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Gallery Three | March

Sarasota parish’s new rectory dedicated

J. Fred Sparks, a convert to Catholicism, built and maintains this Shrine of Our Lady on the parish grounds at St. Raphael Parish in Lehigh Acres.

JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE
SARASOTA | St. Petersburg Bishop Charles B. McLaughlin dedicated the new rectory for Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Parish, Sarasota. Assisting the bishop were Father Martin Flynn,left, pastor, and Father William Sears right, assistant pastor. The building was built for $175,000 – raised by the parishioners so the parish wouldn’t incur a debt. It includes an office, a conference room, two potential office/counseling rooms, a living and dining area and four bedroom/study suites.

Posted: 03.31.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Looking forward

Kindergarten student Stephanie Clark, 5, of St. Brendan School in Ormond Beach holds up a “Class of 2000” shirt last week during registration time at the school. Stephanie has 13 years of education before graduation, but she is already announcing that event. School started Wednesday at St. Brendan.

ORMOND BEACH | Kindergarten student Stephanie Clark, 5, of St. Brendan School holds up a “Class of 2000” shirt last week during registration time at the school. Stephanie has 13 years of education before graduation, but she is already announcing that event. School started Wednesday at St. Brendan.
JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE

Posted: 03.30.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Korean Catholics now have a church of their own

J. Fred Sparks, a convert to Catholicism, built and maintains this Shrine of Our Lady on the parish grounds at St. Raphael Parish in Lehigh Acres.

JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE
ORLANDO | Parishioners of St. Ignatius Kim Chapel, a mission of St. James Cathedral, pray during the dedication Mass. Orlando Bishop Norbert M. Dorsey and Archbishop Victorinus K. Youn of Korea bestowed a blessing on the new mission.

More than 300 Korean Catholics from Miami, Tampa, Jacksonville and Melbourne traveled by bus to share the spirit of the day. They celebrated not only the blessing of the chapel but also welcomed Father Hong (Luke) Chul Song as pastor of St. Ignatius. “This is the first time we have a permanently assigned priest from Korea,” said Sylvia Yi, a parishioner. “We bothered the Diocese of Seoul for 10 years, writing letters, calling and always knocking on their door. There is a shortage of priests in Korea, too, so we are very fortunate.”

Posted: 03.27.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Convert’s shrine shines on parish grounds

J. Fred Sparks, a convert to Catholicism, built and maintains this Shrine of Our Lady on the parish grounds at St. Raphael Parish in Lehigh Acres.

BETTY ANDERSON | FC FILE
LEHIGH ACRES | J. Fred Sparks, a convert to Catholicism, built and maintains this Shrine of Our Lady on the parish grounds at St. Raphael Parish in Lehigh Acres.

Posted: 03.26.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Cardinal Mooney High School’s Christian Life Community

Jesuit Father Bill Kidwell, front row left, leads high schoolers from Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota in Christian Life Community Activities.

FC FILE
SARASOTA | Jesuit Father Bill Kidwell, front row left, leads high schoolers from Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota in Christian Life Community Activities.

Sometimes deep, sometimes not, in any case spirituality among Catholic high school students has gone “underground” compared to their predecessors 10 to 20 years ago. But the teachers, youth ministers and students who make this point also say there are exceptions.

Posted: 03.25.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

A community pitches in for hurricane relief

Mark Tetsworth, a student at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, unloads food donations for Honduran relief at St. Anastasia’s rectory.

MIKE ENNS | FC FILE
FORT PIERCE | Mark Tetsworth, a student at John Carroll High School in Fort Pierce, unloads food donations for Honduran relief at St. Anastasia’s rectory. A planeload of food will be shipped to Belize for Honduran hurricane relief from the Catholic and other Christian communities of Fort Pierce.

Captain Lance Moran, who went into Honduras after the devastating hurricane, was so appalled at the conditions left after the storm that he came to St. Anastasia Rectory to ask for community help for the storm victims. A DC–3 plane has been donated, along with the services of some local pilots, and an oil company will provide the $2,000 worth of fuel for the flight.

All week long, elderly men and women have brought canned goods and dropped their donations at the rectory. Doctors have offered to join the flight and tend the ill. Pharmaceutical companies have offered medicines.

Both Catholic grade and high school children of the area have brought canned goods to schools for the shipment. Protestant churches have joined hands with the leadership provided by Father William Keane and Father Michael Woodcock to show what one small community can do to respond to the plight of the Hondurans.

