them.”
The CCFMTN offers a variety of
investment tools, Szejner said. “There
are so many ways to do it. We can do
it in a way to honor their intent but
in a way that is tax advantaged, given
their unique circumstances.”
The goal of the foundation is to
build an endowment that will support
the ministries in the diocese. “We
obviously need to build endowment
to support ministries in our diocese,”
Szejner said. “Our diocese is growing;
our needs are growing.”
For more information about the
foundation contact Szejner at (615)
783-0278 or [email protected] for visit its website at
www.ccfmtn.org.
14 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Deacons bring back message of solidarity from Zimbabwe
Continued from front page
where CRS manages programs designed to uplift the poor.
Catholic Relief Services has been
working in Zimbabwe since 1989, partnering with the local
Catholic Church,
community-based
organizations and
government institutions. During that
time, CRS Zimbabwe
has built strategic
Deacon
partnerships with
Calzavara
more than 20 local
organizations, bringing humanitarian, recovery, and development programming
to the impoverished
country’s urban and
rural communities.
Two of the CRS
programs that made
Deacon
a big impression on
Edwards
the deacons were
the Savings and Internal Lending Communities program,
known as SILC, and the Bicycle Project.
SILC is a community-based microlending program that allows people
to invest money and take out loans
for small projects. Deacons Calzavara
and Edwards heard the story of one
woman who took out a loan out for $6
to buy chicks, and then six weeks later
when they reached maturity sold them
for $12 and made a profit. She continued this for some time until she saved
up about $150, and was able to replace
the clay and cow manure floor in her
home with a concrete floor.
“Her modest improvements gave
her confidence and made her feel like
a modern woman who was capable of
Photos by Mikaele Sansone/Catholic Relief Services
Deacon John Calzavara of Holy Family Parish in Brentwood and Deacon Brian Edwards of St. Edward Parish in
Nashville recently traveled to Zimbabwe as Catholic Relief Services Global Fellows. While there, they observed
several CRS-sponsored programs designed to uplift the poor. Above, several other members of their group, Father
Ed Rooney, CRS employee Roberto Rojas, and Deacon Tom Berna dance with Zimbabwe locals who were welcoming
them to their village to learn about a micro-lending program.
making progress,” Deacon Edwards
said. “The joy in her voice and smile
on her face was so inspiring.”
“The greeting we received in the village with the SILC program … people
singing and dancing as we arrived
was so vibrant,” Deacon Calzavara recalled. “They have nothing in the way
of material goods, but the spirit is so
alive.”
When the group visited the site
where CRS runs the Bicycle Project,
the deacons met with a teenager who,
before receiving a bike, walked more
than 10 miles each way to school
every day. While it’s hard to imagine
any American school child undertaking such a task, the boy told Deacon
Edwards that he did it “because I want
a good education, and I want a better
life.”
Now after receiving a bike, the boy’s
former five-hour daily commute has
been cut to just over an hour, vastly
improving his quality of life.
While Zimbabwe’s education system
Continued on next page
Above, left, students in Zimbabwe ride bikes that are part of Catholic Relief Services’ Bicycle Project, which provides bikes to students in remote
communities who sometimes were walking over 20 miles to and from school every day. At right, a boy from rural Zimbabwe fills a barrel with water from a
public spring, which he will carry back to his home via ox-driven cart. Many in Zimbabwe do not have access to fresh drinking water, or have to walk long
distances to collect it every day. Catholic Relief Services has worked in Zimbabwe since 1989 and helped establish a number of programs that improve the
lives of the country’s poorest people, including water and sanitation, agricultural, and educational programs.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 15
Ryan educator, mentor, honored with Christ the Teacher award
Theresa Laurence
C
.A. Williams, a teacher at Father
Ryan High School for more than
40 years, has “worn many hats at
Father Ryan and I’ve loved them all.”
She’s been an art teacher, history
teacher, launched the Cooperative
Support and Early Intervention programs at Father Ryan, coached tennis,
sponsored the chess club and served
as moderator for the Model UN club,
among other roles.
But more than developing history whizkids or chess champions, “I want every
kid walking out of my classroom knowing I love and respect them,” she said.
For her selfless attitude, along with
her “example of Christ like leadership”
and her “dedication, commitment, selfsacrifice and kindness to everyone,”
representing the heart of Catholic education, Williams was recently presented
with the Diocese of Nashville’s Christ
the Teacher Award, given annually to
an outstanding teacher in the diocese.
“It was a total surprise,” Williams
said of receiving the award at a Feb. 13
diocesan-wide teacher in-service day.
Coming to school every day and
teaching is a reward enough in itself,
she said. “I’ve never felt depressed
about going to school on Monday
morning. … I so love what I do.”
Moving through the halls of Father
Ryan, clad in sparkly Sketchers tennis
shoes and a jacket, shirt, and dangling
earrings bearing the Ryan logo, Williams greets individual students from
among the crowd, sharing a high five
and a smile with them. When she gets
to her study skills classroom, she
moves around the room, talking sports
with some of the guys, then helping
one of the girls with a history assignment. It’s clear that she is in her element, connecting with her students at
every turn.
In nominating Williams for the Christ
the Teacher award, Father Ryan Principal Paul Davis noted that “she never
seeks recognition, and simply goes
about the day each and every school
day to teach ‘her children.’”
He added that “she has given her
entire career to the advancement of
all students whether teaching the
valedictorians … or those students
who have the most significant learning differences. She treats all students
with unconditional love no matter their
struggles.”
Some of Williams’ brightest students
have gone on to have successful careers as doctors; she notes with pride
Photo by Theresa Laurence
Father Ryan High School teacher C.A. Williams helps junior Brooke Ozment with an assignment in her study skills
class. Williams, who has taught at Father Ryan for over 40 years, was recently honored with the Christ the Teacher
award from the Diocese of Nashville Catholic Schools office. The award is given annually to an outstanding teacher
in the diocese.
that all of her personal physicians “who
keep me ticking” are former students.
But it’s often the students who are the
“undiscovered diamonds” for whom
she has the softest spot. That’s one reason she helped start the Cooperative
Support Program nearly 30 years ago.
“We set up that program because
there were some really good kids who
were doing poorly” academically, she
said, and she wanted to change that.
The program exists to assist students
with clinically diagnosed learning disabilities, as well as those with different
learning styles who need additional,
individualized plans to help them succeed in school.
Williams sees this program as an
extension of what every teacher should
do for their students: “build and support their self-esteem,” she said. “I look
at people like a puzzle. You’ve got to
figure out where they’re coming from.
Everybody has a story.”
In addition to the Cooperative Support Program, Williams also helped
launch the Early Intervention Program
in the late 1970s to help students struggling with drug and alcohol abuse. “We
were seeing kids go down the tubes
who could have been saved,” she said,
getting kicked out of school and ending
up as dropouts, in jail or worse. Instead
of being kicked out of school, Williams
wanted to give students an alternative,
to enter treatment and return to school.
“Chemical dependency needs to be
treated as an illness,” Williams said.
“To say that she and others at Father
Ryan were thinking outside of the box
to implement this program is an understatement,” Davis said. “It took decades
for other secondary schools to see that
this issue was crucial to the well-being of
students. The early days of this program
were controversial, but these dedicated
educators pursued what they thought
was best for our student community.”
The program has since evolved and
has been copied by schools in Tennessee and other states. At Father Ryan, it
is now part of the school’s comprehen-
sive Personal Counseling Department.
Williams is no longer involved with
Early Intervention; today she serves as
the chair of the Social Sciences Department, and is the faculty moderator for
the Model United Nations and Youth
Legislature clubs.
“My whole life and career here have
been such a ride,” she said.
One of her greatest sources of pride
these days is seeing former students
with their families at Mass at Christ the
King Church, where she attends the
Saturday evening service. “That validates what we do here” at Father Ryan,
she said, building a strong foundation
of faith in students.
Williams, who counts Albert Einstein, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer,
Mother Teresa and Ghandi among
her heroes, never had children of her
own, but considers the thousands of
Father Ryan students she has taught
over four decades as hers. “They mean
everything to me,” she said. “I’ve had a
blessed life doing what I love.” 
Deacons bring back message of solidarity from Zimbabwe
Continued from previous page
is quite good, and more than 80 percent of the adult population is literate,
the country has an extremely high
unemployment rate. “There are a lot
of able bodied people with no way of
making a living,” Deacon Edwards
said. While the work that CRS does
creates some jobs, it barely makes a
dent in the problem, he added.
But, Deacon Calzavara said, they
are “focused on direct aid and looking
at the root causes of the problems …
asking why is this happening?”
To a large extent, in Zimbabwe, “economic change depends on government change,” said Deacon Edwards.
In recent decades, the country has
been at the mercy of dictator Robert
Mugabe, who has dominated the
country’s political system since the
country gained independence in 1980,
and has served as president since
1987.
Zimbabwe is one of more than 30
countries in Africa where Catholic
Relief Services has worked for many
years, and strives to empower the
poorest of the poor. Global Fellows
who travel to one of these countries
on CRS-sponsored trips are expected
to give at least three presentations
about their experience to help spread
awareness about the organization.
Deacon Edwards is so eager to share
his experiences, in fact, that he has to
remind himself, “don’t talk about it too
much, feed it to people a little bit at
a time to keep their interest.” He has
started a blog, available at https://
catholicdeaconthoughts.wordpress.
com, and has been speaking about his
experiences during homilies.
Deacon Calzavara will formally
share his experiences for the first
time this weekend at Holy Family
with small faith sharing groups. He is
exploring how to best integrate CRS’
work into the fabric of the parish,
one that already makes annual international outreach trips to Honduras,
Haiti and India.
For Deacon Calzavara, the trip was
a reminder of how “the social justice
teachings of the Church are intrinsically tied to our spirituality.” The message he wants to spread is simple and
universal: “Whatever you do to the
least of my people, you do to me.” 
