Monthly Newspaper • DIOCESE OF BRIDGEPORT

When Christine Paine was 8, she took lessons in baton twirling at Christ the Redeemer Parish. One afternoon she broke away from the group and snuck inside. It was her first time in a Catholic church, and when she saw the red altar lamp, she realized immediately that she was in the presence of God.

It had a profound influence on her and marked the beginning of a life journey that would lead to the Catholic faith.

“I still remember seeing the red candle, and I was amazed that God was right there with me, and I was in awe,” she recalled.

Christine, who has been development director at Caroline House in Bridgeport since 2011, said, “The Church has given me a real conscience. It is perfect for me. Everything used to be gray, but I know now there are absolutes and that natural law is written on my heart.”

Caroline House, begun in 1995 by the School Sisters of Notre Dame, is committed to immigrant women and children and helps them reach their full potential by educating them in the English language and life skills.

Christine was raised Episcopalian and attended St. Andrew Church in Milford, which had been her father’s parish as a young man. From an early age, she was attracted to spirituality and religion. Her parents, Frank and Claudia Matthews, sent her to Catholic schools, beginning with St. Gabriel’s elementary school, where the sisters instilled a love of God and Our Lady in her.

“I remember walking into the church for the first time and turning around and seeing a beautiful statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and I cried,” she said. “I fell in love with the nuns, and I fit in because all my friends were Catholic.”

She also remembers standing in line to receive Communion at Mass, when a sister stopped her because she wasn’t Catholic. The incident upset her although she later realized it was the right thing to do.

When her parents suggested that she attend Lauralton Hall high school, she didn’t resist because her friends were going there. The Sisters of Mercy had a decisive effect on her. Years later, she named her fourth daughter “Madeline” in honor of the late dean of students, who was a tough but kind woman that Christine grew to love — although her adolescent antics often led to conflicts between the two of them.

“I was brutal to poor Sr. Madeline, so I guess there was some guilt on my part,” she says. “But she was a beautiful woman who dedicated her life to Christ, and I loved her.”

The Sisters of Mercy had an enduring influence on Christine and represented another step in her journey to the Catholic faith.

“I would spend a lot of time praying in the chapel,” she recalls. “I had an inner longing for something more. I had a wonderful family and went to good schools, but there was a holiness that I just couldn’t find.”

Even though she was immersed in the Catholic faith at Lauralton, she was fighting the call for her to convert. “I loved the Church but there were so many reasons I thought it was wrong,” she recalls. “As an adolescent, I would sing from the rooftops, ‘If only the Catholic Church would get it together!’”

About this time, she met her future husband, Frank Paine, at a school mixer. He went to West Haven High School and was a Catholic. Years later, they would marry in the chapel at Lauralton.

After graduating in 1988, she entered the University of Rhode Island, where she majored in marketing; however, college life dampened her spiritual enthusiasm.

“By now, my faith was non-existent,” she said. “My goal was to get rich and that was it. I wanted to be rich and popular so I joined a sorority,” she recalls. “I still felt a spiritual yearning, but to satisfy it, I started studying comparative religions and developing my own philosophy for the perfect faith, which I would preach it to anyone who would listen. God was cutting me a lot of slack.”

After graduating from college, she had several jobs, first with a computer firm and then a telecom company. Even though her career was successful, she was suffering from a longing that she couldn’t satisfy. She realizes now the longing was for Christ.

During those years, Christine looked for fulfillment in self-help programs, physical training and her group of friends, but nothing could supply what she needed spiritually. “At 23, I just felt empty,” she says. “In order to find any kind of happiness, I knew I had to convert.”

She eventually started to attend Mass at Church of St. Mary in New Haven.

“I loved the pageantry, and I loved the Mass. The mystery was dazzling to me,” she said. “And it’s still dazzling to me to know that Jesus Christ is truly present on the altar.”

Before her conversion, she joined the pro-life movement, which she believes was a gift from the Holy Spirit, because her group of Catholic friends kept pushing her toward the Church and asking, “Are you going to commit or not?”

“I was dancing around making a decision; I was attending Mass but not receiving Communion,” she said.

Finally, she decided to enter into full communion with the Catholic Church, and in 1993 she received First Communion and Confirmation. She and Frank started dating again, and were married at Lauralton Hall in 1996.

They wanted to have children but Christine couldn’t get pregnant, so they began an intense appeal to Our Lady, and in 2000, they were blessed with twins, Katherine, who is now a student at the University of Connecticut, and Frankie, who is studying at Bowdoin College. In the years that followed, they had more four more children — Abigail, Madeline, Michael and Caroline. All six have received Catholic educations, and the Paine family attends Mass together, prays together and volunteers together.

“Part of their life has been to help people who are poor and have special needs,” she said. “Every service hour they’ve done has been at Caroline House.”

Caroline House, which is located at 574 Stillman Street in Bridgeport, educates and empowers underserved women and children. It offers a literacy program for the women and provides on-site care for their children. There are also lessons in computer skills, counseling, networking services, tutoring for children and citizenship classes. One of the major goals is to “break down the barriers of social and physical isolation that have kept low-income immigrant women from building better lives.”

“What differentiates Caroline House from other ESL programs is the welcoming and homelike environment we provide for our students,” she says. “Most importantly, we help our students create their own social network that can help them with jobs, childcare and friendship. I have witnessed true sisterhood that transcends cultural boundaries.”

