Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • March 22, 2019 3 Gulf Pine Catholic (ISSN No. 0746-3804) March 22, 2019 Volume 36, Issue 15 The GULF PINE CATHOLIC , published every other week, is an official publication of the Catholic Diocese of Biloxi. Editorial offices are located at 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532. Periodical postage paid at Gulfport, MS. —POSTMASTER— Send address changes to: The GULF PINE CATHOLIC 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —PUBLISHER— Most Rev. Louis F. Kihneman —EDITOR— Terry Dickson —PRODUCTION / ADVERTISING — Shirley M c Cusker —CIRCULATION— Debbie Mowrey —PHOTOGRAPHY— Juliana Skelton —OFFICEHOURS— 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday —PHONE NUMBERS— Editor: 228-702-2126 Production /Advertising: 228-702-2109 Circulation: 228-702-2127 Photography: 228-702-2144 FAX: 228-702-2128 —EMAIL— News: tdickson@biloxidiocese.org Production / Advertising: smccusker@biloxidiocese.org Circulation: dmowrey@biloxidiocese.org Photography: jskelton@biloxidiocese.org —OFFICEAND MAILINGADDRESS — 1790 Popps Ferry Road Biloxi, MS 39532 —WEBSITE— www.biloxidiocese.org —SUBSCRIPTIONS — Subscription rate is $18.00 per year. When changing address, renewing or inquiring about a subscription, customer should include a recent address label with old address and new address. Allow three weeks for changes of address. —DEADLINES for APRIL5 EDITION— News copy and photos: Due MARCH 28, 4 p.m. Advertising: Completed Ad and/or copy due MARCH 28, 10 a.m. Bishop Kihneman’s Schedule March 23 Confirmation Mass at Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos Parish, includes Our Mother of Sorrows, St. Michael & Nativity BVM Cathedral Parishes, 4 p.m. March 24 Mass, Nativity BVM Cathedral, 11 a.m. March 24 Rite of Election, Nativity BVM Cathedral, 2 p.m. March 26 Joint Forum Faith Formation, 9 a.m. March 26 Forming Intentional Discipleship Meeting with high school principals, 10 a.m. March 26 Confirmation Mass, St. James Parish, Gulfport, 7 p.m. March 27 Mass & School Visit, Our Lady of the Gulf & St. Stanislaus College, Bay St. Louis, 8:30 p.m. March 28 Finance council, 2 p.m. March 30 Notre Dame Seminary Gala, Notre Dame Seminary, New Orleans, LA, 6 p.m. March 31 Mass & Installation of Pastor, Fr. Piotr Kmiecik, Holy Spirit Parish, Vancleave, 11 a.m. April 2 Intentional Disciple Team Meeting, 2 p.m. April 3 Mass & School Visit, Sacred Heart, D’Iberville, 8:30 a.m. April 4 Confirmation Mass, St. Elizabeth Seton Parish, Ocean Springs, 6 p.m. Cardinal: Amazon synod to focus on climate change, not married priests BY JUNNO AROCHO Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- The issue of married priests is something for the univer- Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo attends a two- day conference to prepare for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops on the Amazon. He is pictured Feb. 26, 2019. CNS photo/Junno Arocho Esteves sal Catholic Church to discuss and is not the focus of the upcoming Synod of Bishops for the Amazon, said Peruvian Cardinal Pedro Barreto Jimeno of Huancayo. Cardinal Barreto told Catholic News Service Feb. 26 that reducing the synod to a debate on ordaining married men of “proven virtue” -- the so-called “viri probati” -- dis- tracts from “the socio-environmental prob- lems of the Amazonian region.” “Climate change is increasing at an expo- nential level compared to how humanity is trying to address it. So that is the fundamen- tal problem,” Cardinal Barreto said. “We are not going to be discussing ‘viri probati’ or any other issue if this great problem of cli- mate change overcomes us.” The Peruvian cardinal was in Rome for a two-day conference sponsored by the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishop centered on the topics that will be discussed at the synod Oct. 6-27. Cardinal Barreto said that a lack of voca- tions to the priesthood is a problem that is not limited to remote areas of the Amazon; it is a problem for the church around the world as the number of parishes being closed or merged demonstrates. Nevertheless, “it isn’t the main issue,” he told CNS . “The issue is the problem of the irrational exploitation of natural resources endorsed by some governments. I would say that money is behind it in order to use natural resources for the good of a few,” Cardinal Barreto said. “We’re talking about a problem that con- cerns us all!” he said. “We cannot be distract- ed by other problems that, although impor- tant, are not priorities.” When he announced the synod in 2017, Pope Francis said it would seek to identify new paths of evangelization, especially for indigenous people who are “often forgotten and left without the prospect of a peaceful future, including because of the crisis of the Amazon forest,” which plays a vital role in the environmental health of the entire planet. The Amazon rainforest includes territory belonging to nine countries in South Amer- ica and has experienced significant defores- tation, negatively impacting the indigenous populations in the area and leading to a loss of biodiversity. As vice president of the Pan-Amazonian Church Network, known by its Spanish ac- ronym as REPAM, Cardinal Barreto said the church’s focus on the vast region is crucial not only to the evangelization of the Ama- zon, but of the world. Cardinal Barreto is no stranger to the damaging effects of climate change. As arch- bishop of Huancayo, a city located in the central Andes Mountains known as Peru’s breadbasket, he spoke out against the La Oroya smelter and refinery complex. The smelter, he said, “destroyed peoples’ lives because of the emission of toxic gases” and left scores of men, women and children with dangerously high levels of lead in their blood. “For me personally, the socio-environ- mental problem of La Oroya helped me to have a greater commitment” to protect the environment, Cardinal Barreto told CNS . The Amazon he said, with its “diversity of cultures, the irrational appropriation and conflicts over land,” is “a reflection of what is happening in the world.” The October synod, he said, is an oppor- tunity for indigenous populations in the re- gion to evangelize the world about caring for God’s creation. Too many people think the indigenous in the Amazon “are savages who have nothing to teach us,” he told CNS . But “as one Ama- zonian indigenous person told me, the sav- ages are the ones who wear suits and ties and have money because they not only exploit natural resources irrationally but also expel (the indigenous people) from their territories and allow those from the outside to attack their culture simply to profit.” Cardinal Barreto told CNS that he hopes the synod will unite the universal church in protecting the Amazon, seeing it not just as an environmental issue, but as an opportunity “to defend life as Jesus would.” “Let us close ranks in that dialogue that Pope Francis invites us to do in “Laudato Si’,” he said, “so that we may care for our common home, to mitigate the effects of cli- mate change that are already being felt in the world.”