16 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Former Hispanic ministry director retires after ‘an interesting life’
and can they?” he said.
“I don’t see anything in Church documents about changing their ethnicity,”
he said. St. John Paul II stated clearly
that the Church should let migrants
develop their faith in the context of
where they started, Father Gagnon
said, and the people have the freedom
to change if they want.
Andy Telli
W
hen Father Richard Gagnon,
S.D.S., came to the Diocese of
Nashville in 1991 to serve as
director of Hispanic ministry, the U.S.
Census Bureau estimated there were
13,000 Hispanics living in Middle Tennessee.
“That was more than enough anyway,” for Father Gagnon to take care
of, he said.
As he leaves the Diocese of Nashville
to begin his retirement in Milwaukee,
the Hispanic population in Middle
Tennessee has ballooned to more than
145,000, about 11 times larger than
when he started. And that doesn’t
count all the people who don’t participate in the census, Father Gagnon
said.
The growth of the Hispanic population in the Nashville diocese is part of
a national trend in the United States,
where the American Church is becoming more Hispanic. The diocese will
need a Hispanic ministry to provide
pastoral care to Spanish speakers for a
long time, Father Gangon said.
Father Gagnon, who also served as
pastor of St. Luke Church in Smyrna
for 21 years and as pastor of St. William Church in Shelbyville for the last
two-and-a-half years, left Tennessee
last week to move to a retirement
home in Milwaukee, Wisc., operated
by his order.
During the first 25 years of his priesthood, Father Gagnon had served in
several parishes with large numbers
of Latinos, including several in Texas
near the Mexican border. It was there
that he became fluent in Spanish.
In 1991, Bishop James Niedergeses
invited him to come to Nashville to
lead Hispanic ministry and serve as
pastor of St. Luke. The major migration of Hispanics to the area began a
few years after he arrived in Middle
Tennessee.
The diocese’s Hispanic ministry got
a huge boost from the Diocese of Parral, Mexico, Father Gagnon said.
Father Lorenzo Martinez was a
priest from Parral who was working
with Hispanic ministry in Nashville,
Father Gagnon recalled. Father
Martinez invited his bishop to visit
Nashville. The bishop was surprised
to see so many Latinos living here and
agreed to send more priests and religious sisters from his diocese here to
provide pastoral care to the Hispanic
community.
Hispanics started flocking to the new
Mexican priests and sisters, Father
Gagnon said. “They understood the
culture and the language, so the people naturally went to them for spiritual
help,” he said. “Why would they go to
anyone else?”
As the Latino population continues
to grow, so does the need for more
priests who speak Spanish and can
provide pastoal care to migrants from
Central and South America, said Father Gagnon.
“They need more pastoral care, more
pastoral attention,” said Father Louis
Rojas, who came to the Nashville Diocese in 2008 to work with the Hispanic
ministry office and is now replacing
Father Gagnon as pastor of St. William. “We’re in need of priests who can
Photo by Andy Telli
Father Richard Gagnon, S.D.S., right, the former director of Hispanic
Ministry for the Diocese of Nashville, and the former pastor at St. Luke
Church in Smyrna and St. William Church in Shelbyville, has retired. He
will be succeeded as the pastor at St. William by Father Louis Rojas, left.
speak Spanish.”
Some help should be coming from
several of the diocese’s seminarians
who speak Spanish. “We pray that they
make it through and become priests,”
Father Rojas said.
The current wave of immigrants
coming into the American church is
different than the European immigrants that came in earlier centuries,
Father Gagnon said.
“Most Catholic Americans are expecting them to follow the same path
as their ancestors did in coming here,”
Father Gagnon said. “But because of
the differences in language, culture
and even appearance, it’s harder to assimilate.
“The first migration that came from
Europe couldn’t go back. They were
here to stay,” Father Gagnon added.
But many Hispanic immigrants travel
back and forth between the United
States and their country of origin, he
said.
Father Gagnon doesn’t think Hispanic ministry’s first priority should
be to help new immigrants assimilate
into American culture. “Do you want
to bring them closer to the Lord or do
you want to Americanize them? Do
they want to become Americanized
‘An interesting life’
Father Gagnon, 81, grew up in
Philadelphia. He began to discern a
vocation to the priesthood because “religion meant a lot to me, also the goal
of religion: eternal happiness,” he said.
“That was a way I could serve others.”
Father Gagnon was interested in
becoming a missionary and contacted
the Salvatorians after reading about
them in Our Sunday Visitor. He studied at a Salvatorian seminary in Michigan and the Catholic University of
America in Washington, D.C., before
being ordained on June 5, 1965.
Before coming to Nashville, he
served as a teacher in New Jersey and
Indiana, before working in parishes in
Texas, California, Nevada and Florida.
He was able to serve as a missionary,
but in the home missions, he said.
“Nothing went the way we thought it
would,” Father Gagnon said. “There’s
no sense having any plans because
you can’t predict what will happen in
life. The Lord said don’t worry about
tomorrow. Live (one) day at a time, because you may not see tomorrow.
“You’re always adapting,” he said.
“You have to adapt until you can’t
adapt and that means you’re dead,” he
said with a chuckle.
“It’s an interesting life,” Father Gagnon said. “I’ve been very happy about
the whole thing.”
Tennessee Register file photo by Rick Musacchio
Father Richard Gagnon, former director of the Diocese of Nashville’s Hispanic Ministry program, sprinkles holy
water while blessing palms outside of Holy Rosary Church in Donelson in this file photo from 2000. The Hispanic
population in Middle Tennessee has grown more than ten-fold since Father Gagnon arrived in Nashville in 1991.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 17
Bob Frensley recalled for his love, support of the Church
R
obert “Bob” Frensley was remembered as a successful businessman and a devoted family
man and friend who
loved his church.
Mr. Frensley, a
well-known auto
dealer and a frequent
supporter of Catholic institutions and
activities, died after
a long illness on Friday, Feb. 12, at his
Frensley
home surrounded by
family.
“I’ve never met a man more devoted
to his church than Bob,” recalled his
friend John Lentz during a eulogy at
the funeral Mass celebrated on Thursday, Feb. 19, at the Cathedral of the
Incarnation in Nashville. “He gave
generously of his time, his money and
himself to his church.”
In a eulogy read at the funeral, his
wife Kaye Duke Frensley said her
husband held onto his faith even as
his illness worsened. “Bob never once
turned on the Lord,” instead drawing
strength from his faith, she said. “He
remembered the words of his mother,
‘Do the right thing,’” Mrs. Frensley
said. “He tried all his life to do the right
thing. … It’s been a great journey. I’m
proud to have been his wife.”
Mr. Frensley, 76, was born Jan. 7,
1939, the son of the late Effie Marie
Miller Frensley and Thomas Edward
Frensley III. He was a parishioner at
the Cathedral and attended school
there through the fourth grade. The
family moved to East Nashville where
he graduated from Holy Name School
and later Father Ryan High School in
1957.
He was a student at Father Ryan in
the fall of 1954 when it integrated, and
was remembered by his African-American classmates decades later as someone who welcomed them as friends.
Mr. Frensley remained close to his
classmates and other Ryan graduates
and teachers throughout his life.
As a teen, Mr. Frensley developed
a lifelong love of cars. He became a
champion drag race driver who was
known as the “King of the Hill” at the
Union Hill Dragstrip. Because of his
success, Goodyear Tire Co. became his
national sponsor.
Mr. Frensley also served in the Tennessee Air National Guard, rising to
the rank of captain and received the
Governor’s Medal of Recognition.
He began his career in sales with the
Genesco shoe company in Nashville.
But Mr. Frensley was “born for the car
industry,” said his family. He became
a top salesman at Capitol Chevrolet in
Nashville, and in 1965, Ford Motor Co.
offered him his first dealership in Louisville, Ky.
In 1970, Mr. Frensley returned to
Nashville as the owner of a Ford franchise, the “Home of the Superdealer.”
The site of the dealership is now
the location of the Joe Casey Police
Precinct, named after Mr. Frensley’s
baseball coach as a youth and life-long
friend, former Nashville Police Chief
Joe Casey.
During the 1980s and 1990s, Mr.
Frensley owned nine successful automobile franchises, including Ford,
Chevrolet, Chrysler, Dodge, Suzuki,
Isuzu, Volkswagen, Lincoln Mercury
and Subaru, and later he acquired Jeep.
Mr. Frensley also built and was coowner of Rivergate Station Mall in Madison and brought the Broadway Dinner
Train to the Nashville area. Later Mr.
Frensley downsized his operations to
Bob Frensley Chrysler Jeep Dodge
after selling his other franchises.
His motto for the dealership was,
“Enter as a stranger, leave as a friend.”
In the 1990s, Mr. Frensley served on
the Municipal Auditorium Commission
and the Metro Parks Board. Under
his leadership, numerous Metro Park
projects were begun and completed to
put Nashville in competition with many
other top cities in the country.
Mr. Frensley developed a passion for
golf and began making his own golf
clubs. He often played in charity golf
tournaments.
Mr. Frensley dedicated his life to God
and supported his Catholic community’s beliefs of giving of yourself and
talents to better the lives of others, his
family said. He often commented about
how good Nashville residents had been
to him and took pride in the contributions he made to give back to the city
he loved so much.
“He helped out so many people and
he did it in so many ways,” recalled
his cousin Hendersonville Police Chief
Mickey Miller. “It made Bob truly
happy to help other people.” Mr. Frensley would often remark that “the people
in this town have been so good to me,
I’m so lucky,” Chief Miller said. “He
wasn’t thinking of all the good he had
done.”
“I love Bob and I’m sure most of you
… felt the same way,” Chief Miller said
in his eulogy at the funeral. “And I can
assure you Bob loved you too. …
“The true measure of greatness is
the love you show other people, and an
even greater measure than that is the
love other people show for you,” said
Chief Miller. He noted that Chief Casey
spent hours every day at Mr. Frensley’s
side during the last months of his life.
