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Salesian Missionary Nuns Make Historic Move Here |
By Jennifer Brinker, St. Louis Review Staff Writer
Saint Matthias Convent will be home to four Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate beginning December 7. Also pictured, from left, are Jodie Wear, Archdiocesan Office of Building and Real Estate, and Katey Charles, directress of the Delphine Madill Group of the Saint Francis de Sales Association. Wear and Charles assisted in the selection of the convent for the nuns. (Photo: Elizabeth Westhoff)
Four nuns from the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate will make their home in St. Louis this month, marking the first time the international religious community has settled in the United States.
Sisters Jolly Joseph, Mary Prathibha, Elsy Joyce Chencheril, and Annie John Thottunkal are expected to arrive from their native country of India December 7 to work as pastoral care ministers for Catholic Charities' Housing Resource Center.
The four will live in the convent at Saint Matthias Parish in Lemay, where they also will provide pastoral outreach.
To help with the sisters' move, the Annual Catholic Appeal has awarded a $25,000 parish emergency grant to Saint Matthias for repairs to the convent. Catholic Charities also received a $100,000 grant from the appeal, which will provide funding to help the sisters carry out their ministry.
Based in Paris, the Salesian sisters follow the spirituality of their patron, Saint Francis de Sales. They are part of a larger Salesian family that includes lay organizations for men and women and communities for religious.
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Catholic Charities Launches Christmas Appeal |
 Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of St. Louis has launched its 24th annual Christmas Appeal, setting a goal of $1.8 million.
"Catholic Charities has been serving the poor, needy, and those at risk in the Archdiocese of St. Louis since 1912," said Tom Mulhearn, Catholic Charities president. "The needs have changed, the faces are different, but the way we reach out to our brothers and sisters is the same—as if each one is Jesus Christ Himself."
According to Mulhearn, "Catholic Charities' eight federation agencies welcome the abused, neglected, hungry, homeless, and treat the elderly, the refugee, and the unborn with respect. We provide emergency shelter, hot meals, friendship, moral guidance, counseling, foster care, job training, and education to the young, the old, and those at risk in our community."
Last year Catholic Charities helped almost 150,000 people directly and indirectly throughout the St. Louis Archdiocese. The annual Christmas Appeal, which runs through December and January, is a major source of funds for Catholic Charities efforts. And 100 percent of donations go directly to sustaining Catholic Charities.
"Our work is about long-term solutions, stabilizing families and making a difference in the lives of those who are desperate and seeking help," said Mulhearn.
Mail donations to Catholic Charities, P.O. Box 952393, St. Louis MO 63195-2393, or go to www.ccstl.org/Latest/Catholic-Charities-Christmas-Appeal.html.
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Saint Paul Leaves Lasting Mark on Christianity in Greece |
By Jennifer Brinker, St. Louis Review Staff Writer
This article is part of the ongoing series "The Review in Greece During the Year of Saint Paul."
Church of Saint Demetrius, Thessaloniki, Greece (Photo: Jennifer Brinker)
In just about any place in Greece, one can easily find an Orthodox Christian church just by stepping outside and looking around.
As evidenced by myself and a group of Catholic journalists from the United States who journeyed there last month to follow in the footsteps of Saint Paul, those churches are beaming examples of a way of life for the Greeks that includes personal piety.
Inside many of those places, walls are lined with ornate religious icons. Thin pillar candles shine brightly in small clusters as memorials to loved ones who have left this earthy life. And small pieces of paper inscribed with personal prayer intentions can be found at the foot of many images and statues.
This is the modern image of what has evolved from the efforts of Saint Paul during his journey to Greece in the first century A.D. The Catholic Church is celebrating the approximately 2,000th anniversary of his birth this year, during the Year of Saint Paul. Orthodox churches also have designated a Pauline year for their faithful.
While it certainly was Jesus and his first disciples who opened the doors to Christianity, perhaps Paul could be seen as the one who laid the foundations for the faith.
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Original Sin: Evil Is Subordinate to Good |
God Judging Adam
(William Blake, 1757-1827)
VATICAN CITY (VIS)—In his December 3 general audience, Pope Benedict XVI continued his series of catecheses on the teachings of Saint Paul. Addressing the 7,000 people gathered in the Paul VI Hall, he explained how the Apostle of the Gentiles, comparing the figures of Adam and Christ in his Letter to the Romans, "traces the basic outlines of the doctrine of original sin."
"The center of the scene is occupied not so much by Adam and the consequences of sin on humanity," the Holy Father observed, "but by Jesus Christ and the grace which, through Him, was abundantly poured upon humanity."
"If, in the faith of the Church, an awareness arose of the dogma of original sin," he continued, "this is because it is inseparably connected to another dogma, that of salvation and freedom in Christ. This means that we should never consider the sin of Adam and of humankind separately, without understanding them within the horizon of justification in Christ."
"As men and women of today, we have to ask ourselves whether such a doctrine is still sustainable," said the Holy Father. "Many people think that, in the light of the history of evolution, there is no place for...an original sin which extends through the history of humankind and that, consequently, the redemption and the Redeemer lose their foundation. Does, then, original sin exist or not?"
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