Posted: 03.24.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

And baby makes eight

A family of eight converts is baptized in the Catholic faith by Passionist Father Hubert Sweeney, C.P., pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Punta Gorda.

FC FILE
PUNTA GORDA | A family of eight converts is baptized in the Catholic faith by Passionist Father Hubert Sweeney, C.P., pastor of Sacred Heart Church, Punta Gorda. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Payne, their daughter and five sons became interested in the faith through sick calls made by the priest to a Catholic roomer in their home. They requested instructions and after an 18–week course Father Sweeney and his assistant, Father Philip Ryan, C.P., baptized them.

Posted: 03.23.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Central Florida youths involved in migrant ministry

Ernesto Reza of Farm Labor Organizing Committee talks with Sister Pearl McGivney, SL, of the diocesan Office of Farmworker Ministry in Winter Haven about the Campbell boycott.

FC FILE
ORLANDO | Young people in migrant ministry, from left, David Aguilar, Santos Luevano, Jose Martinez and Aurora Lozano, were scheduled to leave Central Florida Thursday for a trip to California for in–depth training in anthropology, sociology and theology at a Church–sponsored course there. Luevano and Miss Lozano will also study in Mexico.

The young people, accompanied by a Sister Ann Kendrick, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur who will act as advisor, will attend a school in Corona, Calif. For the past four years, the sisters of the migrant ministry have worked with young people from the Florida area communities to encourage their leadership capabilities. Classes will last two weeks.

When the young people return, they are committed to joining the sisters as a team in building the local church in the Orlando diocese. The program’s sponsors waived the cost of the courses and provided room and board.

Posted: 03.20.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Farmworker wears his faith with pride

Unemployed migrant worker Ramone Adero, 49, proudly displays his tattoo of Christ. Mr. Adero, a Mexican native, sleeps in his car and uses facilities at the St. Anthony center in Zellwood. He is unable to work because of spinal arthritis.

ZELLWOOD | Unemployed migrant worker Ramone Adero, 49, proudly displays his tattoo of Christ. Mr. Adero, a Mexican native, sleeps in his car and uses facilities at the St. Anthony center in Zellwood. He is unable to work because of spinal arthritis.
JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE

Posted: 03.19.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

‘Silent army’ moves across fields, nation

Ernesto Reza of Farm Labor Organizing Committee talks with Sister Pearl McGivney, SL, of the diocesan Office of Farmworker Ministry in Winter Haven about the Campbell boycott.

JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE
LAKE JEM | Migrant workers in a parsley field owned by A. Duda Farms in Lake Jem (near Zellwood north of Apopka) get 90 cents per crate and approximately $90 per day. Like a silent army, they move across the nation, following the crops. To many of us, especially in the cities, they are invisible. We seldom see where they live, how they work and how they play. But they are vital to us all. Each time we eat a meal, if we let ourselves, we can imagine them hard at work, helping bring that meal to us. If it weren't for migrant workers, those fruits and vegetables might not reach our marketplace in such bountiful supply.

Posted: 03.18.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

For farmworkers, Thanksgiving is just another day in fields

Three women and a baby, representing three generations of farmworkers, listed to speeches during a rally Thanksgiving morning.

PIERSON | Three women and a baby, representing three generations of farmworkers, listed to speeches during a rally Thanksgiving morning.

Thanksgiving is just another day in the fields for farmworkers. They work from first light to dusk. Lunch is a bowl of beans, soup, rice and tortilla.

And that, said fern cutters at a rally in Pierson Thursday morning, is wrong.

“I’m angry,” said Carmen Rivera, one of the few fern cutters in Volusia County who had Thanksgiving off with pay. “If it wasn’t for farmworkers, everyone would be hungry on Thanksgiving. But most of us don’t even get the day off. That’s kind of sad.”

An estimated 100 fern cutters from Volusia and Putnam counties, most Mexican, sacrificed a few hours’ pay to protest the trestment of farmworkers. The rally was the second sponsored by the Farmworker Association of Central Florida. Farmworkers rallied Nov. 20 in Apopka, denouncing a proclamation by Gov. Bob Martinez declaring Thanksgiving week “Florida Farmworkers Week.” Instead, they asked for better wages and benefits.