Christine is known for her enthusiasm about her Catholic faith. “It is the most wonderful religion there is,” she says. “There are rules and beautiful devotions. There are steps I can follow that will help me and my family get to heaven. And when I ask God for forgiveness, he shows me his mercy all the time.”

She also has a very personal relationship with the Blessed Mother, whom she has held near to her heart every since the time as a child when she first saw her statue at St. Gabriel’s.

“When I ask her to help me, she always does, and I believe she led me to where I am today.”

By Joe Pisani

After Christina Skelley graduated from Washington University, it seemed like her life had fallen into place. Years of searching led her to the Catholic Church … and the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. She became active in campus ministry and then landed her dream job, working for the Chicago Symphony.

She got an apartment with her best friend in Chicago and was dating a young man. She loved city life and at lunch would walk to a nearby church for daily Mass. Jesus had indeed blessed her. Everything seemed perfect … but then something changed.

“I felt a nagging sense that I was living my second-best life,” she recalled. “When I came across the passage from Scripture that said, ‘I remember how you loved me as a bride’ in Jeremiah, I got the sense that Christ wanted more, he wanted me to marry him in religious life.”

She immediately pushed back and thought, “How could I, an only child, do this to my parents, who weren’t even Catholic?”

Thus began months of searching along a path she started on as a little girl, a little girl who was looking for something more … and that something more was Jesus.

The search for God

Christina grew up outside of Chicago, the only child of two high school teachers, James and Susan, who loved her dearly and gave her a strong sense of the importance of education, although they rarely talked about religion. “As a teenager, I became skeptical of any faith that went beyond scientific proof,” she recalls. “And yet I occasionally attended church with my paternal grandparents, Burton and Barbara, who were faithful Protestant Christians. I felt a longing for something deeper that I couldn’t push away.”

They gave her a children’s Bible, which she read, and her grandmother taught her to play the piano, which became a form of prayer for Christina.

“As a child, I had an openness to the faith even though I didn’t know a lot,” she said. “I knew the Christmas story, but didn’t know about the cross or much of anything else.”

Although the thought of becoming Christian was in the back of her mind, as a teenager she resisted the idea of joining a religion that would tell her what to do or “would say who would and would not go to heaven.”

However, her lifelong best friend Eleanore was a Catholic, and when Christina visited her family, she was exposed to grace before meals and prayers including the Hail Mary. “Even though I didn’t think I wanted to be Catholic,” she recalls, “there was something about the way they lived that was a strong power of example.”

In high school, she had considered pursuing a career in science; however, when she enrolled in Washington University in St. Louis, she entered the Interdisciplinary Project in the Humanities and minored in French and music.

A rational and logical thinker, she spent her teen years searching for proof of God’s existence, until finally conceding, “The answers are bigger than I can understand. I wanted rational proofs but the meaning of the universe was not going to fit into my little brain.”

“After my first year at Washington University, my beloved grandmother died suddenly, and my quest to figure out my beliefs became more urgent,” she recalled. “I longed to be a self-sufficient adult, yet I was beginning to realize that I desperately needed God and other people.”

She tried to understand the Resurrection from a rationalist perspective but eventually realized there was no rational explanation for Jesus’ rising from the dead because it went beyond science. By the end of her sophomore year, she began to explore different religions and attended services in her pursuit of God. Her parents accepted her decision and told her, “If that’s what makes you happy.”

When she returned to college in the fall, she started to going to Mass, partly because her mother had been raised a non-practicing Catholic. Soon, she was given a deep sense of the reality of the Eucharist and says, “I realized how much I wanted to be a part of that, of receiving his Body in the Eucharist.”

The call of the Catholic Church

“After searching and praying for guidance, I awoke one morning with a clear sense that God was directing me to the Catholic Church,” she said. “I got up the nerve to go to the Catholic Student Center and was introduced to the sister who was the RCIA director.”

In 2006, she received the sacraments at Washington University and became part of the community at the center, and at the end of her senior year, she was accepted for a post-graduate year of service in campus ministry.

During this time, she began to have an inkling that she might be called to the religious life; however, she accepted what she thought was her dream job in arts administration with the Chicago Symphony.

“I had been in Chicago for a year when I started to get a sense that I was living my second-best life,” she said. “I had everything I could want at this point, so why was I having this sense of looking for something else, for something more?”

She was attending daily Mass, she was active in her parish, and she was praying regularly. The thoughts about religious life persisted, but she tried to push them out of her mind for almost a year.

“God was getting through to me, and I knew I would not be at peace on another path, so I said, “OK, God, I’ll look into it.”

She reached out to several religious, including Sister Virginia Herbers, ASCJ, who had worked with her in campus ministry at the Student Center, and Sister asked her, “Is this search more about what you do or who you are?”

“Who I am,” Christina responded immediately.

She also met Sister Colleen Smith, then vocation director of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and currently Director of Mission Advancement. They got together for lunch at a Chipotle in Chicago and discussed her discernment.

A Bride of Christ

Christina still had hesitations but agreed to visit Clelian Heights School for students with special needs in Greenberg, Penn. After a few days, she concluded, “I could see myself here. The Apostles were deeply prayerful and down-to-earth joyful people, and their prayer and relationships with Christ flowed out into the rest of their lives.”

“My heart had been searching so long, and then I felt at home. It was like God was telling me, ‘This is it,’” she recalled. “Like God was proposing to me.” She accepted the proposal.

