Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • April 14, 2023 16 Walking with Moms Pennies from Heaven This Valentine’s Day, diocesan parishes and schools showed in a very powerful way that they love life from the womb to the tomb by contributing to Pennies for Life . Participants were asked to donate one penny for each year of their lives in thanksgiving to God for the life he has given them. This year, local parishes and schools raised $6,000, which will be given to Walking with Moms , a diocesan ministry, which supports mothers and babies in need. Participating parishes included Holy Spirit Parish in Vancleave and Christ the King Mission in Latimer, St. Michael Parish in Biloxi, Nativity BVM Cathedral Parish in Biloxi, Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Biloxi, St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Ocean Springs and St. Alphonsus Parish in Ocean Springs. Participating schools were Nativity BVM Elementary, Biloxi, Sacred Heart Parish in D’Iberville, Our Lady of Fatima Elementary in Biloxi, St. Alphonsus Elementary in Biloxi and St. Patrick Catholic High School in Biloxi. M oms in N eed Cleanup of Cathedral grounds On Saturday, April 1, members of the Nativity BVM Cathedral Men’s Club and a few of the young men from theYouthMinistry group did a major cleanup in the Bishop’s Garden, Rectory Grounds and Bishops Cemetery. Weeding, pressure washing, planting, and mulching were the order of the morning. The group of guys and young men that came to work are: back row, Fr. Godfrey, and Roland Creel; middle row, James Bubba Corley, John Welter, Dennis Burke, Sandy Steckler and Jim Luther; front row, Youth Ministry young men, Gary Naaf, Darryl Platt, Mike Bozeman, Michael Bruffey, (not pictured) Gregg Nordstrom and John Pat Skrmetti. N ativity BVM C athedral , B iloxi Update on Catholic Charities of South Mississippi’s Adoption Services Catholic Charities of South Mississippi currently provides adoption services in our seventeen county service area. These services included working with birth parents, placement, home studies, information/ referral, and pre-adoptive home placements. The agency has approved pre-adoptive homes ready to care for any infants placed in our custody. Several home studies are in progress for parents seeking their forever child through adoption. While we have not had any children placed with us since reopening our adoption department in July 2022, we know that this will happen in God’s perfect timing. We have visited all coast hospitals and met with social workers and nursing case managers to inform them of all of our services, particularly our adoption services. We offered to meet with any new mother who wants information regarding adoption or the other services that we offer. Our adoption informa- tion has also been sent to Pregnancy Care Centers in our service area. As we have for 46 years, Catholic Charities of South Mississippi’s community outreach offices minister to pregnant women every day, mak- ing sure that they have all of the information in order to make the best decision for them and their baby. For the past nine months we have been working diligently to establish a partnership with the State of Mississippi’s Department of Child Protective Services. This partnership would serve three pur- poses: 1) help children in State custody find their forever homes, 2) recruit loving foster/foster to adopt homes for children in state custody, and 3) provide our home study services to approve homes so as not to cause more burden on an already overwhelmed state system. We have spoken to people at the local, regional, and state levels, with no one seeming to know the right direction or who could approve such a partner- ship. We have sent countless emails and made numerous phone calls, only to hear “This sounds great but we don’t know who you need to talk to.” After appealing to our State Representatives, we finally received a call from a CPS Deputy Director and were told that our proposed partnership sounds great and makes sense but they are in the midst of restructuring. He asked for our patience as they com- plete this process. As we patiently wait for the State of Mississippi Department of Child Protective Services to complete their restructuring, we will complete home studies to have ready to go when this partnership begins. If you are interested in providing foster services to a child or children in State custody, please email meleuteri- us@biloxidiocese.org for more information. Please continue to pray for all of those seeking their forever children, for the parents making the selfless decision to place their children, and for the children whose lives will be forever changed thanks to the adoption process.