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Committee to help parishes become more ‘vibrant’

Posted on by Cori Urban

How vibrant is your parish?

Deacon Phil Lawson, executive director of pastoral ministries for the Diocese of Burlington, “puts it best when he describes a vibrant parish as one you and I would love to invite someone to join,” said Deacon RJ Dourney, a permanent deacon serving St. Charles Church in Bellows Falls, Our Lady of the Valley Church in Townshend, and Chapel of the Snows on Stratton Mountain, who is chairing a diocesan committee to help parishes become more vibrant.

According to “Christ our Hope: Declaration of the 2018 Synod of the Diocese of Burlington,” a vibrant parish focuses on the spiritual maturity of its members, including ongoing catechesis for all members to deepen understanding and love of the truths of the faith. It has a culture of shared leadership between the pastor and parishioners and a strong focus on the essential nature of the Sunday Eucharist that is celebrated with beauty and reverence.

A vibrant parish encourages and empowers its members to embrace a missionary spirit and become evangelizers.

The committee’s work began with the understanding that to evangelize, to encourage all to move toward Christ through the Catholic Faith, communities must have faithful, joy-filled parishes for them to come to. This understanding led to defining how a truly vibrant parish focuses on what matters most — the Eucharist, the Ssacraments, and the faith. How does a vibrant parish feel, coming together as a community and enjoying their time together spiritually and socially?

“We are blessed to have many vibrant parishes across the Diocese, examples of the joy of being Catholic in community, growing in faith, and living true to our love for God and one another. These parishes continue to be a blessed resource to the committee as they move forward,” Deacon Dourney said.

This was followed by focusing on the importance of the committee’s work being done with the clergy of the Diocese and seeking a unified approach between the pastors, administrators, deacons, lay leaders, parishioners, and the Diocese. What the committee will ultimately bring to the pastors will be tools and support, not tasks on a checklist.

This fall, priests of the Diocese were to be the first to see what the committee is offering during the Diocese Presbyterial Days. With their feedback, the work will move to the deaneries and parishes, where all will be introduced to tools for enriching the vibrancy of parishes.

“Soon, Catholics across the Diocese of Burlington will have the opportunity to experience many of the gifts the Catholic Church offers us through an enriched focus on the Eucharist, devotion to the sacraments, adult faith formation, and social aspects of faith and fun,” Deacon Dourney said. “With open hearts, we will all experience the joy of being Catholic and encouragement to others as together we build parishes we love and are excited to bring others into whether returning to the Church or joining our Catholic family for the first time. God calls us to be joyful examples of our Catholic faith and His love for one another.”

—Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

Synodal spirituality is at ‘heart of church’s renewal,’ cardinal says

Posted on by Catholic News Service

All members of the Catholic Church, from bishops to laypeople, must be formed in a “synodal spirituality” which will guide the church forward, a cardinal said.

“The laborers of the harvest are bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, the lay baptized; all need to be formed in a synodal way of proceeding” as a church, Cardinal Béchara Raï, patriarch of the Maronite Catholic Church, said in his homily during a Divine Liturgy with participants in the assembly of the Synod of Bishops Oct. 9.

“It is a formation toward a way of life of communion, mission and participation,” he said, as well as “to a synodal spirituality which is at the heart of the church’s renewal.”

The Divine Liturgy, presided over by Melkite Catholic Patriarch Joseph Absi, was celebrated in the Byzantine rite at the Altar of the Chair in St. Peter’s Basilica, as synod participants were about to begin the assembly’s second module, focusing on the theme of communion and the question, “How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?”

Many of the synod assembly’s 20 members from Eastern Catholic churches concelebrated the Divine Liturgy, which filled St. Peter’s Basilica with singing and chanting provided by the Pontifical Greek College. Two Byzantine icons were placed in front of the altar.

In his homily, Cardinal Raï reflected on the Gospel reading from St. Matthew, in which Jesus, moved by compassion, tells His disciples “the harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.”

The cardinal identified several issues touched upon in the synod assembly’s working document that he said participants are called to address as part of the Lord’s harvest: wars, climate change, an economic system that produces inequality and waste, religious persecution, strengthening interreligious ties and healing the wounds caused by sexual, economic and institutional abuses. He also asked the synod participants to find ways to promote charity for the poor and marginalized and to consider pastoral practices to assist people who have divorced and remarried or are in polygamous marriages.

Citing the synod’s working document, Cardinal Raï said Christ makes himself present in the synod assembly and gives participants the Holy Spirit, which “guides the church to find a consensus about how to walk together toward the kingdom and help humanity to proceed in the direction of unity.”

The cardinal also noted the difficult situations many people live in today, highlighting those who are “poor, lost, persecuted, cast aside, disappointed, refugees, innocent victims of war, isolated, homeless, wounded in their human dignity.”

“All arouse the compassion of Christ, who has chosen us one by one” to heal these wounds and “fight for a better world, to live in our common home in peace and tranquility,” he said. “Let us pray in this Divine Liturgy that the Lord makes us worthy laborers of His harvest.”