Christina entered the formation program in August 2012 and made her first vows in 2015 in Hamden. She eventually got a master’s degree in teaching from St. Louis University and went on to teach fifth grade and music at St. Joseph School in Imperial, Missouri.

On July 26, Sister Christina Skelley, ASCJ, is renewing her vows at Mount Sacred Heart in Hamden. For her parents, it required a period of adjustment. “This was hard for them,” Sister Christina said. “They never saw me doing anything like this. It meant moving away from my family and not having a family the way they had imagined, but the community has been extremely warm and welcoming to them.”

Looking back on the road that led to her conversion and entering the Apostles, Sister Christina says, “God can find anybody. My favorite Gospel is the one about the Good Shepherd, who has to go after the lost sheep. That is what God did with me. He did a lot of work to find me, and I can only respond with gratitude … and my life. Now, when I pray for people and see the struggles in their lives, I’m reminded to never give up on what God can do for someone.”

The audacity of the thing was matched only by the unseemly speed of its arrival.

It took humanity thousands of years to go from Icarus and Daedalus and other myths of human flight around the world to the first breathless, fleeting steps into the world of powered, heavier-than-air flight: a pioneering ascent in 1903 lasting less than 15 seconds and rising no more than 10 feet off the ground.

But it took just under 65 years to go from Orville Wright’s historic flight to Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins strapping into the Apollo 11 command module Columbia atop the Saturn V launch vehicle and preparing for the three-day trip through space that would end with Armstrong and Aldrin walking on the airless surface of the moon.

Competition and geopolitical rivalry helped to fueled the race to the moon, but when those two American men left their footprints in the dust on the lunar surface, they did so on behalf of all mankind. It was a mythic achievement, and, after a mere 50 years, given the brevity of transit between the Earth and our nearest neighbor and the relative closeness to home of subsequent space travel, it has taken on a quality of legend.

Pope St. Paul VI, an avid space-travel enthusiast, spent many evenings watching NASA film footage of the missions that culminated in the Apollo program, obtained for his viewing pleasure by his friend Franco Zeffirelli via a contact at NASA.

“Honor, greetings and blessings to you, conquerors of the moon, pale lamp of our nights and our dreams!” Paul VI exclaimed in his July 21 message to the astronauts on the day after the lunar landing. “Bring to it, with your living presence, the voice of the spirit, the hymn to God, our Creator and our Father.”

The footage that so captivated Paul VI was a tiny fraction of the many thousands of hours of NASA film materials that documentary filmmakers have sorted through over the decades, producing more than a dozen nonfiction films on the Apollo program alone, beginning with the 1969 release Footprints on the Moon.

Of all these films, perhaps the most visually stunning use of that footage is the most recent, the 2019 documentary Apollo 11, directed by Todd Douglas Miller, still in theaters around the country and streaming from Amazon and other services.

A crucial part of what makes Apollo 11 so essential is the rediscovery of a cache of hundreds of neglected large-format film reels, only recently hauled out of the National Archives, containing never-before-seen high-definition images from the mission.

These include breathtaking views of the Saturn V rocket, the immense NASA crawler-transporter carrying the Saturn V rocket into place on giant caterpillar treads, and the throngs of spectators, from celebrities to parents with young children, assembled to witness the launch.

The recovery of these historic images is well served by the purity and sensitivity of Miller’s approach. Apollo 11 is in-the-moment documentary filmmaking, constructed almost entirely of archival footage, without voice-over commentary or talking-head interviews. Only a few explanatory line-drawing animations and onscreen titles offer context on what we’re seeing.

The film’s artistry lies in the curation and construction of visual and audio elements. Often Miller creates diptych, triptych or mosaic split-screen images, highlighting the multifaceted complexity of an endeavor involving hundreds of people working in concert, in which there is never just one thing worth looking at.

The rich sound design includes audio of Walter Cronkite’s live reporting, chatter from scores of Mission Control technicians, period music and a largely ambient synth-driven score created by Matt Morton with the conceit of using only period instruments and effects.

Among conventional talking-head documentaries, perhaps the most memorable is David Sington’s In the Shadow of the Moon (2007), which includes spectacular archival NASA imagery but is distinguished by the reminiscences and insights of 10 of the Apollo astronauts, including Aldrin, Collins and Jim Lovell. (Of then-surviving Apollo astronauts, only the famously reclusive Armstrong, who died five years later, is absent.)

Here, too, filmmaking restraint and discipline are key to the film’s success. The astronauts’ voices are the only ones we hear; there’s no narrator, no interviewer questions.

Awe, humility, humor, anxiety and exhilaration run together as the now-elderly men who traveled to the moon reflect on the cultural and political context of their great project, caught between Vietnam-era shame and guilt, Cold War urgency and Space Age optimism.

Notably, In the Shadow of the Moon reflects on the failures of the Apollo project as well as its successes, from the 1967 Apollo 1 launch-pad fire that killed three astronauts to the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission that could have killed three more.

Perhaps the absence of Armstrong allows In the Shadow of the Moon to give due attention to Collins, who rejects the characterization of his experience orbiting the moon alone as one of unparalleled loneliness (“Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins,” a NASA commentator remarked). Instead, Collins describes his experience as one of “exaltation.”

Other voices go further, evoking the spiritual overtones of journeying in the heavens. One speaks of an experience of unity with the cosmos; another, Charlie Duke, talks about finding God on Earth after returning from space (“My walk on the moon lasted three days; my walk with God lasts forever”).