Mr. Frensley also was devoted to his
family, Chief Miller said. “He loved his
family with a passion. Family meant
everything to Bob, and friends were
forever.”
Besides his parents, Mr. Frensley was
preceded in death by his sisters Agnus
(Amie) Patricia Cunningham, Betty
Frensley, and Effie Marie Humbrecht;
and his brother, Thomas Edward “Bo”
Frensley IV.
Continued on page 23
18 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
U.S. should pursue detention alternatives for migrants
GUEST
EDITORIAL
T
he children appeared
sick and malnourished.
They lived in large dormitory style rooms and were
forced to use the bathroom in
public view. Some had to wear
prison style clothes and sleep
with the lights on. Schooling
was infrequent at best.
This catalog of ills, taken
from legal proceedings and
cited in The New York Times
Magazine Feb. 4 described
conditions at a federal detention facility for undocumented
mothers and children near
Austin, Texas. Lawyers for
the government called them
exaggerated, but if any of
these allegations are true, they
represent a violation of human
rights standards and must be
addressed.
The U.S. bishops have repeatedly called attention to the
potential for abuses in family
detention centers. In a letter to
the Department of Homeland
Security dated Oct. 1, 2014,
Seattle Auxiliary Bishop Eusebio L. Elizondo, chairman
of the Committee on Migration of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, wrote:
“Family detention is harmful
to the physical and mental
health of these families, as
children are often depressed
and in weak physical condition due to emotional stress. ...
Mothers, already traumatized
by violence, including sexual
assault ... remain traumatized
and confused by the detention
setting and the inability to access family or other emotional
support.”
The bishops argue, persuasively, that mothers and children pose little security risk
and can be safely released to
relatives and “alternatives to
detention” programs.
The influx of thousands
of children and families has
posed a unique challenge. It is
not surprising that government
facilities were unable to handle
the increased numbers. But a
policy that relies on detention
of families is fundamentally
flawed. What parents would
want their children living in
rooms with bars, with little
opportunity to play with other
children?
Alternative detention programs, which range from
nonprofit residential facilities
to monitoring programs that
include curfews and regular
check-ins, meet many needs.
They allow women to seek
legal help while their children
receive schooling and other
basic services. At federal detention centers, families do not
have ready access to lawyers,
whose help has been shown
to greatly increase chances of
gaining legal asylum. According to one study, detainees
placed in a well-managed monitoring program had a court appearance rate of 93 percent.
The Obama administration
has made some important
steps toward reforming our
nation’s immigration policies.
Unfortunately, the president’s
recent executive actions apply
only to individuals who have
been in the country more
than five years. Many of the
families who have come from
Central America do not qualify,
although they can be legitimately considered refugees. A
generous government policy
would give them the resources
to investigate their legal options while allowing their children to live in the best possible
environment – someplace without fences and barbed wire.
This editorial first appeared in
the March 2 issue of America, a
national Catholic weekly magazine run by the Jesuits.
We all are called to advocate for those on society’s margins
GUEST COLUMN
Collen Mayer
W
ashington, D.C., has
always been a vacation
destination of mine
since I was a kid. I still enjoy the
local restaurants, including my
favorite falafel shop, the museums and monuments, and the
great shows and live music.
However, earlier this month I
found myself in Washington for
a very different purpose than
vacation when I was invited to
attend the annual Catholic Social Ministry Gathering. Little
did I know when I accepted the
invitation that this would become my most meaningful and
rewarding visits to D.C. yet.
The Catholic Social Ministry Gathering is a conference
hosted by the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops each year
that brings together social service leaders and activists from a
variety of faith-based organizations, including Catholic Charities, Catholic Relief Services,
and the Catholic Campaign for
Human Development, as well as
staff from parishes and dioceses
around the country.
The USCCB Department of
Justice, Peace, and Human Development organizes the Catholic Social Ministry Gathering
to educate and inspire leaders
in the Church to take action,
guided by Catholic social teaching, on pressing domestic and
international challenges related
to poverty, war and other injustices.
As this was my first time at the
gathering, I was not sure exactly
what to expect and how we
would spend our time in Washington. Once I saw our itinerary,
I quickly realized that I would
not have much time for sightseeing and relaxing; the schedule
was jam packed with workshops,
networking events, social issue
briefings, and trainings.
At our first meeting, the host
of the conference invited all of
us to commit to do four things
at the conference, to take four
tangible steps to make the most
out of the gathering: to connect,
learn, pray, and advocate. I tried
my best to take this advice to
heart throughout my time there.
Connect
The conference was attended
by Catholic leaders throughout
the country and throughout
the world who are working on
the ground to fight poverty and
to bring hope to those living in
desperation.
I work at Catholic Charities
of Tennessee, and it was such
a privilege to share stories
with other participants who do
similar work. Through multiple
opportunities to connect with
staff and volunteers of faithbased service organizations, I
was reminded that our work at
Catholic Charities of Tennessee
is part of a much larger movement of Christians committed
to serving and lifting up those
in need throughout the country
and throughout the world.
For example, I spent the first
morning of the gathering with
the staff and diocesan directors of Catholic Relief Services,
talking about the challenges
of addressing injustice both
domestically and globally, and
discussing different strategies
to combat hunger and poverty
in the various communities in
which we work.
Learn
I was particularly inspired
by the opportunity to learn
more about the ways Churchsupported organizations like the
Catholic Campaign for Human
Development and Catholic
Charities USA are making real
progress in addressing some of
the most pressing social problems in local communities.
For example, we learned
how the Catholic Campaign for
Human Development identifies
small nonprofit organizations
doing effective work in their
communities, and provides them
with grants to help them build
capacity and expand their work.
We heard story after story
from CCHD Leaders about how
small groups of poor people can
influence local governments and
change entire communities, in
order to bring justice and hope
to those who are marginalized.
Pray
Faith was the center and
foundation of all that we did at
the gathering, and there was
a consistent rhythm of prayer
throughout each day. We prayed
at the start and end of the day,
we prayed before each workshop, and we prayed before
each meal.
Our prayer at the gathering
was as diverse as the people our
agencies serve: we prayed in
multiple languages; we prayed
by celebrating Mass, and singing songs from different parts
of the world; we prayed with the
Scriptures and by celebrating
Adoration. And we prayed for
the many vulnerable populations
in our communities: refugees,
families who are homeless, the
uninsured, prisoners on death
row, the unborn.
Indeed, throughout the conference, we were reminded that,
as people of faith, prayer should
inform and inspire every facet
of our service to those in need.
This was a message that I know
I will take back with me in my
work at Catholic Charities.
Advocate
On the last day of the conference, after being thoroughly
briefed by USCCB advisors on
key social issues, we were literally sent forth into the streets of
Washington. We locked up our
meeting rooms, packed up our
things, checked out of our hotels, and headed to Capitol Hill
by the hundreds to meet with
our representatives, senators
and their staffs.
I had the opportunity to meet
both of our Tennessee senators
and to have in-depth conversations about social issues with
their key staff and advisors. We
talked about domestic poverty
programs, international adoption, the ongoing conflict in the
Holy Land, and foreign aid.
When possible, I tried to share
stories from my work in the
local community, as it became
clear that the congressmen and
women were very eager to hear
about the needs in their district
and their state.
One of our senators’ policy
advisors made a very direct
request to me: “flood my inbox,”
she said, with statistics and
stories about those in need in
Tennessee, and how Catholic
Charities is making a difference
in their lives. She recognized,
as I did, that the stories of those
in need must be told, that they
need to be part of the conversation on Capitol Hill.
As we were navigating Capitol
Hill, walking from meeting to
meeting, a colleague and I had
an important realization that I believe was a fruit of the prayer and
reflection that took place throughout the conference. We came
to see a deeper purpose in our
congressional visits than we had
originally realized: we were being
sent out to advocate for those in
society who often do not have anybody else to speak for them.
I have learned in my work
with those in need over the
years that those who are poor
always suffer from more than
just financial poverty. To be
poor often means to be powerless, to lack influence, to seem
insignificant.
During my congressional vis-
its, our clients back in Tennessee that my agency works with
continually came to mind. It
occurred to me that our clients
struggling with homelessness,
for instance, will likely never
have the means to visit Washington to talk about their need
for affordable family housing in
our state. Similarly, the clients
to whom we distribute food
boxes will likely have little say
in the upcoming Child Nutrition
Reauthorization Act, which will
determine if their family’s food
benefits are cut yet again.
In short, being an advocate
means bringing forth the needs
and the hopes of the marginalized, to tell their story when they
are not able to do so themselves.
The theme of this year’s Catholic Social Ministry gathering
was, “To Go Forth: Encountering Christ in the Heart of the
World.” This theme speaks to
a call we all share as people of
faith: to encounter Christ in
those on the margins of society,
and to advocate for their needs,
not just on Capitol Hill, but every
day in our local communities.
In his Lenten Message, Pope
Francis makes this call explicit:
“Every Christian community
is called to go out of itself and
to be engaged in the life of the
greater society of which it is a
part, especially with the poor
and those who are far away.”
This Lent, we pray that our
hearts may be open wide to
God’s many gifts, and that we
may hear God’s gentle, but firm,
voice sending us out to serve
Christ in the poor and the marginalized, and to bring to them
hope and healing.
Collen Mayer is the Director
of Social Services for Catholic
Charities of Tennessee. He also
serves on the national Board of
Directors of JustFaith Ministries
and serves as a consultant on
the USCCB’s Salt and Light
Committee.
Tennessee Register 19
February 27, 2015
Lord charts path of our lives: obey the Commandments, obey God
NEXT SUNDAY
Msgr. Owen F. Campion
B
ACKGROUND. The
Book of Exodus is the
source of the first biblical reading the weekend of
March 8. This book is about
the Hebrew people, enslaved
and dreadfully mistreated in
Egypt. Eventually they escaped from Egypt and found
their new homeland.