— Justin McLellan, CNS

Msgr. Routhier receives Anchor Award

Posted on by Submitted Article

Msgr. Peter Routhier, rector of The Cathedral of St. Joseph in Burlington, was the recipient of this year’s Anchor Award.

“The Anchor Award is the highest award given by the state Knights of Columbus for outstanding service to the Church, community, and council,” said Past State Deputy Steve Shover who served as emcee at the Oct. 7 celebration at The Delta Marriott Burlington Hotel in South Burlington.

The attendees enjoyed a delicious meal, great company and gladly celebrated this well-deserved honor with Msgr. Routhier. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the hotel lost power for much of the evening, but it did not hamper the festivities.

Grand Knight Dan St. Hilaire and District Deputy William LaCroix of Council #279 Burlington gave several remarks to express their gratitude and appreciation for Msgr. Routhier and thanked him for the help he has given the council.

He has supported many of the council’s community outreach initiatives, is generous with time and donations, has been present for many families, and actively recruits for the council to encourage membership.

Msgr. Routhier was appreciative of receiving this honor. “None of this is possible without the people who help us live out our vocation,” he said, adding that it is important for everyone to work together to continue to do God’s work and to pray with him. Such good works cannot be done alone, he said, speaking of charity, service, fraternity, and great love for God. He thanked everyone for being a part of his life.

“Msgr. Routhier is now the chaplain for Council #279 in Burlington, but I remember when he was the chaplain of Council #297, and he always supported our council and helped us a lot,” said Honor Guard Member and Grand Knight Valdemar Garibay of St. Albans. “I appreciated everything he did for our council, and I am blessed to be present as part of the Honor Guard to help celebrate his special occasion.”

Before the award celebration, the Knights of Columbus Honor Guard attended and assisted at Mass at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Burlington. They were from Burlington, South Burlington, and St. Albans.

 

Former Catholic school now home to T. W. Wood Art Gallery

Posted on by Vermont Catholic

St. Michael School in Montpelier merged with St. Monica School in Barre in 2009 and the buildings sold. Yet when I visited the former school recently, I found myself contemplating the Nativity of the Virgin Mary — more importantly, the often-hidden ways our parishes inform our communities and in turn are enriched by them.

The Nativity of the Virgin Mary is a painting by Thomas Waterman Wood (1823-1903), a globally famous artist from Montpelier deeply engaged with Catholic art.

The T. W. Wood Art Gallery, begun by Wood in 1897, purchased one of St. Michael’s brick buildings in 2012 and through it found their first permanent home. “At first I didn’t think it could be done,” said Phillip Robertson, a member of the board of trustees and volunteer curator of the collection at T. W. Wood Gallery. “I saw the space and thought ‘How are we ever going to turn this into an art gallery?’ But we figured it out.”

W. Wood’s rise to international artistic prominence was unlikely. He was born in 1823 in Montpelier to a cabinet-maker father. Local lore attributes the visit of an itinerant portrait artist with sparking Wood’s interest in painting.

Wood was almost entirely self-educated, other than a three-month apprenticeship in Boston with artist Chester Harding.

In the early 1860s, Wood lived in the ante-bellum South and visited Minnesota, which drew out his most noteworthy trait: the realistic and empathetic way he portrayed people of color in everyday life, almost unknown in his time.

Wood made New York City his home base. His career flourished, and he became president of the American Academy of Design. Yet he and his wife, Minerva, returned every summer to Montpelier.

Though Protestant, Wood’s life in Montpelier and work deeply intertwined with St. Augustine Parish, of which St. Michael School was a part. Two of his paintings hang in the back the church today. They go largely unnoticed, even to those at the gallery.

“When I first started at the gallery in the 1980s,” Robertson remembered, “I discovered the St. Augustine paintings. I asked my co-workers, ‘Did you know that there are two Wood pieces at St. Augustine?’ They didn’t. So I went over and saw them for the first time.”

W. Wood gave the first painting, a copy of La Madonna del Rosario/The Virgin of the Rosaryby Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617-1682), to St. Augustine on July 26, 1897, the night he opened the T. W. Gallery. Wood had gone to the Dulwich Gallery in London to copy the painting, one of the several trips he made to Europe to copy famous masterpieces.

The December 1897 issue of The Vermonter called it “one of the finest paintings now existing in the state” and the people of the Diocese of Burlington agreed. Burlington Bishop Louis deGoësbriand came to St. Augustine’s where he “consecrated [it] with great ceremony,” telling Wood, “You have made the great Murillo of the 17th century our contemporary.”

Wood, for his part, explained his motivation for the gift. “Born and reared as Protestants and still adhering to that faith, we, nonetheless, are able to appreciate and to prize the work which your great Church has done for civilization, not only in religion and morals and charity, but also in art and letters. It is especially for what it has done in the creation of art, and in the protection and conservation of the objects of art, that we, as artists, desire to make recognition of our indebt to it.”