Finally, splitting the difference between the two approaches, Al Reinert’s 1989 masterful For All Mankind keeps the focus visually on stunning images of the Apollo program missions, but allows the astronauts to speak in voice-over.

Commentary notwithstanding, Reinert’s film, like Apollo 11, is more of a sensory and visceral experience than a traditional documentary, weaving together footage from all six successful Apollo missions into a single cinematic journey, scored by Brian Eno. The astronaut voice-overs contribute to the mood and experience, but Reinert offers no onscreen text identifying the speakers.

“If we fail, it won’t be because of me,” a voice repeats — a mantra traced to an engineer talking to astronaut Ken Mattingly about the one element of the project within his scope of responsibility. The line speaks to the recurring theme of the overwhelming scope of an endeavor too complex for any one person even to fully understand, let alone take responsibility for.

We all know that in a vacuum the effect of gravity on a feather is the same as a hammer; it’s something else to see David Scott actually drop the feather and the hammer together and watch them land on the lunar surface at the same time. As an experiment, it was a foregone conclusion … but the experience goes beyond its experimental significance.

Which is, perhaps, the point of the whole of Project Apollo. Whatever scientific knowledge we brought back from the moon, whatever technological innovations we pioneered to get there, were perhaps secondary to the pursuit of a kind of transcendence. However brief our stay, that “pale lamp of our nights and our dreams” is now a human world, touched by “the voice of the spirit.”

I suppose few would have predicted when the Apollo program came to an end in 1972 that a half-century after men walked on the moon the human race would have stayed thereafter so close to home. Mars continues to beckon, and it seems NASA may finally be rising to the challenge.

It’s possible, of course, to cross-examine the whole enterprise of space travel. Robots and probes can tell us all we need to know about distant worlds without the difficulty, danger and expense of transporting fragile human beings there and back.

Meanwhile, terrestrial crises both perennial and modern — violence and war, environmental challenges, poverty and hunger — demand our attention.

A theme running through all the Apollo documentaries is the idea that this American endeavor in some way fostered a sense of global unity. The moon landing wasn’t just an American achievement, but a human achievement.

Could a renewed space program contribute in some way to greater human unity? If we do go to Mars, what will we find there? Perhaps more importantly, what will we bring to it?

Steven D. Greydanus is a permanent deacon for the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, and the Register’s film critic.
From ncregister.com

WASHINGTON – A group of Catholics were arrested at the Russell Senate Building on Capitol Hill on Thursday during a peaceful protest organized as a “Catholic Day of Action.” The group, including priests, religious sisters, and lay people, sought to draw attention to the situation at the southern border of the United States and the detention of children in particular.

“We felt like it was time for something more significant, and needing to take more of a risk to raise the consciousness of Catholics across the country,” demonstrator Maggie Conley told CNA during the demonstration, held July 18.

Conley, who works with the justice team of the Sisters of Mercy explained that she would like to see immigration reform presented as a pro-life issue, and expressed hope that Catholic members of Congress and the Trump administration will offer a more public witness on Catholic teaching and immigration.

“It’s challenging when we don’t hear [a call for action] coming from the pulpit as often as we want, and as integrated as some of the rituals of our faith,” said Conley.

Religious orders present included the Sisters of Mercy, the Bon Secours Sisters, the Dominican Sisters of Grand Rapids, Jesuits, and Franciscan friars. There were also several men at the protest wearing clerical collars, who did not appear to be part of any order.

Members of the group who intended to provoke arrest wore yellow bracelets, and many wore signs with pictures of migrant children who had passed away in U.S. custody and the date of their deaths. Five people laid in the center of the Russell Senate Building rotunda, forming the shape of a cross.

Among those arrested included Sr. Pat Murphy, age 90, a member of the Sisters of Mercy. Sr. Pat has worked in immigration and migrant advocacy in the past, and has held a weekly prayer vigil outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in Chicago for over a decade.

Catholic Nun led out of Russell Senate Office Building after she was arrested by Capitol Police for protesting the conditions at the U.S. southern border. #CatholicDayOfAction https://t.co/Mv5UAjV4d9

— Chris Marquette (@ChrisMarquette_) July 18, 2019

Sr. Judith Frikker, a member of the Sisters of Mercy, was not one of the people who got arrested, but was still present at the protest “to stand in solidarity with my sisters, and more importantly, with immigrants.” This was not Sr. Judith’s first time participating in demonstrations of this kind, and she told CNA that she believes that “immigrants, detainees, their families–especially children–are being treated in a way that violates their human rights.”

Sr. Judith told CNA that she believes the crisis at the southern border is not about immigration itself but about how immigrants are received into the country as they try to enter.

“The crisis isn’t the people coming in, the crisis is what is happening to the people when they try to enter,” she said. “They’re seeking to live with dignity. Many people are seeking asylum and their rights are being denied. We have to act against that.”

Frikker said that she advocates for policy options to address immigration, asylum processing, and detention at the border which do not require changes to infrastructure.

“Instead of building a wall, I would increase our judicial system [in a way] that would allow the processing of immigrants and their asylum cases so they could enter here,” she said.

Katie Murphy, a local resident and Catholic, said she was attending the event out of “concern for the children, and also for the character of our nation, the soul of our nation.”

“I feel that the way we treat the most vulnerable is who we are, is like our character. I am deeply saddened and distraught over what our nation is doing. We have a crisis on the border, and we need to address that crisis in a way that dignifies the values that we stand for.”