None of this good fortune,
of escaping and of ultimate
settlement in a land of their
own, happened as a result of
coincidence, luck or human
strategy. Rather. God’s power
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Third Sunday of Lent
Readings:
Exodus 20:1-17
1 Corinthians 1:22-25
John 2:13-25
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Fourth Sunday of Lent
Readings:
2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Ephesians 2:4-10
John 3:14-21
led the Hebrews to a successful escape from Egypt. Moses,
their leader in this endeavor,
was God’s representative, chosen by God for the task.
As the flight was underway,
and as the people wandered
across the bleak Sinai peninsula in search of the land God
had promised them, Moses
received from God, and gave
to the people, what long has
been called the Ten Commandments.
By observing these commandments, the people fulfilled their obligations under
the Covenant. They also followed the path to peace and
justice in life given by God,
a path that they themselves
could not have devised.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to
the Corinthians supplies the
second reading. For persons
living in the First Century
AD, the proclamation, and
beyond this the deification, of
a convicted felon was hard to
accept.
The Jews, suffering under
Roman oppression, and enduring so much, were not so apt
to revere Roman law or to see
profound wisdom and justice
in the system established to
enforce Roman law.
However, the Corinthian
Christians, many of whom had
been pagans, regarded Roman
jurisprudence to be supremely
The Ten Commandments,
illustration from a 1907
Bible card published by
the Providence Lithograph
Company.
wise. Yet, a Roman court tried
Jesus for, and convicted Jesus
of, high treason. The consequence of treason, again as set
forth in Roman law, was death
by crucifixion – for persons
who were not citizens of Rome
itself.
Here, in this reading, Paul as-
serts that Jesus, the convicted
felon, is the key to salvation.
The Apostle preaches, “Christ
crucified.” It is a “stumbling
block for the Jews, and an absurdity for the Gentiles.”
For its Gospel reading,
the Church this weekend
furnishes us with St. John’s
Gospel.
This weekend’s reading
recalls the time when Jesus,
shortly before Passover, entered the temple precincts and
found a brisk traffic underway
in the things needed for ritual
sacrifice.
Furious, as described by this
Gospel, the Lord drove the
merchants away.
He then predicted that the
temple would fall, in itself a
virtual blasphemy, and then
made the astonishing announcement that he would rebuild the colossal structure in
three days. It had taken many
people many years to build the
temple in the first place.
Scholars and leaders later
used this occasion to make
the case that Jesus was a blasphemer and a troublemaker.
The reading establishes
Jesus as God’s voice and God’s
agent. As bystanders watch
this happening unfold, they
are reminded of God’s word in
the Scriptures. The Lord’s actions remind them of God.
They do not fully compre-
hend the Lord’s words and
actions, however, because they
are humans, nothing less but
nothing more.
Reflection
Lent reminds us of our humanity, but, everlastingly, it is
hard for humans to admit their
human limitations. Admitting
our limitations frightens us.
So, we celebrate our human
accomplishments. We congratulate ourselves, for example,
on the brilliant design of
spaceships. Then, not knowing
how to deflect potentially dangerous asteroids reminds us
that we never think of everything or control everything.
Epidemics, such as ebola,
leave us at the mercy of forces
greater than we. Humans also
are shortsighted and irrational.
God loves us. Amid our inadequacies, he forgives us and
redeems us, as the ancient
Hebrews escaped Egypt. He
has given us Jesus, the Son of
God, as our Savior. How do we
attain this blessing? In the Ten
Commandments, God gave us
the pattern of our lives. Obey
the Commandments. Obey
God.
Msgr. Owen Campion, former
editor of the Tennessee Register, is Associate Publisher of
Our Sunday Visitor.
No matter its name, winter storm spells trouble
PINCH OF FAITH
Mary Margaret Lambert
“W
e are gonna have a
snowstorm.”
“The weatherman said get ready for a blizzard headed our way.”
“Better get lots of groceries
before the snow hits.”
“Winter storm is forecast
later this week, with lots of
snow.”
These are phrases that bring
fear, stress and dread into the
hearts of many. While the children pray that the dire warnings come true, those that have
to get out in the mess hope that
the predictions are wrong.
I personally have a sneaking suspicion that the grocery
stores offer a commission to
the weather forecasters each
time they forecast snow. If
sales are in a winter slump, just
watch them explode if there’s
even the slightest chance of the
white stuff.
Winter storms were always
just “winter storms.” They
didn’t need to have names,
until the Weather Channel
changed all that by dubbing
each storm with a name, begin-
ning in November, 2012, with
Athena.
Along with the storm naming
phenomena came new terms
to describe winter weather
forecasts. My personal favorite,
“wintery mix” can encompass
anything from rain drizzle to a
deluge of snowflakes as massive as a dinner plate. This is
a phrase that allows weather
forecasters to alert the public
to the fact that something out
of the ordinary might happen,
and no matter what happens
to fall from the sky, they have
covered their predictions.
Another new unfamiliar
term surfaced recently here
in the Midstate area. After
dozens of reports of frightening loud noises thought to
be explosions, it was learned
that we were experiencing
ice “quakes,” caused by water
expanding quickly as it freezes
underground. This new terminology, known now as “cryoseismic booms” can be added
to our growing winter vocabulary. Do we know enough
about it to dispute this theory?
While our Northern neighbors have been snowed under
and inside for weeks on end, we
have been hit with ice storms
here in the South that were destructive and serious enough to
cancel everything for an entire
week, have our state declared
a disaster, and give us all a bad
case of cabin fever.
We have been blessed with
a warm house and plenty of
food and water, but others have
suffered greatly from lack of
shelter, heat, and sustenance.
Churches and various charitable organizations have quickly
responded by supplying assistance to those affected by the
severe cold temperatures, but
some still refuse to accept the
help and they suffer the potentially fatal consequences.
The winter season of 20142015 has brought us storms
named Astro, Bozeman, Cato,
Damon, Eris, Frona, Gorgon,
Hektor, Iola, Juno, Kari, Linus
(not the well known friend
of Charlie Brown), Marcus,
Neptune, Octavia, and most
recently, Pandora.
All of these storms, with the
exception of Bozeman, which
was a name chosen by a Latin
class from a town in Montana by the same name, were
named for mythological Greek
and Roman gods.
Pandora was the legendary
first human woman created
by the gods who came complete with a jar. That jar, later
translated to the word “box”
supposedly contained all “the
burdensome toil and sickness
that brings death to men, diseases and a myriad of other
pains.” As the legend goes,
Epimetheus, despite warnings
from his brother, accepted
Pandora. She became curious
about the contents of her jar,
opened it, and released all of
them, with the exception of
one. The remaining item in
Pandora’s box was hope, and
like this namesake storm, that
is the thing that continues to
sustain us until spring arrives.
The next storm will appropriately be named Quantum,
from the Latin word quantas,
meaning how much. This will
be the question on the minds of
everyone who will be affected
by Quantam, except they will
wonder “how much more?”
All the alphabet has been utilized to name the-yet-to-come
storms: Remus, Sparta, Thor,
Ultima, Venus, Xander and
Yuli. You will note that there is
not a storm name yet for the
letter “W”, and the Weather
Channel is conducting a public
poll for suggestions. My personal suggestion would not be
based upon Greek or Roman
mythology. I want to submit the
name of “Wallop” for consideration. According to the dictionary this means a beating or a
crushing defeat, so the definition would certainly apply.
Just as soon as the ice melts
on our street, I will join the
multitude who will be headed
back to the grocery store to
prepare for Quantam’s unwelcome arrival.
Columns and letters to
the editor represent the
views of authors alone.
No viewpoint expressed
necessarily reflects any position of the publisher, of
any Tennessee Register staff
member, or of the Diocese
of Nashville.
Tennessee Register
2400 21st Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212-5302
Copyright © 2014 Mary Margaret Lambert 
The Tennessee Register is published by the
Diocese of Nashville and
welcomes your comments
and opinions.
Please clearly mark letters
to the editor and send to:
You may fax your letters
or comments to the Register at (615) 783-0285. By
e-mail: tnregister@ dioceseofnashville.com.
20 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
SUPPORT THE
CATHOLIC
RELIEF
SERVICES
COLLECTION
HELP
esus
IN DISGUISE
Copyright © 2014, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, DC. All rights reserved. Photo credit: © Bartosz Hadyniak/the Agency Collection/Getty Images.
Please be generous March 14-15
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 21
Liturgies need to help people experience awe, mystery of God, pope says
Carol Glatz CNS
V
ATICAN CITY. The liturgy
should help the faithful enter
into God’s mystery and to experience the wonder of encountering
Christ, Pope Francis told priests of
the Diocese of Rome.
People should feel the wonder and
allure “that the apostles felt when
they were called, invited. It attracts
– wonder attracts – and it lets you reflect,” the pope said during an annual
Lenten meeting with Rome pastors in
the Paul VI audience hall.
Sitting behind a table and talking
off-the-cuff, glancing occasionally at
a few pages of notes in front of him,
the pope led the pastors Feb. 19 in
a reflection on the homily and “ars
celebrandi,” the art of celebrating the
liturgy well.
The Vatican press hall mistakenly
broadcast via closed-circuit television
the first 15 minutes of the encounter,
which was meant to be closed to the
media at the pope’s request so that
he could speak more freely with his
audience, said Passionist Father Ciro
Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman.
While the annual meeting had always
been open to news coverage, Pope
Francis has preferred private meetings with local clergy during his visits to different parishes in Italy, the
spokesman said.
Priests who attended the two-hour
meeting said the pope spent about
40 minutes after his talk with a question-and-answer session – a format
used frequently by St. John Paul II in
meetings with priests and seminarians and by Pope Benedict XVI in the
beginning of his pontificate.
Pope Francis told the priests that
“the homily is a challenge for priests”
and he said he, too, had his own
shortcomings – pointed out in a
reflection he prepared for a plenary
meeting of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on
“ars celebrandi” in 2005.
As Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio,
he was a cardinal-member of the
congregation. After he presented the
reflection, he said, Cardinal Joachim
Meisner “reprimanded me a bit
strongly over some things,” as well
as then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger,
who “told me that something very
important was missing in the ‘ars
celebrandi,’ which was the feeling of
being before God. And he was right,
I had not spoken about this,” he said,
adding that both cardinals had given
him good advice.
“For me the key of ‘ars celebrandi’
takes the path of recovering the allure of beauty, the wonder both of
V
ATICAN CITY. Pope Francis
once again urged solidarity
with migrants who risk their
lives crossing the Mediterranean Sea
for Europe, and assured prayers for
the victims of a deadly crossing in
early February.
During his general audience Feb.
11, the pope called for a spirit of solidarity with migrants “so that no one
lacks necessary aid.”
He said he was following the news
coming out of Lampedusa “with
concern.” Lampedusa is a southern
Italian island that serves as a port of
entry for many of the migrants illegally entering Europe by sea.
The pope was responding to reports Feb. 9 that 29 migrants had
died of hypothermia after being rescued by the Italian coast guard; they
were part of a group of 105 African
migrants whose raft had capsized in
the Mediterranean. Their raft had set
off from Libya Feb. 7.
Later, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported that the
loss of life in the Mediterranean over
the weekend of Feb. 7-8 was feared
to be as high as 300 people, including
children.
The revised report came after nine
more migrants, who were saved
from the Mediterranean Feb. 9 and
arrived in Lampedusa Feb. 11, told
UNHCR officers that a total of four
boats had set off together from
Libya. The 29 who died of hypothermia were on the first boat. But, the
nine survivors said, the other three
inflatable rafts each had about 100
people on board and they were the
only ones who survived.
Fidelity Home Loans, LLC
NMLS#894768
Rates Are Back At A Historical Low!!
Find this and other
inspirational titles that will
help us know Him!
In stock now at
St. Mary's Bookstore
1909 West End Avenue
Nashville, TN 37203
Call Toll Free 1-800-233-3604
615-329-1835
www.stmarysbookstore.com
claiming God’s Message: A Study in
the Theology of Preaching” and Jesuit Father Hugo Rahner’s “Theology
of Proclamation,” adding that what
distinguished Father Hugo Rahner
from his theologian brother, Jesuit
Father Karl Rahner, was that “Hugo
writes clearly.”
Before the pope’s talk, Cardinal
Agostino Vallini, vicar of Rome, said
he and his audience were ready to reflect together with the pope on what
French theologian Father “Louis
Bouyer called the danger of the ‘nausea of the word’ in the liturgy caused
by an inflation of words that are at
times repetitive, a bit trite, obscure
or moralistic and that do not pierce
the heart.”
The cardinal said they try to preach
well, but are always looking for improvement.
“A good homily leaves its mark,” he
said, while a homily “that is lacking
does not bear fruit and, on the contrary, can even make people give up
on Mass.”
“We want our words to set people’s
hearts on fire” and want the faithful
“to be enlightened and encouraged
to live a new life and never be forced
to suffer through our homilies,” he
said. 
Pope calls for solidarity with migrants
Laura Ieraci CNS
Come to know Jesus
as friend and brother
the person celebrating and the people, of entering in an atmosphere that
is spontaneous, normal and religious,
but isn’t artificial, and that way you
recover a bit of the wonder,” he said.
Sometimes there are priests who
celebrate Mass in a way that is “very
sophisticated, artificial,” or who
“abuse the gestures” he said.
If the priest is “excessively” focused on the rubrics that indicate the
movements and particular gestures
during Mass and “rigid, I do not
enter into the mystery” because all
one’s energy and attention are on the
form, he said.
The other extreme, he said, is “if I
am a showman, the protagonist” of
the Mass, “then I do not enter into
the mystery” either.
While the idea is simple, “it is not
easy” to elicit this sense of wonder
and mystery, he said. But nonetheless, he said, the celebration of Mass
is about entering into and letting others enter into this mystery.
The celebrant “must pray before
God, with the community,” in a genuine and natural way that avoids all
forms of “artificiality,” he said.
Concerning the homily, the pope
again suggested clergy read Jesuit
Father Domenico Grasso’s “Pro-
If your current rate does not start in the 3s, you are paying too much
and could be saving thousands of dollars over the life of your loan by
refinancing.
Call today about “No Closing Cost Loans”,
bi-weekly mortgage, and HARP loans.
If you are looking to buy a home, let me get you
pre-qualified to start shopping for that new home.
Visit my Website at: www.fidelityhomeloans.net
Certified Mortgage Banker
Bob Nolte
CMB
Phone 615-377-0769 • Fax 615-377-0774
NMLS #160882
Several church organizations have
responded to the tragedy by once
again issuing a call for better searchand-rescue operations in the Mediterranean, migration reform and joint
government cooperation in Europe.
So long as “Europe looks the other
way and pretends not to understand that Italy is really the door to
Europe and that what happens in
Italy belongs to everyone, things
will continue like this, with these
tragedies at sea,” Cardinal Angelo
Bagnasco of Genoa told L’Osservatore
Romano, the Vatican newspaper. The
cardinal serves as president of the
Italian bishops’ conference and vice
president of the Council of European
Bishops’ Conferences.
In a statement Feb. 11, Jesuit Refugee Service said the latest deaths
demonstrate “the failure of European
border policy” and “may have been
avoided if the European Union had
implemented a search-and-rescue
operation of the same size and scope
as the former Italian rescue program,
Mare Nostrum.”
The E.U.’s Operation Triton, which
replaced Mare Nostrum, is “vastly
under-equipped and focuses almost
exclusively on border security and
surveillance,” the statement said.
JRS also accused European states
of setting up “legal obstacles” to
those fleeing conflict in Africa and
the Middle East and of not taking
“the necessary measures to save
lives in the Mediterranean.”
“We will not and cannot accept that
the Mediterranean continues to be
a migrant graveyard,” said Jesuit
Father Camillo Ripamonti, director of
JRS Italy. “It is crucial that the E.U.
and its member states swiftly act to
ensure the safety of refugees.” 
22 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Lenten
journey
starts here
your
Pray as a family
Fast in solidarity
Give to change lives
Bring YOUR Lent to life.
Start today.
Download the
CRS Rice Bowl app!
And visit crsricebowl.org
or contact your CRS
Diocesan Director
to get involved!
Local Diocesan Contact
Diocese of Nashville • [email protected] • (615) 383-6393
Nashville Ad US1493 A.indd 1
2/23/15 1:48 PM
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 23
Forbes moves from pew to principal’s chair at St. Matthew
Andy Telli
W
hen St. Matthew School went
looking for a new principal,
it found
one in its own community.
Tim Forbes, whose
family was a founding member of the
parish and whose
two daughters attend
St. Matthew School,
has been hired as
Forbes
the principal to
succeed Barby Magness, the school’s
founding principal who is retiring.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am,”
said Forbes, who will move to St.
Matthew from his position as Dean of
Student Life and Campus Ministry at
Father Ryan High School. “I’ve had
the opportunity as a parent to see
first-hand how wonderful that community is.”
Leaving Father Ryan, where he graduated from in 1993 and has worked
for the last nine years, is bittersweet,
Forbes said. “Obviously, I have the
support of the Father Ryan community, which was important to me,” he
said. “They understood this was a
great opportunity for my family.”
Forbes and his wife Ann have observed the school as parents. Their
daughters Grace and Marie are in the
sixth and fifth grades there.
“There were two things that really
stood out for me,” Forbes said. “First,
the academic rigor my children have
gone through. … Second is the love
and the care my children have received. … The faculty and staff at St.
Matthew genuinely love and care for
my children beyond the classroom.”
Magness has steered the school
since it opened in 2001. The school
grew more quickly than the parish
had planned and began adding a second class to each grade in the fall of
2003, five years ahead of schedule.
In the fall of 2005, St. Matthew completed an expansion of the school
and parish, which included additional
classrooms and a full gymnasium.
Forbes praised Magness for her
leadership of the school. “She’s put
that school in an amazing position,”
he said. “She’s done some great
things there.”
The school’s first graduates have
recently graduated from college and
have moved on to graduate schools
and careers, Forbes noted. St. Matthew has alumni in medical school,
the Peace Corps, physical therapy
school and business school, he said,
and graduates have come back to St.
Matthew to help in parish ministries.
“That school is producing excellent
young people,” Forbes said. “It’s producing students who are already making an impact not only in the Catholic
community but the community at
large.”
After graduating from Father Ryan,
Forbes went on to Guilford College in
Greensboro, N.C., where he played lacrosse for four years and earned a degree in communications and political
science. He then earned a master’s
degree from Loyola University in New
Orleans in pastoral studies with an
emphasis on adolescent development.
While working for the Diocese of
Charleston in South Carolina, Forbes
completed 18 hours of graduate work
toward a master’s degree in teaching from The Citadel. In 2004, he received the Light of Christ Award, the
highest honor for any person within
the Diocese of Charleston.
Forbes and his family returned to
Nashville and Father Ryan in 2006.
As Dean of Student Life and Campus
Ministry his responsibility has been
to oversee the Catholic identity of the
school along with the school chaplain.
He’s also been a member of the
school’s senior administrative team,
which has given him the opportunity
to be involved with other aspects of
the school, such as helping to develop a five-year strategic plan for
the school and with the accreditation
process.
He’s also completed a fellowship in
independent school leadership from
Vanderbilt University.
Several years ago, Forbes said, he
approached Father Ryan President
Jim McIntyre, Principal Paul Davis
and Vice Principal and Dean of Academics Sara Hayes about his desire to
become an elementary school principal. They talked to him about how he
could prepare for such a transition,
Forbes said. “They’ve given me opportunities to grow.”
Working at an elementary school
“would give me the opportunity to
stay in Nashville and continue to work
in education, continue to minister to
families, and challenge me to grow in
my own professional life and my own
faith life,” Forbes said.