Sister Ann Kendrick of the diocesan Office of Farmworker Ministry, said most fern cutters have no medical insurance, no paid holidays, no restrooms and no drinking water in the fields where they work. The average fern cutter earns $5,160 a year.
FC FILE

Posted: 03.17.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Farmworkers intensify boycott for better wages, conditions

Ernesto Reza of Farm Labor Organizing Committee talks with Sister Pearl McGivney, SL, of the diocesan Office of Farmworker Ministry in Winter Haven about the Campbell boycott.

FC FILE
WINTER HAVEN | Ernesto Reza of Farm Labor Organizing Committee talks with Sister Pearl McGivney, SL, of the diocesan Office of Farmworker Ministry in Winter Haven about the Campbell boycott.

Reza, in an interview with the Florida Catholic, said that the Campbell Co.’s refusal to negotiate with farmworkers and tomato growers for better wages, working and living conditions demands a continuing boycott of the company’s products.

Founded in 1967, FLOC is composted of midwestern farmworkers. In 1978 in protest against unjust living and working conditions, FLOC struck against both Campbell and Libby companies. More than 2,000 workers left the tomato fields.

In 1979 FLOC organized a nationwide boycott against the two companies.

However, a recent decision by Campbell to discontinue meeting with FLOC representatives has prompted the organization to intensify the boycott.

According to Reza, canneries like Campbell – which also owns V–8, Vlasic, Franco–American, Pepperidge Farm, Swanson and others – deal with tomato growers. The canneries set the price the growers receive; this price limits the amount growers can offer.

Posted: 03.17.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Governor and bishops meet after Red Mass

Miami Archbishop Edward McCarthy, left, and Pensacola–Tallahassee Bishop Rene H. Gracida talk with Florida Gov. Reubin Askew after the Red Mass April 12 at the Co–Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. The spring meeting of the Florida bishops was the occasion for celebration of the Red Mass for the Florida legislators and administration.

HENRY LIBERSAT | FC FILE
TALLAHASSEE | Miami Archbishop Edward McCarthy, left, and Pensacola–Tallahassee Bishop Rene H. Gracida talk with Florida Gov. Reubin Askew after the Red Mass April 12 at the Co–Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. The spring meeting of the Florida bishops was the occasion for celebration of the Red Mass for the Florida legislators and administration.

Posted: 03.12.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Red Mass unites, governors, lawmakers, attorneys in prayer

Miami Archbishop Edward McCarthy watches Pensacola–Tallahassee Bishop Rene H. Gracida proclaim the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer during the Red Mass at the Co–Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. The Mass, which is for the state government and legal profession, drew 250 people.

HENRY LIBERSAT | FC FILE
TALLAHASSEE | Miami Archbishop Edward McCarthy watches Pensacola–Tallahassee Bishop Rene H. Gracida proclaim the beginning of the Eucharistic prayer during the Red Mass April 12 at the Co–Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Tallahassee. The Mass, which is for the state government and legal profession, drew 250 people. The Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop McCarthy, Bishop Gracida, St. Augustine Bishop Paul Tanner and St. Petersburg Bishop Charles B. McLaughlin. Orlando Bishop Thomas Grady was in Rome.

In the homily, Father James T. Burtchaell of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, said that the Old Testament speaks of prophets and kings. Kings, he said, are depicted as men of action and prophets as men of words.

In the present day, Father Burtchaell said, public officials (kings) must truly be men of action and church people must be truly prophets, men of words. “This is not to say that kings never speak or prophets never act,” he said, but that each must be true to his own calling.

Gov. Reubin Askew and his wife, former Gov. Claude Kirk, Chief Justice Arthur English, Secretary of State Bruce Smathers, Treasurer Bill Gunter and Secretary of Agriculture Doyle Connor also attended.

Posted: 03.11.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Serving the Church on legislative battlegrounds

Staff of the Florida Catholic Conference in Tallahassee includes, from left, executive director Thomas A. Horkan, Donna Butterfield, Sylvia Parramore, Rosemary Gallagher and director of education services Perry Edward Anthony. The 10–year–old agency serves the Catholic Church in Florida.

FC FILE
TALLAHASSEE | Staff of the Florida Catholic Conference in Tallahassee includes, from left, executive director Thomas A. Horkan, Donna Butterfield, Sylvia Parramore, Rosemary Gallagher and director of education services Perry Edward Anthony. The 10–year–old agency serves the Catholic Church in Florida.

Editor’s Note: The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of Florida’s Catholic bishops that serves as watchdog and lobby in legislative matters in areas such as respect for life, social concerns, health and education. This year the Florida Catholic Conference celebrates its 40 year anniversary. For more on the Conference, see “Catholics’ voice in Tallahassee turns 40.”