The demonstration occurred just days after the president of the U.S. bishops’ conference publicly denounced action by the Trump administration to tighten rules on asylum seeking at the southern border, and to enforce court-ordered removals against thousands of people who had exhausted their legal appeals to remain in the country.

On Tuesday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo issued a statement condemning a newly-announced rule which requires that those seeking asylum along the U.S. southern border first apply for asylum in any country they may pass through along the way.

“The rule adds further barriers to asylum-seekers’ ability to access life-saving protection, shirks our moral duty, and will prevent the United States from taking its usual leading role in the international community as a provider of asylum protection,” DiNardo said.

The cardinal also spoke out against a recent series carried out by ICE in cities across the United States.

“Enforcement actions like those anticipated this week by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency separate families, cause the unacceptable suffering of thousands of children and their parents, and create widespread panic in our communities,” said DiNardo.

“I condemn such an approach, which has created a climate of fear in our parishes and communities across the country. I recently wrote the President asking him to reconsider this action.”

By Christine Rousselle/CNA

BRIDGEPORT—On Saturday, August 3, seventeen-year-old Trumbull resident Julia Nevins and members of the Trumbull Pisces will take turns swimming 15.5 miles from Port Jefferson, New York, across Long Island Sound, to Captain’s Cove Seaport in Bridgeport in the 32^nd Annual SWIM Across the Sound Marathon.

Marking her fourth consecutive year participating in the Marathon, Julia and her relay team “Pisces Pride” are eager to get back into the water. Julia will be swimming in honor of Matt Marshall, a family friend currently battling a cancer diagnosis. “I’ll be thinking of him throughout this swim, along with Edna Borchetta, a ‘swim mom’ who has become a family friend and is recovering from breast cancer,” Julia explained. “Each year I try to choose a different person to swim for.”

Along with “Pisces Pride,” the swim club is also being represented by a second relay team, Pisces Strong. Comprised of fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen-year-olds, Julia describes the Pisces teams as committed. “Since there are more kids on our club team than there are spots available for the Marathon teams, we all have to write letters to our coach about why we want to swim. I think that speaks for itself about the kind of dedicated swimmers we have.” Julia went on to share more about her experience. “Most kids are new to the Marathon so, as someone who has gone through it, it has been fun to pass down advice and stories to make them even more excited!”

Julia, who has been swimming since she was ten years old, is motivated by her commitment to the cause and her love for the team. “I swim to help the families in a way that couldn’t be more direct,” she said. “I am so thankful that I can participate in the SWIM marathon because I know the affect it will have on the people who need it. It’s not even so much an opportunity to help others; it’s an honor. If swimming for eight hours means giving families who have been hit with cancer an easier time, I’m all in without thinking twice!”

She is also inspired by her mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when Julia was 12. “All is well and good with my mom now, but the silver lining is that I now understand the urgency of building support systems for those who have been diagnosed, and the SWIM does just that.”

The Trumbull Pisces swim club has participated in the Marathon for the last 7 years. “Everyone is in this with their whole heart, ready to brave the Sound and make a difference in people’s lives.”

There are several ways you can support Julia and the Trumbull Pisces. Donate online at https://give.stvincents.org/ and join the excitement live, on Saturday, August 3, 2019, at Captain’s Cove in Bridgeport as the swimmers cross the finish line.

About St. Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound

St. Vincent’s SWIM Across the Sound is a charitable not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization run by the St. Vincent’s Medical Center Foundation of Bridgeport, Conn. Since 1987, the SWIM has had a unique niche helping individuals and families struggling through the difficult changes that cancer brings with it.  The SWIM serves approximately 30,000 people annually by providing over 45 programs, including cancer education, screening, prevention and support programs at low- or no-cost for the uninsured and underinsured. In addition, the SWIM helps individual cancer patients on a case-by-case basis with specific financial assistance, funding of wigs and prostheses, medication assistance, free transportation to treatments and appointments, day-care scholarships, support groups and more.

(For more information, contact the St. Vincent’s Medical Center Foundation at 203.576.5451 or visit www.SwimAcrossTheSound.org.)

NORWALK—St. Philip’s in Norwalk is proud to announce its annual Family Fall Festival to be held on Saturday, September 21 from 9 am-4 pm. The event will take place rain or shine and admission is free for all.

HAMDEN—The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus recently welcomed Sr. Barbara Thomas, ASCJ, as the newly appointed Provincial Superior for their United States Province, which is located in Hamden.

While Sr. Barbara spent the past 12 years as President of Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, she calls the greater New Haven area home. She grew up in the Hamden area, attended St. Rita School and graduated from Sacred Heart Academy in 1971. Upon graduation, Sr. Barbara entered the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and made her perpetual vows as a sister in 1979.

“It is a privilege to follow in the footsteps of the many great leaders who have come before me,” Sr. Barbara said. “I joyfully look forward to serving my community in this capacity.”

With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven and a Master of Arts in liberal studies in mathematics from Wesleyan University, Sr. Barbara enjoyed teaching math at several Catholic high schools across the country, including Sacred Heart Academy, her alma mater. She later went on to earn a Master of Arts in educational administration from St. Louis University and transitioned into the ministry of educational administration, serving as principal of schools in St. Louis and locally at St. Rita School in Hamden from 2004-2007.

In her most recent role as President of Cor Jesu Academy in St. Louis, Sr. Barbara led extraordinary expansion efforts that doubled the size of the school’s campus. This included spearheading a $10 million dollar capital campaign.