The types of relationships an elementary school principal has will
be different than on the high school
level, Forbes said. But both settings,
he said, are opportunities to serve
Christ by serving the students.
“You can see when there’s good
teaching going on in the classroom,”
he said. “To that end, the jump will
not be as difficult.”
When the position at St. Matthew
opened, “I had been praying about it,”
Forbes said. “A lot of things lined up
that felt like it was God’s call.”
“We are fortunate to have a person
as principal who is so familiar with
our community, so familiar with our
mission and so committed to Catholic
education,” said Father Mark Beckman, pastor of St. Matthew. “His work
at Father Ryan over the last nine
years has provided him opportunities
for leadership and educational development that will benefit our students
and faculty. We are excited to have
an educator with such an exceptional
combination of experience and ideas
to lead our school.”
St. Matthew has an enrollment of
about 420 students in kindergarten
through eighth grade. Enrollment
at the school has been steady, but
St. Matthew is competing for students with Williamson County public
schools and other private schools in
the area, Forbes said.
When he started working at Father
Ryan nearly a decade ago, one of the
challenges the school faced, Forbes
said, was communicating its story to
the community. St. Matthew is in a
similar position, he said, and it needs
to share its story of academic excellence and a strong Catholic identity.
Forbes will begin work as St. Matthew’s principal on June 1. 
Parishes respond to cold by boosting help for homeless
Continued from page 12
is one of the congregations that has
expanded its efforts to house the
homeless during the cold spell. The
Cathedral’s Room In The Inn ministry normally hosts homeless guests
on Tuesday nights. But during the
cold stretch, it has hosted guests
every night temperatures are forecast
to drop below 25 degrees, said Jim
Coode, the ministry’s coordinator at
the Cathedral.
“We’ve done it every night for the
last week,” Coode said. “These last
two weeks have been a killer.”
The increased activity has meant that
the stock of clothing items donated
for the homeless guests has been
depleted, Coode said. And there have
been some nights when they’ve had to
make do with fewer volunteers to help,
he added.
On its regular night, the Cathedral
hosts 30 guests, Coode said. But when
the temperatures fall and the need
rises, the Cathedral can accommodate
an additional 10 guests, he added.
The Room In The Inn campus
also has been hosting more guests
overnight, Moles said. When the
temperatures drop below 27 degrees,
the campus will house 30 people, and
when the temperatures go below 19, it
houses 60 people, he explained.
They also are welcoming more
homeless during the day, giving them
a chance to get out of the cold, snow
and ice that have hit Nashville in February, Moles said.
“We’ve been providing extra lunches
during the day to keep people inside,”
and staying open extra hours during
the day, Moles said.
“We’ve been seeing between 450-500
people in our building” during the day,
Moles said, and serving lunch to more
than 300 people a day, “which is a very
high number.”
“There’s quite a cost but we think it’s
really important to respond to the cold
weather,” Moles said.
Room In The Inn and other agencies
that serve the homeless learned some
lessons from a similar cold snap last
winter, Moles said.
“Over the summer we worked in
partnership with other agencies to
develop a cold weather response plan
that has been implemented this year,”
Moles said.
By reviewing the data from last
winter, Moles said, they were able to
determine that when temperatures
dip below 27 degrees there will be an
expected level of increased demand
for beds and if it drops below 19, the
demand rises to another level.
The call for the additional beds were
based on that data and was a part of
the city-wide coordinated response,
Moles said. Agencies also are doing a
better job communicating with each
other about what space they have
available, he said. “It’s been much
more effective.”
Room In The Inn and other agencies encourage the homeless to seek
a warm, safe shelter rather than
trying to tough out the cold, Moles
said. “Nobody can withstand the cold
we’ve had,” which has fallen into
the single digits on some nights, he
added.
The Room In The Inn program continues through March, and donations
are welcome, Moles said.
The agency always needs winter
clothing such as hats, scarves and
hand warmers, as well as hot chocolate and petroleum jelly, which is an
effective insulator when spread on the
hands and face, Moles said.
People can also make monetary donations to Room In The Inn through its
website at www.roomintheinn.org. 
Bob Frensley recalled for
his love, support of the Church
Continued from page 17
Survivors include his wife of 25
years, Kaye Duke Frensley; his stepson, Don (Janet) Duke; his first wife,
Patricia Garner Frensley; his daughters Sharon (Kelly) Potter, Tracey
Anderson, Jennifer (Jeff) Webb; 12
grandchildren, Ace Potter, Jenni,
Jesi, Amiee and Annie Anderson,
Katie (Michael) Lumpkins, Lexie,
Jeffery and Jerrett Webb, Jack, Molly
and Matthew Duke; four great-grandchildren, Dylen Anderson, Camden
Potter, Brice and Blair Lumpkins;
and numerous nephews and nieces,
great-nephews and nieces and cousins.
Bishop David Choby presided at
the funeral Mass and the main celebrant was Msgr. Al Humbrecht, Mr.
Frensley’s nephew. Several priests of
the diocese were concelebrants.
Memorial contributions may be
made to Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc., Room In The Inn, or the
Tennessee Diabetes Association.
Marshall Donnelly Combs Funeral Home was in charge of
arrangements.
24 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Four JPII seniors named National Merit finalists
F
our seniors at Pope John Paul II
High School have been named
National Merit Scholarship finalists, making them eligible for college
scholarships.
They were among about 15,000 high
school seniors from across the country
to be named finalists, which represents
about 1 percent of the students who
entered the scholarship competition
in their junior year when they took the
Preliminary SAT standardized tests.
The four students are:
• Tyler Dorr, who is president of
JPII’s House Council this year and will
also serve as governor at this year’s
YMCA Youth in Government conference. He is a member of the men’s
bowling team, JPII Film Association,
Conference on National Affairs and the
Mock Trial program.
• Daniel Edwards, a parishioner at
St. Edward Church who is a member
of the wrestling team, the Quiz Bowl
team, National Honor Society, National
Art Honor Society and president of Mu
Alpha Theta mathematics honor society.
• Anna Reding, a parishioner at St.
Stephen Church and a graduate of Holy
Rosary Academy, who is on the varsity
women’s bowling team, a member of
the school honor and leadership organization Societas, National Honor
Society, Youth in Government and Conference on National Affairs, and has
participated in theater productions.
• Jacob Telli, a parishioner at Our
Lady of the Lake Church in Hendersonville, who is a three-year captain of the
wrestling team, a starter on the baseball team, a member of the National
Honor Society, and a SEARCH group
leader and co-director.
As finalists, the four students will be
eligible for college scholarships sponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corp., colleges and universities,
and businesses. 
Photo by Andy Telli
Four seniors at Pope John Paul II High School, from left, Jacob Telli, Daniel
Edwards, Anna Reding and Tyler Dorr, have been named National Merit
Scholarship Finalists.
Scholastic Art Award
winners at SCA
Students at St. Cecilia Academy brought home
honors from the recent Nashville area Scholastic
Art Awards, competing among more than 1,300
entries. Winners include: Gold Key winners
Cecilia Moore, mixed media, and Virginia Green,
mixed media; Silver Key winners Sarah Crutcher,
photography, and Clara DeHart, drawing; Honorable
mention winners Merrie Luton, mixed media,
Patience Thompson, mixed media, Ellen Timoney,
photography, Lauren Wigginton, drawing, Katie
Norris, photography, Emily Neeley, photography.
Pictured are: (front row, L-R) Virginia Green, Cecilia
Moore, Sarah Crutcher, Merrie Luton; (back row)
photography teacher Amie Pike, Emily Neely, Clara
DeHart, Katie Norris, Lauren Wiggenton, Patience
Thompson, and art teacher Barbara Gronefeld.
St. Edward School introduces
bullying prevention program
S
t. Edward School recently implemented its new “Be the Difference” Initiative, an adaptation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program, to help prevent bullying at the school.
This research-based program has been used successfully in
schools all over the country and around the world. As part of the
program, students participate in weekly class meetings to learn
about the effects of bullying, what they can do about it, and how
they can work with adults at school to put a stop to it, even as bystanders.
Leading the program at St. Edward is a committee made up of the
school’s principal, Dr. Lisa Redmon, teachers from various grade
levels, staff members and volunteering parents. The “Be the Difference” committee has been responsible for training the teachers
and staff at the school, organizing a kick-off event, and preparing
for the school-wide implementation.
“While bullying has not been an issue at St. Edward, we acknowledge that it can happen anywhere, and we want to make sure that
our students are aware of its effects, especially at these crucial
stages of growth,” said Redmon. “We have a diverse school with
students from many different nationalities and backgrounds. Our
hope is that implementing this program will ensure that every student at St. Edward has a positive experience, helping them grow
into mature and loving people.”
The initiative kicked off on Monday, January 26, the first day of
the national Catholic Schools Week. The kick-off event included
a barbecue dinner, a short talk by renowned bullying prevention
expert Rodger Dinwiddie, a performance by the school’s Kidz Jam
and liturgy choirs, and a presentation by the “Be the Difference”
Committee. 
St. Ann students honor classmate
St. Ann School honored one of their favorite classmates, sixth grader Michael Stanley
with a special day devoted just to him that they dubbed “Michael Monday” as part of
the school’s Catholic Schools Week celebration. In 2005, Michael was diagnosed with
a rare childhood cancer, which he beat after a yearlong battle. This past December
test results showed the cancer returned. On Monday, Jan. 29, students, faculty and
friends of St. Ann donned hats of all shapes and sizes and collected more than $1,000
to support the Child Life Services Program at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at
Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Michael, far right, is pictured with his parents,
Tony and Cindy Stanley, and Champ, the mascot of the Children’s Hospital.
February 27, 2015
Help for Ronald
McDonald House
St. Bernard Academy
kindergarten student Ava Malucci
has a passion to help Ronald
McDonald House Charities.
