Florida Catholic | Faith Around The State

High prices put squeeze on food aid

ORLANDO | Guadalupe Social Services in Immokalee can’t afford to let high food prices affect its work, said director Ninfa Drago. Not when the need she sees in her community is so great.

“They come with their hope and we are their hope,” said Drago of the farmworker families coming to her because they cannot afford to feed themselves. “We don’t want to say, ‘I don’t have that to provide to you.’”

That’s a common sentiment among Catholics who work with the hungry across Florida this summer, as food and gasoline prices increase.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of food across the globe is rising at the fastest rate in 15 years. Floridians have started to feel the effects of the global squeeze and a possible recession at home. Rising grocery and gas costs are putting the pinch on wallets already strapped by low pay and a high cost of living. Poor families, elderly people on fixed incomes, the homeless and the underemployed are relying even more on the state’s network of central food banks, and local food pantries and soup kitchens — and they’re being joined this time by middle-class families who have never before had to seek outside help. Read the complete article here.

Karen Osborne | 07.16.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Care to Share: here are places where you can help

Catholic food pantries and emergency service centers around the state are in need of help from individuals, parishes and organizations. The Florida Catholic has compiled a limited list of organizations that need assistance.

Many Catholic parishes have St. Vincent de Paul societies that work to help parishioners and other local residents with food, gas and other financial help. Contact your local parish to discover its particular needs. Click here for the list.

Karen Osborne | 07.16.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Judge lets religious groups defend ballot initiatives

TALLAHASSEE | Florida’s bishops and other Catholic and non–Catholic religious interests won the right July 10 to be heard in a lawsuit that seeks to block from the ballot two proposed state constitutional amendments that would protect the ability of sectarian organizations to receive state funding for providing health, education and social services.

Second Judicial Circuit Court Judge John C. Cooper approved a motion allowing five Florida religious organizations to intervene in a lawsuit challenging amendments 7 and 9, both of which were placed on the November general election ballot by the state’s Taxation and Budget Reform Commission. The religious organizations, which also include Mercy Hospital and Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Miami, seek to derail the lawsuit. They say success of the ballot initiatives would help put religious organizations on equal footing with nonsectarian institutions when reaching out to vulnerable citizens. Read the complete article here.

Jacquelyn Horkan | 07.10.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Catholics gather in prayer against the death penalty

Bishop Gerald M. Barbarito joins a prayer vigil on the grounds of St. Ignatius Loyola July 1. The only sounds heard on the cathedral grounds were the slow continuous beats of a drum and cars passing by on busy Military Trail.
LINDA REEVES | FC

ORLANDO | Over the prayerful protests of Florida’s bishops and many Catholics in their flocks, Gov. Charlie Crist declined to halt the July 1 execution of Mark Dean Schwab — the first use of the state’s death penalty in more than a year and a half.

Schwab, who was on death row for the April 18, 1991, rape and murder of 11–year–old Junny Rios–Martinez of Cocoa, died by lethal injection at 6:15 p.m. in the state’s death chamber in Starke, about 40 miles southwest of Jacksonville and near the Florida State Prison in Raiford. He was 39.

In a June 25 letter, Florida’s nine bishops called on the governor to “set a new standard of respect for life” by stopping the execution. They said they were praying for the victim, and knew they are unable to fully grasp the pain experienced by his family. They lamented, though, that taking the life of another who has killed perpetuates violence as a solution. Read the complete article here.

Denise O’Toole Kelly | 07.02.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Finding purpose, one year at a time

I met Jonathan Guevara, right, during an assignment a little over seven years ago at Columbia House in Boca Raton. He was responsible for living and working with a small band of mentally challenged adults at Columbia House, an independent living residence sponsored by Catholic Charities of Palm Beach County.

At the time, Jonathan was a college student seeking to learn more about himself and his faith when he signed up for a year of service with Catholic Volunteers in Florida just after the turn of the century. When he returned home to St. Petersburg in late 2001, he returned to college and obtained a degree in psychology and another in religious studies.

During his year of giving, Jonathan found something important. He found direction. He found out who he was — a faithful Catholic with a gift for teaching. His service with Catholic Volunteers in Florida helped him to realize this in a conscious way, he told me when I spoke with him recently. He now helps teach prospective Catholics about the faith in Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults classes at his parish and he is looking into the prospects of teaching religion at a diocesan school.

This year the organization that was originally founded as Augustinian Volunteers by a small group including Miami priest, Father Patrick O’Neill, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. On the occasion of their milestone, the Florida Catholic’s Karen Osborne reports on Catholic Volunteers in Florida in “Full–time volunteers serve Florida.”

Perhaps, Jonathan is like many of those who have passed through the portals of Catholic Volunteers in Florida over the past quarter–century. They found themselves and became renewed in purpose and in spirit.

Ed Foster Jr. | 07.01.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Recognize the mother, recognize the son

One in an occasional series of columns about Project Rachel post–abortion ministry in Florida.

She hugged me close and offered a sincere and heartfelt, “Happy Mother’s Day.” Only moments earlier I was thinking about my son and the millions of other children lost through abortion. I was thinking about their mothers and fathers and whether anyone considers them on Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. At her simple words, the tears flowed not only from my eyes, but from my heart. These were tears of gratitude for the implied acknowledgement of my child. By recognizing his mother, she recognized the son. Reflecting on that encounter, I was reminded that in recognizing Our Lord’s mother, we recognize him.

Does our definition and recognition of mother and father extend to those who have experienced abortion? Read the complete article here.

Karen Reilly | 07.01.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Preserving God’s Creation

MIAMI | With global warming threatening to alter the economy, displace millions and destroy countless habitats, Florida Gov. Charlie Crist hoped to raise “green” consciousness by convening a state summit on climate change.

Bishop John H. Ricard, SSJ, of the Diocese of Pensacola–Tallahassee conveyed the Catholic perspective during an interfaith panel discussion called “Preserving God’s Creation” that led off the summit June 25.

“God is known through the created world,” Bishop Ricard said. “To do anything that harms creation … is an insult to God.” Read the complete article here.

César J. Baldelomar | 06.29.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Bishops to Gov. Crist, ‘set a new standard of respect for life’

TALLAHASSEE | Florida’s bishops have called on Gov. Charlie Crist to “set a new standard of respect for life” in the state by ending use of the death penalty, beginning by halting the July 1 scheduled execution of Mark Dean Schwab.

Schwab, 39, is on death row for the April 18, 1991, rape and murder of 11–year–old Junny Rios–Martinez of Cocoa. In a letter to Crist dated June 25, the bishops said they are praying for the victim and know they are unable to fully grasp the pain experienced by his family. They lamented, though, that taking the life of another who has killed perpetuates violence as a solution. Read the complete article here.

Denise O’Toole Kelly | 06.26.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page