Sr. Barbara’s appointment as Provincial Superior of the United States Province of the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus—effective July 14, 2019—came from the Congregation’s Superior General and the General Council in Rome after months of prayerful discernment. She succeeds Sr. Ritamary Schulz, ASCJ, also a native of Connecticut, who served as Provincial Superior of the United States Province since 2016.

Collaborating with Sr. Barbara Thomas as the new Provincial leadership are Sr. Mary Lee, ASCJ, Vice Provincial/Treasurer; Sr. Angela Gertsema, ASCJ, Provincial Councilor; Sr. Diane Mastroianni, ASCJ, Provincial Councilor; Sr. Mary Grace Walsh, ASCJ, Provincial Councilor; and Sr. Sharon Kalert, ASCJ, Secretary.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus are consecrated women of the Church. Impelled by the Spirit active in each of us and faithful to the charism of Blessed Clelia Merloni we seek to make the compassionate Heart of Christ better known, loved and served. We do this by personal and communal witness to the Gospel, commitment to growth in holiness, and ministry to the people of God.

Vatican City, Jul 14, 2019 / 05:36 am (CNA).- Helping a person in need requires compassion toward their situation, Pope Francis said Sunday, encouraging Catholics to think first about their own hardness of heart, not the sins of others.

“If you go down the street and see a homeless man lying there and you pass by without looking at him, or you think: ‘Eh, the effect of wine. He’s a drunk,’ do not ask yourself if that man is drunk, ask yourself if your heart has hardened, if your heart has become ice,” the pope said July 14.

The true “face of love,” he continued, is “mercy towards a human life in need. This is how one becomes a true disciple of Jesus.”

In his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis reflected on the parable of the Good Samaritan, which he called “one of the most beautiful parables of the Gospel.”

“This parable has become paradigmatic of the Christian life. It has become the model of how a Christian must act,” he said.

According to Pope Francis, the parable shows that having compassion is key. “If you do not feel pity before a needy person, if your heart is not moved, then something is wrong,” he warned. “Be careful.”

Quoting the Gospel of Luke, Francis said: “‘Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.’ God, our Father, is merciful, because he has compassion; he is capable of having this compassion, of approaching our pain, our sin, our vices, our miseries.”

The pope noted a detail of the parable of the Good Samaritan, which is that the Samaritan was considered an unbeliever. Jesus uses a man of no faith as a model, he said, because this man, in “loving his brother as himself, shows that he loves God with all his heart and with all his strength – the God he did not know!”

“May the Virgin Mary,” Francis prayed, “help us to understand and above all to live more and more the unbreakable bond that exists between love for God our Father and concrete and generous love for our brothers, and give us the grace to have compassion and grow in compassion.”

After the Angelus, the pope reiterated his desire to be close to the Venezuelan people, who he said are facing trials in the continued crisis in the country.

“We pray the Lord will inspire and enlighten the parties involved, so that they can, as soon as possible, reach an agreement that puts an end to the suffering of the people for the good of the country and the entire region,” he said.

By Hannah Brockhaus | Catholic News Agency

PHILADELPHIA—The laity can lead the way in renewing a church wounded by the decades-long sexual abuse scandal, according to Meghan Cokeley, director of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s Office for the New Evangelization.

Prayer, redemptive suffering, forgiveness and a deeper understanding of the laity’s calling can radically revive the church, said Cokeley, who has been touring Philadelphia-area parishes to deliver a talk titled “What Can We Do? The Role of Laity in a Time of Crisis.”

Combining Scripture, catechesis and historical examples, the presentation offers “a message of hope” as well as several specific action points to counter feelings of despair and apathy in church life.

During a recent session at St. Hilary of Poitiers Parish in Rydal, Pennsylvania, Cokeley cited the devastating fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris in April as “a sign God gave us for these times,” one that showed a church “scarred, but still standing.”

She noted that as the 850-year-old structure burned, lay bystanders “instinctively ran into the street, rosaries in their hands, praying on their knees and singing hymns” despite grim predictions that the cathedral would be destroyed.

Cokeley pointed out that while the crowd prayed, firefighters formed a human chain to save many of the cathedral’s relics and to enable the brigade’s chaplain, Father Jean-Marc Fournier, to remove the Blessed Sacrament.

“They say the faith is dead in France. It’s not,” said Cokeley. “Our prayer matters.”

That same passion, she said, is present in “sensus fidei fidelis” (“sense of the faith of the believer”); this cannot be separated from “sensus fidei fidelium,” the sense of the faith on the part of all the faithful. “Sensus fidei” can help the church to navigate troubled waters, especially when leaders forsake the helm, she added.

Often confused with public opinion in the pews, the “sensus fidei” was defined in 2014 by the Vatican’s International Theological Commission as a “supernatural instinct” for “the truth of the Gospel,” which enables active, properly formed Catholics to recognize “authentic Christian doctrine and practice” while rejecting falsehood.

Cokeley noted that a dramatic example of the “sensus fidei” can be found in the laity’s rejection of Arianism, a widespread fourth-century heresy that claimed Jesus had been created by God.

Blessed John Henry Newman — whom Pope Francis has greenlighted for canonization in October — wrote that the laity upheld true church teaching as the heresy prevailed for some 60 years. In contrast, Cardinal Newman observed, “the body of bishops failed in their confession of the faith,” succumbing to confusion and infighting.

