Season of Service:
Turn to St. John Neumann, Katharine Drexel
By Christie L. Chicoine
CS&T Staff Writer
The Bicentennial Season of Service gives Catholics across the Archdiocese
the chance to recommit themselves to serve others in God’s name,
said Father Joseph C. McLoone, chairman of the archdiocesan bicentennial
committee.
“Every single Catholic Christian has a responsibility to do their
part in serving God’s people,” he said.
Catholics should ask themselves, “How can we look at this Bicentennial
celebration as an opportunity not only to look back, but to look forward
with faith and say, ‘We will continue doing God’s work, here,”
Father McLoone said.
Cardinal Justin Rigali invites all parishes and schools of the Archdiocese
to encourage a heightened level of volunteer service during the eight–week
“Bicentennial Season of Service” from Jan. 5, the Feast of
St. John Neumann, to March 3, the Feast of St. Katharine Drexel. Both
are canonized saints from the Philadelphia Archdiocese. [See service suggestions
in article below.]
To get started, consider the bicentennial theme, suggests the chairman:
Serving the People of God in the Beginning, Now and Always.
Even during the early years of the Church of Philadelphia, the diocese
included orphanages, hospitals and other work in service to the poor,
Father McLoone noted. “We continue that work in so many different
ways [including] nursing homes, hospitals, education, outreach to poor
parishes,” he added.
Now is the time for people who are already involved in that work to reexamine
their efforts and consider whether there are even better ways to go about
serving others, Father McLoone said.
He added that their work will always benefit from prayer to St. John Neumann,
Philadelphia’s fourth bishop, and St. Katharine Drexel, an heiress
and native of Philadelphia who founded the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.
“They’re perfect examples … who, in their time, saw
the great need of people and reached out to them,” Father McLoone
said of the Archdiocese’s beloved saints.
“St. Katharine Drexel saw the great need for people to serve the
African American and Native American people, especially in education,”
he added. Father McLoone is pastor of St. Katharine Drexel Parish in Chester.
Father McLoone also noted that St. John Neumann was dedicated to serving
the immigrants flocking to the region during his tenure as Bishop.
“Here he was, even on the day he died, going to do a simple act
of charity,” Father McLoone said. St. John Neumann collapsed near
13th and Vine Streets on his way to a postal office to check on a chalice
that had been lost in the mail.
“That’s what we want to highlight — those simple acts
of charity that we’re all called to do,” Father McLoone said.
CS&T Staff Writer Christie L. Chicoine may reached at (215) 587-2468
or cchicoin@adphila.org.
Ways
to serve
Cardinal Justin Rigali invites all parishes and schools of the Archdiocese
to encourage increased volunteer service during the eight–week “Bicentennial
Season of Service” from Jan. 5, the feast of St. John Neumann, to
March 3, the feast of St. Katharine Drexel.
If your parish or school already has a regular service commitment with
an archdiocesan or other human services institution, you might bring renewed
attention to this good work during the season of service by:
• asking parishioners or students engaged in service activities
to speak about their work at a parish or school gathering;
• asking each person who currently participates in a service project
to invite another individual to join him or her in a service activity.
If your parish or school would like to explore new service opportunities
with an archdiocesan Catholic Human Services facility or program, you
may refer to a list of participating facilities and programs, provided
through the Web site below, which includes contact information and suggestions
for service opportunities.
For more information, access the archdiocesan Web site, www.archphila.org,
then click “Bicentennial Season of Service,” or contact Edward
Lis, director of Catholic Mission Integration, Secretariat for Catholic
Human Services, by calling (215) 965-1710 or e-mailing: elis@chs-adphila.org.
Readers, if your parish or school is conducting a special project to mark
the bicentennial, please send, for publication consideration, a picture
and brief description of the project to the attention of CS&T Staff
Writer Christie L. Chicoine, 222 N. 17th St. #900, Philadelphia, PA 19103.
Please send close-up, action photographs and the name and town of the
participating parish or school. For verification purposes only, please
also provide a contact name and telephone number.
Pictures will not be returned.
Models
for serving
St. John Neumann was the diocese’s fourth bishop and first canonized
saint.
Born in Bohemia on March 28, 1811, he was ordained a priest in 1836 and
became a Redemptorist in 1842.
He was bishop of the Diocese of Philadelphia from 1852 to 1860. In his
eight years in the diocese, approximately 80 churches and 40 Catholic
schools were established. In addition, the Forty Hours devotion to the
Eucharist in Philadelphia was mandated during his administration.
The step where Bishop Neumann collapsed before his death at age 48 on
Jan. 5, 1860, near 13th and Vine Streets in Philadelphia, is displayed
in the National Shrine of St. John Neumann in St. Peter the Apostle Church
at Fifth Street and Girard Avenue in Philadelphia.
John Neumann was canonized by Pope Paul VI on June 19, 1977.
A pioneer missionary to Black and Native Americans, and an advocate of
social justice, Katharine Drexel was born Nov. 26, 1858, in Philadelphia
to a wealthy, prominent banking family.
Using her share of the Drexel family wealth, she founded the Sisters of
the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People, as it was then known,
in the Cornwells Heights section of Bensalem on Feb. 12, 1891.
The congregation spread to missions and Catholic schools throughout the
South and West, and to urban ghettos of the North.
Mother Katharine died of pneumonia at the age of 96, on March 3, 1955,
at her congregation’s motherhouse in Bensalem.
Before her death, she founded nearly 60 Catholic schools and missions
to aid the Native-American and African-American people in the country.
Pope John Paul II canonized Katharine Drexel on Oct. 1, 2000.
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