After several visits with the
kindergarten class, she asked for
drink can pull tabs for Christmas
that she could donate as part of
a fundraiser to help the families
at Ronald McDonald House. Ava
and St. Bernard kindergarten
teacher Nancy Mattingly were
thrilled to deliver the pull tabs.
Tennessee Register 25
St. Joseph inducts new members of honor society
S
eventeen seventh and eighth grade
students at St. Joseph School were
inducted into the St. Catherine of
Siena Honor Society on Jan. 29, during
this year’s Catholic Schools Week.
These St. Joseph students have
achieved a cumulative scholastic average of 92 percent or above in the core
classes and have demonstrated the
qualities of Christian Leadership, Chris-
tian Service, Christian Citizenship and
Christian Character.
The students inducted were: Brady
Beecham, Monica Bennett, Austin Wilhite, Natali Arms, Bryson Dieterich,
Ethan Donnelly, Harmon Fussell, Felicity Grant, Brooks Heagarty, Sophia
Heeren, Luke Kroeger, Keegan Lampley, Michael Martini, Jill Nguyen, Evan
Sanders, Alyssa Staggs and Rory White.
They joined the 18 eighth graders
who were inducted last year: Charles
Albert, Gloria Aligbe, Janeth Angel,
Sarah Barry, Henry Becker, Ben Castiello, English Chesser, Jack Florek,
Paul Gammon, Maddie Henson, Peyton
Knight, Annabelle Leddy, Abby McNair, David Nguyen, Esosa Osaitile,
Jake Shaver, Hanna Tan and Emilie
Williams. 
“Greystone”
2015 West End Avenue
Historic Nashville
Photographs
For Home, Office, or a Special Gift
Photographs available from
The Joe Horton Studio
Historic Nashville
Collection
Order information available at
www.nashvillehistoricprints.com
~ Restoration of old photographs ~
By appointment only
615.370.4584
Rebecca A. Horton
Yvonne H. Hobbs
Serving Nashville for over 50 years
Mass marks anniversary of Boy Scouts’ founding
Holy Family Church hosted a Mass on Sunday, Feb. 8, as part of nationwide celebration for the founding of the
Boy Scouts of America. Many churches across the Nashville area and nationwide organized special services
in recognition of Scout Sunday. Various local units of Cub, Boy, and Girl Scouts were represented, along with
leaders and professional scouters. Holy Family has been a sponsor of Boy Scout Troop 418 since 1995, which
marked the 20th anniversary of its founding at the Mass. Father Justin Raines was the celebrant. Scouts acted
as ushers, lectors and servers.
Prices starting at $2,699 ~ with Airfare
Included in this price
Prices are ALL-INCLUSIVE w/Airfare from anywhere in the continental USA
Several trips to different destinations: the Holy
Land; Italy; France, Portugal, & Spain; Poland;
Medjugorje, Lourdes, & Fatima; Ireland &
Scotland; Austria, Germany, & Switzerland;
Greece & Turkey; Camino de Santiago; Viking
Cruises; Budapest, Prague; etc...
Call us 24/7
508-340-9370 or 855-842-8001
www.proximotravel.com
[email protected]
[email protected]
Carmela Manago
Executive Director
We also specialize in custom trips for Bishops, Priests, and Deacons.
Schultz
Monuments
Joey Mason
[email protected]
615.573.1214 • 615.712.9521 office
479 Myatt Dr. • Madison, TN 37115
www.schultzmonument.com
26 Tennessee Register
February 27, 2015
Up to 100 Christians abducted in Islamic State offensive in Syria
Catholic News Service
D
OHUK, Iraq. Dozens of Assyrian
Christians were abducted by Islamic State forces during a new
offensive against a string of villages in
northeastern Syria, aid and civil rights
organizations reported.
The exact number of people being
held was unknown, but Father Emanuel
Youkhana, who heads the Christian
Aid Program Northern Iraq, CAPNI,
said that more than 100 residents had
been captured during the assault, which
began in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 23.
“Knowing the brutal barbaric record
of IS with the captured, the destiny of
those families is a major concern to us,”
Father Youkhana said in a Feb. 24 email.
The priest said at least two villages
– Tal Shamiran and Tal Hermiz – remained surrounded by Islamic State
forces overnight.
It was not immediately clear what the
militants would do with the abductees.
The Catholic charity Aid to the
Church in Need reported that thousands of people fled the villages nestled
along the Khabur River and were able
to reach the largely Kurdish-controlled
city of Hassakeh, Syria, to the east.
Bishop Aprim Nathniel of the Assyrian
Church of the East reported that a local
church and community hall were overloaded with people who fled the villages.
Syriac Catholic Patriarch Ignace
Joseph III Younan said he had been unable to reach Bishop Jacques Hindo in
CNS photo/Rodi Said, Reuters
A member of the Kurdish Security
Forces holds an injured civilian to
evacuate him in Tal Tamar, Syria,
Feb. 25. Kurdish militia pressed
an offensive against Islamic State
militants in northeast Syria as fears
mounted for dozens of Christians
abducted by the hardline group.
Hassakeh.
“We pray and hope that these latest
tragic events end without killing and
abusing our Christian community,” the
patriarch told Catholic News Service
Feb. 24 from the patriarchate in Beirut.
“It is shameful that the whole world,
beginning with the so-called Western nations, became accustomed to these ab-
Dean of Campus Ministry and Student Life
Father Ryan High School
Administrative position, beginning July 1, 2015
Youkhana said, Arab Sunni villagers
from a nearby Assyrian village rescued
15 Assyrians who were expected to
make their way to Hassakeh.
Kurdish forces managed to join the
fight to slow the Islamic State advance,
various media reported.
The Associated Press also reported
that the Islamic State group’s online
radio station, Albayan, said in a report
Feb. 24 that Islamic State fighters
had detained “tens of crusaders” and
seized 10 villages around Tal Tamr after
clashes with Kurdish militiamen. Islamic State militants frequently refer to
Christians as “crusaders.”
Assyrians are an ethnic group whose
origins are in ancient Mesopotamia.
They are a Christian people; the Chaldean Catholic Church was formed by a
group of Assyrians who broke away and
joined the Catholic Church in the 16th
century. The Assyrians have traditionally lived in what is now Iraq, northeastern Syria, northwestern Iran and
southeastern Turkey.
Contributing to this story was Doreen
Abi Raad in Beirut.
POSITION AVAILABLE
PRINCIPAL
St. Ann School, 3K-8th Grade, Decatur, Ala.
A dynamic, Christ-centered leader is needed to serve as principal at St. Ann School
(www.saintanndecatur.org) in Decatur, AL. The ideal candidate will be skilled in
curriculum/instruction, sound leadership, management, and finance. A Master’s
degree in Education (or related field), Alabama administrator certification, teaching
experience, administrative experience, and demonstrated leadership ability are
preferred. The new principal is expected to bring energy and enthusiasm to growing
enrollment and create a welcoming environment for current and prospective families.
Candidate must be a practicing Roman Catholic. Fluency in Spanish is a plus.
Interested and qualified candidates should submit (1) letter of introduction, addressing
the requirements/skills listed above; (2) resume; (3) names, addresses, telephone numbers,
and email addresses of five professional references; and (4) statement addressing the value
of today’s Catholic elementary school, including its unique Catholic identity, to:
The Dean of Campus Ministry and Student Life ensures that the Catholic faith
vision is promoted, nurtured and developed in the total life of the school, in all of
its aspects. It is a role of leadership in calling all members of the community to live
by our mission as a Catholic Diocesan school in faithfulness to our purpose and
tradition.
Annunciation of the Lord Catholic Church, Principal Search Committee
3910 Spring Avenue, Decatur, AL 35603
[email protected] or fax to (256) 353-8994
The Dean of Campus Ministry and Student Life is responsible for overseeing all
formation programs (retreats, liturgies, community service, immersion experiences)
by ensuring that departmental programs are planned in a way that articulates and
incorporates the vision and mission of Father Ryan High School. Administrative
responsibilities include the supervision of the Campus Ministry and Student Life
leadership, serving as a liaison to parishes and the Catholic Youth Office, leading
the Theology department, serving on the Financial Aid committee, supporting
liturgical services, and the monitoring of 46 student life activities.
Applicants should have the
following qualifications:
· Be a practicing Catholic in
good standing
· Hold a Master’s Degree in
Theology or related field
· Have a minimum of three years of
Catholic Campus or Youth
Ministry experience
· Possess excellent communication,
technology, and pastoral skills
errations of religious and ethnic cleansing, in the name of a volatile, unrealistic
Western democracy that never existed
in countries ruled by Muslims. This is
why the eradicating fanaticism is spreading in the latter nations,” said Patriarch
Younan, who was born in Hassakeh.
He said the Islamic State raids on the
Assyrian villages were in an area fueled
by confessional hatred.
“So it is quite possible that they attacked innocent, defenseless Christians,
where no Syrian army exists, but only
civilian defenders, in order to revenge
serious losses suffered up north, near
Qamishli,” he said.
Nuri Kino, head of A Demand for Action, which works to protect religious
minorities in the Middle East, told the
Associated Press that the militants took
between 70 and 100 Assyrians, including women and children.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory
for Human Rights, with a network of activists in Syria, also reported the abductions and said that about 90 Christians
were being held by Islamic State forces,
the Associated Press reported.
As the assault unfolded, Father
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES DIRECTORY
Qualified candidates should submit
cover letter, resume, and philosophy of
Campus Ministry, to the attention of:
Mr. Paul Davis
Principal
700 Norwood Drive
Nashville, TN 37204
Attorneys-At-Law
Home MAINTENANCE
Penny Harrington
Harrington Law Office, Elder Law, Probate
1215 7th Ave. N., Nashville, TN
37208-2605
(615) 320-9977
www.harringtonlawoffice.com
[email protected]
CWC Remodel est 1997
Custom Remodeling, Flooring,Bathroom/
Kitchens & Repairs
(615) 330-8570 www.cwcremodel.com
AUTO
Hillsboro Village Auto Service
www.hillsborovillageautoservice.com
1820 21st. Ave. S., Nashville, TN 37212
(615)298-2079
[email protected]
10% Discount for Diocese Parishioners
Father Ryan High School is a diocesan co-educational Catholic high school
in the diocese of Nashville, TN, founded in 1925.