Cokeley also said that by knowing the true purpose of church organizational structure, laity can more fully embrace their rightful place in the body of Christ.

“There’s a tendency to dismiss the hierarchy due to its failures, or to treat the laity as passive bystanders,” she said. “Both are pitfalls.”

Cokeley used an image of Guercino’s “St. Peter Weeping Before the Virgin,” in which the first pope repents to Mary for denying Christ, to illustrate two key dimensions of the church.

Citing the Catechism of the Catholic Church and the writings of St. John Paul II, Cokeley explained that the hierarchical aspect of the church, represented by Peter and therefore called “Petrine,” is designed to ensure the holiness of all its members.

The Marian dimension, named for Mary’s surpassing sanctity and representing the church’s holiness, “precedes the Petrine,” the catechism states.

Cokeley said that during the clerical abuse crisis, this order “got flipped, and bishops protected themselves at the expense of the laity.”

Intentional, heartfelt forgiveness and redemptive suffering can powerfully redress such wrongs, allowing grace to flow into the lives of both failed leaders and wounded believers, she said.

“When we unite our sufferings with those of Christ — this is where the power is,” she said. “There’s a sense that it doesn’t do anything, but the saying ‘offer it up’ is true.”

Cokeley acknowledged that while there is a time and a place for activism, the cross shows the true path to transformation.

“The crucifixion of Jesus Christ altered the course of human history,” said Cokeley. “And what was Christ doing on the cross? He wasn’t signing petitions, he wasn’t writing a book, he wasn’t enacting policies, although those can be good. He was praying, suffering and obeying the Father.”

The rosary is a particularly effective form of prayer, said Cokeley, adding that Sister Lucia dos Santos, one of the Fatima visionaries, stressed its unique power to resolve difficulties both great and small.

Displaying an image of Meynier’s “Christ Asleep in His Boat,” in which Jesus sleeps calmly amid raging waters, Cokeley urged attendees to “curl up next to Jesus” in the storm of scandal.

“The reason Jesus is asleep is because he knows who his Father is, and he is anchored in his Father,” she said. “His Father’s got this.”

For that reason, Cokeley said, lay Catholics should recommit themselves to greater involvement in parish life and to evangelization — even if such action seems counterintuitive, given the clerical abuse scandal and the secularized culture.

“God uses the works of the devil for his own purposes,” she said.

Cokeley concluded her talk by encouraging listeners to view “fidelity as a mission,” one that had long-term impact.

“Someday 300 years from now, they’re going to read stories about the laypeople who went to church anyway, who prayed for their priests anyway, who kept on evangelizing,” she said. “They’re going to read stories about how God preserved the church through us.”

By Gina Christian | Catholic News Service

WILTON—One of Father Reggie Norman’s most cherished gifts is the chalice he received from his mother on his ordination, which is inscribed: “To my son, Fr. Reginald Norman, from your loving mother. Ordained to the priesthood, May 16, 2009.”

On that day, ten years ago, Father joined the ranks of his family members in the clergy—his seven cousins and grandfather who are Baptist ministers. However, Father chose a different path when he converted to Catholicism and decided to enter the diaconate…and then the priesthood.

As pastor of Our Lady of Fatima, there is more to his worship than preaching and singing, he says. There is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and the sacraments, along with his pastoral ministry for others.

Born in North Carolina, he grew up in Connecticut, and still has childhood memories of his Southern Baptist roots, going to Sunday school and doing ministry from 9 am to 3 pm

“At one point, I became rebellious and I didn’t want to go anymore,” he recalls, so he and his cousins stopped attending services.

His mother, Beatrice Pinckney was single mom, who moved to Norwalk while Reggie was still young, and later to Stratford, where he attended Stratford High School before going on to the University of Connecticut and graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communications science in 1988.

While he was a student UConn, he became interested in the Catholic faith.

“When I was in college, my roommate Frank would take me to 10 pm Mass on campus,” Father recalls. “His parents were from Italy, and his mother told him in no uncertain terms that Sunday Mass was not negotiable and that he better get himself there. ‘Come on, dude,’ he would say to me. ‘We’ll go out for a beer afterward.’”

Father Reggie said it was like an ad hoc Theology on Tap, and he loved it.

“I was intrigued by what was going on,” he said. “God has a perfect plan for you, but sometimes you just don’t know it. At Mass, I got turned on to a God who loves us, and it was a powerful attraction.”

Plus, there was the Eucharist and the Real Presence of Jesus — Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament.

“The Eucharist always brings people to the Church,” Father says, after a decade of being a priest and seeing the conversion miracles it can lead to.

A few years later, while he was volunteering with Stratford EMS, he expressed interest in the Catholic faith, and his friend Dan, who was a priest and is now a hospital chaplain, told him, “Just go to church.” He listened to the advice.

His mother started noticing the changes when he began attending St. James Church in Stratford, where Father Tom Lynch, the pastor, said, “Why don’t you just join us?”

“I talked to my mom about it, and she was intrigued because her son who was not at all interested in church suddenly was,” Father said. “I was having a change of heart.”

He and his mother went through the RCIA program together and were brought into full communion with the Church.

Then, Father Lynch raised the stakes and said, “Now that you’re a Catholic, do something. You need to get involved and take care of your faith.” Before he knew it, he was serving as lector, acolyte, Eucharistic Minister and on the Parish Council.

It was one step at a time, until Father Lynch said to him, “What about your vocation? You’re still single. Why don’t you become a priest?”

