Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • December 27, 2019 3 Gulf Pine Catholic (ISSN No. 0746-3804) December 27, 2019 Volume 37, Issue 9 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 JANUARY 10 EDITION— News copy and photos: Due DECEMBER 31, 4 p.m. Advertising: Completed Ad and/or copy due DECEMBER 31, 10 a.m. Bishop Kihneman’s Schedule Dec. 31- FOCUS SLS20 for Bishops, Jan. 2 Phoenix, AZ Jan. 5-9 Region V Bishops’ Retreat, Archdiocese of New Orleans Retreat Center Jan. 10-12 SEARCH Retreat Mary is loving mother, humble disciple, pope says on Guadalupe feast BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis said she reminds Catholics of her true essence as a woman, a mother and a “mestiza” or person of mixed race. She revealed herself to St. Juan Diego as a “mestiza” to show “that she is everyone’s mother,” and she speaks to everyone as she spoke to this indigenous saint five centuries ago, with tenderness and motherly love, the pope said in his homily during a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 12. Seminarians and priests from Rome’s Pontifical Latin American College alternated singing their traditional guitar-accompanied songs with the Sistine Chapel choir singing parts of the Mass in Gregorian chant. The pope and concelebrating cardinals and bishops processed into the basilica dressed in white. Among the concelebrants were U.S. bishops from Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin who were in Rome as part of their Dec. 9-13 “ad limina” visits to report on the status of their dioceses. Pope Francis stood before a replica of St. Juan Diego’s tilma, which bears the image of Mary, who appeared to the saint in 1531. In his homily, which the pope delivered off-the-cuff in Spanish, he reflected on the way Mary appears in the Gospels and in the apparitions to St. Juan Diego. She is first and foremost a woman who has been given many titles -- many which contain the title “Our Lady,” which under- lines her womanhood, he said. But, he said, “she doesn’t try to be some- Pope Francis uses incense as he venerates an image of Our Lady of Guadalupe during a Mass marking her feast day in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 12, 2019. In attendance were U.S. bishops from Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin making their “ad limina” visits to the Vatican. CNS photo/Paul Haring thing else: she is a woman disciple,” the pope said. She is humble and faithful to her teacher, her son, “the only Redeem- er,” he said. She never asked and “never wanted to take something of her son for her- self. She never pre- sented herself as a co-Redemptrix, but as a disciple” who served him and gave life, he said. Pope Francis’ mention of Mary and the role of co- Redemptrix was a reference to the fact that, for de- cades, some Catholics, including specialists in Mariology, have requested that Mary be officially proclaimed co-Redemptrix for her cooperative role with Jesus, the redeemer. However, St. John Paul II and Popes Bene- dict XVI and Francis declined to do so. Mary is the mother of Jesus, she is “our mother, the mother of our people” and the church, Pope Francis said in his homily. Understanding the church through Mary is essential also for understanding the role of women in the church, he said, because their role is more than just “functional.” Like Mary, women make the church ma- ternal and transform it into the “holy mother church,” he said. It is also important, Pope Francis said, that Mary appeared to St. Juan Diego as a woman of mixed race. That way she shows she is the mother of all peoples; she became one with the people and, by bringing Jesus into the world, she also made God one of the people with Jesus as both true God and man. At the end of the Mass, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, head of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, gave special thanks and congratulations to Pope Francis for the 50th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood Dec. 13. After applause from the congregation, Cardinal Ouellet thanked the pope for the way he lives the priesthood, “in a spirit of humility and mercy, in a spirit of reform and holiness, giving priority and great charity to those most in need.” “Not everyone understands fully” the pope’s gestures, words and decisions, he said, “but I can assure you that the people of God who walk in faith are inspired and con- soled by your example and magisterium.”