For more information please visit www.fatherryan.org
©2015 FRHS 21193
Heating & Air Conditioning
One Hour Heating & Air
Conditioning
Senior & Military discount
TVA Quality Contractor Network
Call Mick McGauran/owner
(615) 234-8888
www.onehournashville.com
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS
Milnar Organ Company, LLC
3165 Hill Road, Eagleville, TN 37060
New pipe organ construction,
Rebuilding, tuning and service
615-274-6400 www.milnarorgan.com
TELECOMMUNICATION SERVICES
Roger Leaver / EMI Business
Communications, Inc.
Commercial Telephones-VolP-Data-Cabling-CCTV
115 Spence Lane, Nashville, TN 37210
(615) 883-1160 www.emibusiness.com
CLASSIFIEDS
Gulf Shores, Ala. 1/2/3 BR luxurious
beachfront condos and BR beach resort
house! Gulf of Mexico Owner direct saves
you $$$. [email protected], or www.
babeachproperties.com or 1-800-713-6435.
February 27, 2015
Tennessee Register 27
Ryan claims state wrestling crown with seven champs
Andy Telli
F
ather Ryan High School, with
seven individual champions, pulled
away in the final round of the Division II State Wrestling Championships
to claim the team championship, the
21st state title in the program’s history.
By taking the team championship,
finishing 10.5 points ahead of the Baylor School of Chattanooga, the Irish reversed the outcome of the Duals State
Championship two weeks before when
they lost to Baylor in the finals 32-30.
“When you lose you don’t really have
to tell them anything” to get ready for
the individual state championships,
said Father Ryan Coach Pat Simpson.
“It’s easy to say we have to work hard.”
After the loss in the duals finals, “we
knew we had work to do,” said senior
Christopher Wesnofske. “We practiced
harder this week than we had all year.
We knew what we had to do and we
did it.”
Wesnofske, who won the crown at 145
pounds, his second state championship,
was one of nine Irish wrestlers to make it
to the finals and one of seven to claim titles at the tournament, held Feb. 13-14 at
the Williamson County Ag Expo Center.
Joining Wesnofske on the top of the
medal stand were: sophomore Christian Simpson, 106 pounds; sophomore
Raymond Eason, 113; junior Trey Chalifoux, 120; junior Kirby Simpson, 126,
sophomore Eli King, 132; and junior
Ben Stacey, 220.
It was the most state champions Father Ryan has had in one year. “We’ve
had as many as five,” said Coach Simpson, who has guided the Irish to 17 of
its team titles.
Other Irish wrestlers to place in the
tournament were: senior Marcello Morrice, 152, and senior Nick Naughton,
160, second place; junior Daniel Wesley,
138, and junior Robert Garston, 182,
third; sophomore Andrew Wesnofske,
170, and junior Jeremy Darvin, 285, fifth;
and sophomore Will Shaw, 195, sixth.
On Friday, the first day of the tournament, “we felt like we had a chance to
get nine in the finals,” Coach Simpson
said. “We won every match we should
have won.”
Among the key first day victories
were a 9-5 win by the coach’s son Kirby
Simpson over returning state champion
James Westbrooks of McCallie, and a
come-from-behind, last second 7-6 win
by Christopher Wesnofske over Caleb
Powell of Baylor.
Wesnofske had lost to Powell in the finals of the duals tournament two weeks
earlier.
“When the tournament starts you look
at some matches if you don’t win there
you don’t win the tournament,” Coach
Simpson said, putting the WesnofskePowell matchup in that category. “We
started out down 5-2 after the first period. It was great. He lost in the duals.
To come back and beat the same kid
who beat him was huge.”
“I lost to that kid twice this year,”
Wesnofske said. “That was probably my
favorite match of my whole life.”
After he fell behind 5-2, Wesnofske
said, “I just had to keep working. If I
kept working I knew I could come out
on top.”
At the end of the first day of wrestling,
Father Ryan built a 27.5 lead over Bay-
Photos by Andy Telli
Father Ryan High School junior Trey Chalifoux celebrates winning the state championship in the 120-pound weight
class at the Division II State Wrestling Championships held Feb. 13-14 at the Williamson Ag Expo Center.
Brett and Connie Wesnofske watch their son Christopher wrestling in the
145-pound finals at the Division II State Wrestling Tournament. Christopher
Wesnofske won his second state championship, defeating Braxton Kinney of
Battle Ground Academy. For more photos visit www.dioceseofnashville.com.
lor. But the Red Raiders made a charge
in the consolation rounds on Saturday
morning and cut the lead to 1.5 points
coming into the finals.
Christian Simpson’s pin of Thomas
Bellett in the first match of the championship finals ignited a run of Irish
victories. Father Ryan wrestlers won
championships in the first five weight
classes, including Eason, Chalifoux,
Kirby Simpson and Eli King, who took
his second straight state title.
Watching his son take the state championship, something Coach Simpson fell
just short of in his own wrestling career
at Ryan, was “unbelievable,” Coach
Simpson said. “I got second. … I know
what second feels like.”
Kirby Simpson had finished as state
runner-up last year. After winning the
title this year with an 11-0 major decision over Mason Reiniche of Baylor, the
younger Simpson leapt into his father’s
arms. The coach carried his son off the
mat as the two shared a few tears.
“Probably it was harder for him, thinking he had to win a state title for me,”
Coach Simpson said. “We’ve been going
at it since he was 4 years old. I’m just
happy for him now.
“We can get to baseball now,” said a
smiling coach. Kirby Simpson is a returning starting outfielder for the Ryan
baseball team.
By the time Wesnofske faced Braxton
Kinney of Battle Ground Academy,
who is a parishioner at Holy Family
Church in Brentwood, in the finals of
the 145-pound weight class, the Irish
had already clinched the team championship. Wesnofske took the title with a
6-0 victory.
“I knew I had the ability to win, I just
had to keep my mental toughness and
do what I know I had to do,” Wesnofske
said of capturing his second state championship.
Stacey capped off Ryan’s night by
claiming the state championship at 220
pounds with a 4-2 win in overtime over
defending state champion D’On Coofer
of Montgomery Bell Academy.
“Everybody contributed” to the championship, Coach Simpson said. “I’ve got
great assistants, that’s half the battle.”
The Nashville Catholic Wrestling feeder
program does a great job, he added. “It all
goes into winning a state championship.”
Other Catholic wrestlers from the
area also saw success at the state tournament. Pope John Paul II High School
senior Jacob Telli, the only Knight to
qualify for the state tournament, placed
fifth at the 152-pound weight class.
Holy Family parishioner Braxton
Kinney of BGA placed second at 145
pounds.
Montgomery Bell Academy, which
finished fourth in the team standings,
had several Catholic wrestlers place,
including: freshman Thomas Bellet,
second at 106 pounds, and his brother
senior Sam Bellet, fifth at 138 pounds,
both parishioners at The Church of the
Assumption; senior Ben Kelly, fourth
at 195 pounds; and sophomore John
Michael Glover, sixth at 126 pounds, a
parishioner at St. Rose of Lima Church
in Murfreesboro.
February 27, 2015
Appeal f
ual
or
n
n
ces
il
le
D
io
stries
ini
M
Bishop’
sA
28 Tennessee Register
v
e of N ash
2015
Bishop’s
Annual Appeal
for
Ministries
Your support helps to provide
vital ministries in support of
the mission of the Catholic
Church in Middle Tennessee.
“...o
n the
Sabba
th Jesus en
an
e
u
g
o
g
a
n
y
s
tered the
d
.”
t
h
g
tau
­ Mark 1:21
—
We, as Catholics, are called to
serve one another and to build
God’s kingdom on earth. We,
as Catholics, are acting out
our faith by following what
Jesus Christ taught.
Thank you for your generous support
of the 2015 Bishop’s Annual Appeal for Ministries.
Donor Information:
Date ______________________________ BAA ID #_______________________________
Name ______________________________________________________________________
Address _____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________
Parish Name and Town ________________________________________________________
Email ____________________________________________ Phone _____________________
$25
$50
$100
$300
$400
$500 or more
Total Pledge: __________________________________________________
Amount Enclosed: _____________________________________________
Balance Due:__________________________________________________
Payable:
____Monthly
____Quarterly
____Annually
Bishop’s Annual Appeal Donor Societies:
To pay by credit card, please complete the following:
c American Express c Discover c Master Card c Visa
Thank you for considering one of the following gift options to the 2015 Bishop’s
Annual Appeal for Ministries:
Payable at $ _____________ per month
Other Instructions:__________________________________________________________
$10,000 or more
The Marian Society
$5,000 to $9,999
The St. Joseph Society
$2,500 to $4,999
The Society of Angels and Saints
Card No.____________________________________________ Exp. Date_____________
$1,500 to $2,499
The Society of the Apostles
Signature_________________________________________________________________
$1,000 to $1,499
The Society of All the Faithful
Check # _______________________(Payable to Bishop’s Annual Appeal for Ministries)
Stock Gift (Please call Ella Bell-Vannoy at 615-783-0253)
Monthly Bank Debit: I hereby authorize the Diocese of Nashville to initiate debit entries
to the checking account as it appears on the attached voided check. My pledge will
be deducted in monthly installments beginning February 1, 2015, through January 31,
2016, unless otherwise instructed.
Signature _________________________________________________________________
c I/We are unable to make a pledge to the 2015 Bishop’s Annual Appeal for Ministries at this time but will pray for the success of the Appeal.
c Dear Bishop Choby, in your prayer intentions, please include:
________________________________________________________________
c I have included my parish or the Diocese in my will.
c Please send information on how to include my parish or the Diocese in my will.
Please return this bottom portion to your parish. Thank You!