In 1897, Wood went to the Vatican and painted the second painting at St. Augustine: a copy of Raphael’s Transfiguration. He reached out to Pope Leo XIII (1978-1903) through an archbishop and asked for an audience. Though the archbishop was doubtful, the pontiff agreed. Wood explained his project and explained that it was for “St. Augustine within the hills of Vermont.” Upon seeing the beauty of the painting, Pope Leo gave his blessing. A couple days later Wood received it in writing, which can be found in the January 1899 issue of The Vermonter.

Wood and St. Augustine Parish remained close until his death. Father O’Sullivan, pastor of St. Augustine, came to Wood’s aid in a community-wide conflict over the founding of the public library, something Wood never forgot. O’Sullivan gave a eulogy at Wood’s funeral in 1903, and the Sisters of Mercy, who staffed St. Michael School, gave a cross of roses and carnations.

For Robertson, coming to the old St. Michael School building was a kind of homecoming. “As we figured out the gallery, I also came to see that Wood would have loved that we’ve made the former St. Michael School the first permanent home of the T. W. Wood Gallery. St. Augustine was a very special community to him.
Perhaps the relationship between St. Augustine and T. W. Wood is still evolving. While visiting the gallery, Robertson showed me some of about 30 pieces of Wood’s Catholic-themed art sitting in storage. When I asked about showing them at St. Augustine Church, he smiled. “Maybe there’s a way to find a home for them there.”

I think T. W. Wood would like that. And the Sisters of Mercy too.

— Damian Costello is the director of postgraduate studies at NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, a speaker with the Vermont Humanities Council, and a member of St. Augustine Parish in Montpelier.

—Originally published in the Fall 2023 issue of Vermont Catholic magazine.

 

 

October saint: St. John Henry Newman

Posted on by Kay Winchester

Perhaps one of the most famous Catholic converts of the 19th century, Cardinal John Henry Newman has often been called the “absent Father of Vatican II.” His writings, though considered challenging in his day, were very influential in shaping the conciliar documents that were promulgated in the 20th century. Declared venerable by Pope John Paul II in 1991, he was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and canonized by Pope Francis in 2019.

Newman’s faith journey began in his youth when his reading and study led him to embrace the Anglican faith of his parents. Born in London in 1801, he studied at Oxford’s Trinity College, became a tutor at Oriel College (also at Oxford) where he began studying for the priesthood.  Ordained an Anglican priest in 1824, he spent 17 years as the vicar of the university church, St. Mary the Virgin.

In 1833, a religious revival in the Anglican Church, which began at Oxford – hence the term, Oxford Movement – was an attempt to restore certain Roman Catholic doctrines and rituals that had been dropped by the Church of England during the Reformation. Principal among its proponents was Father Newman, who edited and co-wrote “Tracts for the Times,” a series of pamphlets designed to help educate people concerning the goals of the Oxford Movement.

However, the more he studied, the more convinced he became that it was the Roman Catholic, rather than the Anglican Church, which was closest to the church that Jesus had envisioned. His conclusions to that effect, published as “Tract 90” in 1843, raised such an outcry in the Church of England that Father Newman resigned his position at St. Mary’s and went into semi-seclusion for the next two years.

In 1845, he was received into full communion with the Catholic Church and in Rome, in 1847, he was ordained a Catholic priest. He joined the Congregation of the Oratory, founded by St. Philip Neri in 1575; upon his return to London, Father Newman proceeded to found Oratory Houses both there and in Birmingham. Based on his work, “The Idea of a University,” he went on to become the first rector of the Catholic University of Dublin.

Though some in the Catholic Church looked on his ideas with some suspicion — namely his thoughts on conscience, religious liberty and the vocation of lay people – they were laid to rest when he was named a Cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879. His motto was “Cor ad cor loquitur” or “Heart speaks to heart.” One of his most famous works, “Apologia pro Vita Sua,” was a religious autobiography in which he defended himself from accusations of duplicity with regard to his conversion.

Cardinal Newman died in 1890, and within three years a Newman Club for Catholic students began at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Today, his name is linked to countless such organizations across many college and university campuses.

The saint, whose feast day is Oct. 9, has been called by some the “patron saint of seekers.”

Sources for this article include:

franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-john-henry-newman

insidethevatican.com

Schreck, Alan. “Catholic Church History from A to Z.” Michigan: Servant Publications, 2002.

All Saints Catholic Academy receives grant from Union St. Jean Baptiste Educational Foundation

Posted on by Submitted Article

The St. Jean Baptiste Educational Foundation in New England, an affiliate of Catholic Financial Life, awards scholarships to students entering or continuing their education at colleges, universities, or seminaries. This year, the foundation had enough funds to grant money to Catholic schools.

Catholic Financial Life Chapters in New England were asked to nominate a Catholic school to receive a grant.

Catholic Financial Life Chapter St. Jean N443 of the greater Hardwick area nominated All Saints Catholic Academy in Morrisville, which was awarded a $500 grant.

Jeannine Young, president of Catholic Financial Life Chapter St. Jean N443, presented the check to Carrie Wilson, Head of School, on Sept. 26 at the school’s morning assembly.