Father Reggie laughed and responded, “You’ve got to be kidding me. I just became Catholic.” At the time, his career was starting to take off and he had a number of sales positions for different computer and software companies.

“Why would I do that?” he said. “I have a career that I like, I have a beautiful condo that I like, I have everything that I supposedly worked for, so why would I give that up to become a priest? You guys don’t live the life that I want to live.”

Despite his initial resistance, the idea that he might be called to the priesthood kept resurfacing, until the day finally came when he said to God, “Let’s make a deal. Why don’t I become a deacon?”

He thought doing that would let him keep the lifestyle he loved, so he started in the diaconate formation program and was ordained in 2006. Soon after, he was named Vicar for Black Catholics and was eventually appointed administrator of Blessed Sacrament Church.

“I learned to pray in a different way and I began serving people in that capacity … and I was hooked,” he said. “I even used the skills and contacts I had made in the business world. You see, God was preparing me to do ministry for the Church.”

The day finally came when he met with then Bishop William Lori and said, “I think I want to become a priest.” He finally said yes to Jesus’ plan, and several years later in 2009, he was ordained. He served at Blessed Sacrament until 2013 when he was assigned to Our Lady of Fatima.

God has a sense of humor, Father Reggie says, because for most of his life, he had served people in organizations like the Red Cross and emergency medical services. “In a sense, he was preparing me,” he says.

During his priesthood, he has experienced what he calls “a sad joy and a happy joy.”

“Some of my closest friends have gone through major tragedies, and I have been there for them,” he says. “One of my good, good friends lost his 8-year-old son, and as a priest I could walk with them through that. That loss shook me and yet strengthened my faith as well.”

Last summer, his college roommate’s father died.

“Frank’s family walked with me when I needed them, and I had the privilege of walking with them on that journey and celebrate his father’s funeral,” he said.

“Being a priest has been such a great blessing for me,” he adds. “Even though some friends might not go to church, I can be there for them during a crisis. And as a priest, I can be a bridge to people who might not have a clear picture of what the faith is about and reach out in friendship to so many who fell away from the Church.”

The life of a priest has rewarded him in many ways, from celebrating Mass and administering the sacraments, to leading his parish and consoling people during times of crisis.

As Father Lynch told him, “It’s a good life.”

By Joe Pisani

NORWALK—St. Matthew Parish in Norwalk will host its annual Summer Carnival of Family Fun Wednesday, July 31 through Saturday, August 3.
The hours are Wed-Fri: 6-10 pm; Sat: 2-10 pm.

There’s something for everyone, from little ones to thrill-seekers: rides, games, great food, burgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza fritte, empanadas, a pasta booth, ice cream, cotton candy, candy apples, music…and more!

There will be a raffle with a $10,000 cash first prize! Winners will be drawn on  August 3, 10 pm at the carnival.

All-day ride bracelets are available every day. Ride as many rides as you want each day, as many times as you want for $25/day!

There will be handicapped parking available at St. Matthew’s, 216 Scribner Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06854, and a free shuttle from Norwalk Community College for no-hassle parking.

TRUMBULL—A new affiliation of the Lay Dominicans of St. Dominic (Third Order) has found a home in Fairfield County at St. Theresa’s Church in Trumbull. The new affiliation formed one year ago and has been thriving since then. The affiliation has been named: “Our Lady of Fatima,” and is currently under the St. Mary’s, New Haven chapter for its spiritual guidance.

Members of the Lay Dominicans are lay men and women who are fully incorporated members of the Order of Preachers, but live out their Dominican vocation in the world. The newly formed affiliation has nine newly received members and one member entering his final profession phase. On Thursday April 11 and Thursday May 16, the members of the newly formed affiliation went through their Rite of Reception into the Lay Dominican Order. The Rite of Reception was a beautiful ceremony, led by the Lay Dominican region president Kathy Kendrek, immediately following a Mass offered by St. Theresa Church pastor, Father Brian Gannon.

The life of a Lay Dominican is based on the Dominican four pillars: prayer, study, community and apostolate.  A daily life of prayer revolves around the liturgy, both daily Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office), which helps to sanctify the entire day. The Liturgy of the Hours is the prayer that all the Church’s religious pray daily, in union together. Study is a life-long endeavor for Dominicans as well. Scripture study, the study of Dominican Saints and the Dominican Rule, as well as the study of Catholic teaching, are central to Dominican life and assist in their charge to “Go out to the world and proclaim the Good News to all creation.” Lay Dominicans come together a minimum of one time a month with their chapter, for prayer and study. This is key to the spiritual life of each member and apostolate— each affiliation or chapter discerns a community apostolate to serve the body of Christ and to further His evangelical mission. Lay Dominicans are called to do apostolate with those whom we come in contact with in their daily lives.

Some of the notable Dominicans are: St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope St. Pius V, St. Vincent Ferrer and some Lay Dominicans are: St. Catherine of Siena, Doctor of the Church; Bl. Pier Giorgio Frassati and Bl. Margaret of Castello.

There will be an Open House on Thursday, August 26, from 7-8 pm at St. Theresa School Gym. There you will be able to obtain additional information about becoming a Lay Dominican.

(For more information, call, text or email: Michelle Rowe: orapronobis20@gmail.com or email at: 203.218.6882, Michael Miller at: Michaelmiller_910@hotmail.com or 203.526.7655 or Joan Cuomo at: richardcuomo939@comcast.net or 203.215.0438.)

By Mr. Michael Miller, OP