Posted: 03.10.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Catholic voices in Tallahassee

Sister Marie Riley, OP, the provincial for West Palm Beach, talks with Florida Catholic Conference chief Thomas Horkan in Tallahassee.

FC FILE
TALLAHASSEE | Sister Marie Riley, OP, the provincial for West Palm Beach, talks with Florida Catholic Conference chief Thomas Horkan in Tallahassee.

Editor’s Note: The Florida Catholic Conference is an agency of Florida’s Catholic bishops that serves as watchdog and lobby in legislative matters in areas such as respect for life, social concerns, health and education. This year the Florida Catholic Conference celebrates its 40 year anniversary. For more on the Conference, see “Catholics’ voice in Tallahassee turns 40.”

Posted: 03.10.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

St. Augustine Cathedral is restored

On the eve of the dedication of the Cathedral of St. Augustine, the church was seen first in its newly restored splendor at the liturgical reception for Ireland’s Cardinal William Conway, seated at left.

ST. AUGUSTINE | On the eve of the dedication of the Cathedral of St. Augustine, the church was seen first in its newly restored splendor at the liturgical reception for Ireland’s Cardinal William Conway, seated at left. Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley is pictured welcoming the cardinal to St. Augustine – the diocese, parish and city. The Demetree Builders of Orlando were contractors, directed by Cleveland architect George W. Stickle. The extensive restoration of the cathedral, begun in 1965, has been a major part of the program of the Diocese of St. Augustine and the St. Augustine Foundation in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Christianity and civilization in what is now the United States. The exterior of the cathedral was preserved during the restoration to retain the original facade and maintain its historical appearance. Taking this into consideration, the changes that were made had to harmonize with the cathedral as a whole. The architecture of the Blessed Sacrament chapel reflects present–day style while in keeping with the ancient church.
FC FILE

Posted: 03.10.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

All about an abacus

Sister M. St. Anne shows students, from left, Michael Minot, Robert Rigabar, Denil Ginn, Virginia Allen and Tammy Hails how to work an abacus during first–grade class at St. Mary’s School in Rockledge.

ROCKLEDGE | Sister M. St. Anne shows students, from left, Michael Minot, Robert Rigabar, Denil Ginn, Virginia Allen and Tammy Hails how to work an abacus during first–grade class at St. Mary’s School in Rockledge.
FC FILE

Posted: 03.06.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Career Day caregivers

First–grade students Noelle White, 7, left, and Allison McNamara, 6, get instruction from teacher Lucy Cooper as they play nurses during Career Day at St. Charles School in Orlando.

ORLANDO | First–grade students Noelle White, 7, left, and Allison McNamara, 6, get instruction from teacher Lucy Cooper as they play nurses during Career Day at St. Charles School in Orlando.
JACQUE BRUND | FC FILE

Posted: 03.05.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Class flag project

Students of Ascension School in Eau Gallie show flags of different nations during class.

FC FILE
EAU GALLIE | Students of Ascension School display flags of different nations during class.

Posted: 03.04.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Volunteers are making a difference

Mrs. Sharon Caruso, a volunteer with St. Margaret Mary School’s Plus People program, assists in a first–grade reading class. The Orlando school had a record 850 donated hours from October to January. The volunteers, who include college and high school students, grandparents, parents and relatives, assist school administration, teachers and students.

COURTESY PHOTO | FC FILE
ORLANDO | Mrs. Sharon Caruso, a volunteer with St. Margaret Mary School’s Plus People program, assists in a first–grade reading class. The Orlando school had a record 850 donated hours from October to January. The volunteers, who include college and high school students, grandparents, parents and relatives, assist school administration, teachers and students.

Posted: 03.03.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page

Provisional church and school dedicated

A new provisional Epiphany Church and School were blessed on Dec. 6 by Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley. The building will be a reminder to those who pass this way in Columbia County that the sisters and priests in Lake City are planting in children’s minds a devotion to God and country. The school is for eight grades.

COURTESY PHOTO | FC FILE
LAKE CITY | A new provisional Epiphany Church and School were blessed on Dec. 6 by Archbishop Joseph P. Hurley. The building will be a reminder to those who pass this way in Columbia County that the sisters and priests in Lake City are planting in children’s minds a devotion to God and country. The school is for eight grades.

Posted: 03.03.09 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page