Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • May 18, 2018 19 D iocesan E vents ( cont . from page 2) July 6-8, October 5-7 Retrouvaille Weekends Do you know someone in a hurting relationship? Retrouvaille: hope for hurting mar- riages Retrouvaille (pronounced re-tro vi) is French for rediscovery This is a peer ministry. Couples who have been through the program present the program given by the New Orleans Retrouvaille Community. For information call: (504) 296-7510. Weekends will be at William Kelley Retreat Center, 510 North 2nd Street, Bay St. Louis, July 6-8 and October 5-7. July 7 St. Rose de Lima’s Festival “Blues and BBQ with a Twist” BAY ST. LOUIS -- St. Rose de Lima’s 92nd Year Festival “Blues and Barbecue with a Twist” will be held on Sat., July 7, on the grounds of the Historic Train Depot at 1928 Depot Way, Bay St. Louis, 10 a.m.-10 p.m. It will feature food, fun, entertainment, and vendor booths. BBQ chicken and ribs, fried chicken wings, hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the trimmings and sides! There will be music all day: choirs, DJ, and three bands TBA, all under the oaks on the Depot grounds! Come join us for fun and fellowship, and rock out to the great music in a beautiful setting. Bring your lawn chairs and stay for the day! We’ll kick off the festival with a Fish Fry lunch on Fri., July 6, 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at St. Rose de Lima Holy Spirit Center, 301 South Necaise St., Bay St. Louis! And we’ll close the weekend at our Sun., 9 a.m. Mass featuring the St. Rose Gospel Choir! October 6 OMS Church $ 2,500 Drawdown BILOXI -- Our Mother of Sorrows Church will have their annual $2,500 drawdown on Saturday, October 6, at the Gruich Community Center in Biloxi. Dinner begins at 6 p.m. Tickets are $25 each and admits 1 adult. We will have a silent auction and door prizes! For tickets, please call Mamie Hardy at (228) 327-1875 or the parish office at (228) 435-0007. Cursillo Raffle The Cursillo Movement of South Mississippi is having a raffle to raise funds to support the movement. No one is ever turned away from a retreat weekend because they don’t have funds to support it and this is a way of ensuring that we have what we need. This is a fantastic opportu- nity to support the movement and a pretty good chance of your winning something in the process. Here are some details: Drawdown Raffle for the Cursillo Movement of South MS, only 500 tickets to be sold, cost: $50 each. 31 chances to win (one for each day of May (30) and one grand prize drawing) 30 chances to win $100 and one chance (final drawing) to win $5,000 If you win, your ticket will be put back in the pot for another chance to win. How cool is that! All winning tickets will be pulled in one night at a social event to be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 3702 Quinn Dr., Pascagoula, on Saturday, June 2. You do not have to be present to win. Cursillo Movement of South Mississippi, P.O. Box 7450, D’Iberville, MS 39540 Contact: (228) 382-3215 e-mail: secretariat@southms-cursillo.org Or contact Charles Walden, (985) 285-2997 or email at cwalden- sr1@gmail.com Runaway slave-turned-priest moves closer to beatification CHICAGO, ILL. ( CNA/EWTN News ) -- The first African American priest in the U.S. could become the country’s first African American saint as his cause took another step forward this week. A document summarizing the life, virtue, and alleged mir- acles of Servant of God Fr. Augustus Tolton, known as the positio, was unanimously approved as historically correct by a committee of six Vatican officials this week, clearing the way for the priest’s cause for canonization to continue moving for- ward. Bishop Joseph N. Perry, auxiliary bishop of Chicago and diocesan postulator for the Tolton cause, called the approval a “very positive sign going forward” and noted its significance for the African American Catholic Community. “Fr. Tolton lived during a particularly tumultuous time in American history especially for race relations,” Perry said in a statement. “He was a pioneer of his era for inclusiveness drawing both blacks and whites to his parish in Quincy. However, due to his race, he suffered discrimination and condemnation. The beatification and canonization of Fr. Tolton will signal a significant milestone in the history of black Catholicism in the United States.” Born in Missouri on April 1, 1854, John Augustine Tolton fled slavery with his mother and two siblings in 1862 by cross- ing the Mississippi River into Illinois. “John, boy, you're free. Never forget the goodness of the Lord,” Tolton’s mother told him after the crossing, according to the website of St. Elizabeth’s Church in Chicago. The young Tolton entered St. Peter’s Catholic School with the help of the school’s pastor, Fr. Peter McGirr. Fr. McGirr would later baptize him and instruct him for his first Holy Communion. Tolton was serving as an altar boy by the next summer. The priest asked Tolton if he would like to become a priest, saying it would take 12 years of hard study. The excited boy then said they should go to church and pray for his success. After graduating from high school and Quincy College, he began his ecclesiastical studies in Rome, because no American seminary would accept him on account of his race. On April 24, 1886, he was ordained in Rome by Cardinal Lucido Maria Parocchi, who was then the vicar general of Rome. Newspapers throughout the U.S. carried the story. Fr. Tolton was ordained for the southern Illinois Diocese of Quincy. Upon his return in July 1886, he was greeted at the train station “like a conquering hero,” the website of St. Elizabeth’s Parish says. “Thousands were there to greet him, led by Father McGirr. A brass band played church songs and Negro Spirituals. Thousands of blacks and whites lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the new priest wearing a black Prince Albert and a silk hat. People marched and cheered his flower-draped four- horse carriage. Children, priests and sisters left the school joining the pro- cession heading towards the church.” Hundreds waited at the local church where people of all races knelt at the communion rail. Fr. Tolton served in Quincy before going to Chicago to start a parish for black Catholics. The new church was named for St. Monica and opened in 1893. On July 9, 1897, Fr. Tolton collapsed during a hot day and died from sunstroke at the age of 43. His cause for canonization was officially launched in 2010, and he was given the title “Servant of God” by the Vatican in February 2011. The research phase of his cause concluded on September 29, 2014. The next step in his cause for canonization will be in February 2019, when a theological commission with the Congregation for Causes of Saints will further investigate his life and virtue, and consider granting him the title of “Venerable,” which must receive papal approval. After that step, Tolton’s cause would move forward toward beatification, for which a miracle through his intercession must be approved. More information about Fr. Tolton can be found on the website for his cause: www.toltoncanonization.org