Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • October 18, 2019 23 D iocesan B riefs ( cont . from page 2) November 7-10 Ladies’ ACTS Retreat Ladies, please consider treating your- self and spending a weekend with us for an encounter with the Holy Spirit. Ladies ACTS Retreat Nov. 7-10. Cost is $125, covers food, lodging and transportation. Sponsored by Fatima Church. God is calling you to spend some time with Him. It will change your life! Call Chantelle Peters (228) 860-6764, Marion Cunningham (601) 716-4040 or Renee Klein (228) 990-6983. November 8-9 Scott Hahn to speak at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish HATTIESBURG -- Dr. Scott Hahn will speak at St. Thomas Aquinas Parish on Friday, Nov. 8 from 6:30-8 p.m and on Sat. morning, Nov. 9 from 8 a.m. to noon. They will live stream to their Parish Center for additional seating when the church fills up. If you need more information, call Martha Abadie at (601) 310-9320. St. Thomas Aquinas is located at 3117 West 4th Street. November 10 St. Thomas Cornhole Tournament LONG BEACH -- St. Thomas the Apostle Edge and Life Teen will host a Cornhole Tournament on Sun., Nov. 10, on the church grounds. Check-in and registration are 10-11:30 a.m. Games begin at noon. First place will $200; second place will win $100 and third place $50. The winners will also receive a trophy. Registration fee is $40 for a team of two. Proceeds will go to the St. Thomas the Apostle Youth Ministry program. For more information, contact Ashlie Moran at youthministry@saintthomaslb.org . November 15 Eagle Catholic and St. Thomas Aquinas Drawdown HATTIESBURG -- Eagle Catholic and St. ThomasAquinas Catholic Church are having their annual drawdown Nov. 15, 6-9 p.m., to support their USM col- lege students. Tickets are $100 and will admit two persons for hors d’oeuvres, beer and wine. The grand prize is $5,000 as well as three $1,000 prizes and nine $500 prizes. Please contact St. Thomas Parish office at (601) 264-5192 for more information. November 17 An Hour of Grace BILOXI -- Blessed Seelos Church in Biloxi will host an Hour of Grace Thur., Nov. 7 at 6 p.m. During Hour of Grace, we adore His presence and open ourselves to His Graces which flow from the Eucharist. Abandon yourself to Jesus in this “Sacrament of Love.” He will refresh you! The more time you spend with Jesus, the more you will come away feeling renewed and healed! For more information, please call (228) 435-0007. November 19 Saint Stanislaus to host Open House BAY ST. LOUIS -- Saint Stanislaus, a Catholic boarding and day school for boys, will host its annual Open House on Tues., Nov. 19, 5:30-7 p.m. The Saint Stanislaus community invites all fami- lies who are interested in exploring their options for middle and high school edu- cation attend and experience the excite- ment! Guests will learn about the school’s outstanding academic, extracur- ricular, and athletic programs during a tour of the campus and by meeting teachers, administrators, students, and parents. For more information about Saint Stanislaus, please visit the school’s web- site www.ststan.com . If you would like to customize your tour so that it focuses on those areas of the Saint Stanislaus experience that you are most interested in learning about, you can visit www. ststan.com/admissions and register in advance. June 22-July 3, 2020 Pilgrimage to Poland Father Adam Urbanick and Father Mark Ropel are hosting a pilgrimage to Poland June 22-July 3, 2020. The sites to be visited will include Warsaw, Gdansk, Krakow (Blessed John Paul II’s home town, Divine Mercy Shrine and many more. Please contact Father Adam at (228) 762-1653 or Father Mark at (601) 264-5192 for more information. September 9, 2020 Italian Renaissance & Oberammergau Pilgrimage The Gulf Pine Catholic invites you on an Italian Renaissance & Oberam- mergau Pilgrimage with Fr. Tommy departing Sept. 9, 2020 for an 11-day tour. Highlights include the famous Passion Play in Oberammergau, Germany and a visit to Vatican City. Cost is $5,498. For more information contact Terry Dickson at (228) 702-2126 / tdickson@biloxidiocese.org . Vatican Letter Creation From page 1 For them, “God is in all things, but those things are not gods,” he said. That means “God is not distant. He is close by.” When missionaries build chapels in Munduruku communities, he said, the people accept it, but wonder why it is necessary to have a building in which to wor- ship. “The sacred dimension, for them, does not have a wall around it,” he said. “How are you going to build a place for God if God is in everything?” Many Amazonian people also believe that every element of creation has a spirit, often translated into Spanish or Portuguese with the word for “mother.” That does not mean they see the trees or animals as gods, but it reflects their belief that the sacred is present in the world, Father Sousa said. Recognizing the sacred, he said, means “loving the presence of the Creator in everything. When you speak of the mother of the fish, of the forest, of the animals, it is (an expression of) respect, because they are sacred, the same way (a person is) sacred.” Because of that divine presence in creation, a person cannot be the owner of those things and must not destroy or use them irresponsibly, he added. Pope Francis’ call for an end to the destruction of the environment for economic gain therefore is sup- ported by both the Christian understanding of creation and the indigenous belief that God is in present in all things. Deforestation and harm to the land and rivers from extractive industries, such as logging and mining, and from large infrastructure projects, such as hydroelectric dams, were among the problems most often mentioned during the presynod consultations held in church juris- dictions throughout the Amazon region. Those concerns are reflected in the synod’s working document, which also notes that the ancestral wisdom passed down from generation to generation among Amazonian indigenous people “inspires care and respect for creation” and prohibits abuse of the environ- ment. The document “simply recognizes that some of the values present in indigenous cosmovisions, which involve greater care for and preservation and protection of nature, help us remember that, as Christians, we have to perceive the world as creation, where man con- templates the features of God,” Father dos Santos said. Ultimately, Archbishop Paloschi said, the theology of creation, of God’s presence in everything, runs through all of church history. “St. Augustine says that the first book written was creation,” he said, “so there is no contradiction between the Christian faith and the spirituality of the Amazonian peoples.” Pray for an increase of vocations to the priesthood, to the diaconate, and to the religious life, especially in the Diocese of Biloxi.