The Seminary Ball, hosted annually in the autumn by the diocesan Office of Stewardship and Mission Services, returns Oct. 27 for its 2023 event.
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Helping parents discuss sensitive topics with their children as they grow in virtue together is one of the priorities for Father Eric Boelscher, pastor, and administrators, faculty and staff at St. Joseph Parish, Crescent Springs. Their initial effort in implementing this priority has been the organization of the St. Joseph Parish Family Faith Formation speaker series — a monthly series of five talks from experts in their field to talk with parents and to provide them with age appropriate resources to go home and begin conversations with their children.
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Supporters of the Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal (DPAA) gathered for a reception in the Bishop Howard Memorial Auditorium, Covington, Aug. 24, to celebrate the success of the 2023 campaign.
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Hank Bischoff, Joshua Heskamp, and Michael Schulte share photos and stories of their summer Spanish immersion experience in San Antonio, Texas and Antiqua, Guatemala. Read more on page 3: https://covdio.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/9328Messenger25Aug2023-1.pdf
Laura Keener, Editor
In a recent Sunday Gospel, Peter and the other disciples are in a boat on the sea as the wind and waves are kicking up. Jesus, on the shore, proceeds to walk on the water towards them. Peter asks Jesus to call him to him. Jesus does, and Peter leaves the boat and walks on the water towards Jesus.
“Peter wanted to have a unique encounter with Jesus,” said Father Daniel Schomaker, diocesan director, Worship and Liturgy Office. “He had to get out of the boat in order to do that. He had to get out of the safety of the boat — his comfort area — in order to have an encounter with Jesus.”
Today, Jesus still invites his disciples — you — to a unique encounter with him in the Eucharist — communally at Mass but also individually at adoration. The Catholic Church in the United States is in the middle of a three-year Eucharistic Revival.
This year, on the feast of Corpus Christi in June, the Eucharistic Revival transitioned from the diocesan phase to the parish phase. To help unite the parishes around the Eucharist, Bishop John Iffert, at the request of the diocesan Worship Committee, has asked pastors to host 40 Hours of continual Eucharistic adoration. (See related article page 4.)
These 40 Hours will be scheduled sometime during the year, from now until July 2024, when the revival culminates with a Eucharistic Congress, July 17–21, 2024, at Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis. Discounted tickets for the Congress are available through the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy; an application is online at covdio.org.
St. Augustine Parish, Covington, is the second parish to honor Bishop Iffert’s request to host the 40 Hours devotion. The Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, who held 40 Hours on the feast of Corpus Christi, was the first. St. Augustine’s 40 Hours will begin Friday, August 5, 7 p.m. continuing until Sunday, Aug. 27, 5 p.m.
Father Schomaker said that at least two people need to be present during Adoration. This, he said, can be difficult for small parishes. To help accommodate parishes, adorers from all parishes in the diocese are welcome and encouraged to volunteer for a half hour or more of adoration at as many parishes as their time allows. Adorers can reserve their time at St. Augustine’s 40 Hours by visiting the parish website, https://www.staugustines.net.
“40 Hours devotions are being held throughout this Parish Eucharistic Revival year at different times so that the faithful will have the opportunity in their parish and at other parishes to spend time in Eucharistic Adoration,” said Father Schomaker. “This way, it’s a parochial celebration but it’s also a diocesan celebration, because we recognize that there is one local Church, which is the Diocese of Covington.”
Spending time in adoration may be new to some. The good news is there is no specific ritual to know, so it’s hard to do Adoration wrong. The only requirement is to come prayerfully and reverently to gaze at and listen to Jesus.
“The beauty of the Church is that her treasure trove of prayer is vast, and there’s not one way to pray,” said Father Schomaker. “In fact, most of the time, we need to remember that prayer requires listening. Prayer is not a monologue. It is a conversation. We have to be able to hear the Lord speak back to us.”
For anyone who likes a little structure in their prayer they are welcome to pray the rosary or the Liturgy of the Hours, or they can bring along some spiritual reading — a book of the saints or a saint, or bring a Bible.
“St. Augustine says that the Sacred Scriptures are love letters from home. Well, let’s read the love letters from the one who loves us,” said Father Schomaker.
The best part of Adoration is taking the time, putting oneself in the presence of the Eucharist, to have that unique encounter with Jesus.
“Peter had to get out of the boat. Sometimes we have to do that too, to get out of our comfort zone,” said Father Schomaker. “Today, the wind and the waves are oftentimes our culture that make quiet difficult. Silence is hard because we’re surrounded by all forms of noise. Get out of the boat. Enter into the silence. Go have an encounter with Jesus.”
Maura Baker, Staff Writer
Early August means the beginning of the school year, with teachers and school administrators preparing to re-open their doors to the hundreds of diocesan students who will be returning for 2023-2024 school year.
Educators gathered for Mass, Aug. 7, just days before the first schools were to return to session on Aug. 9. The Mass was celebrated at St. Pius X Parish, Edgewood, and celebrated by the parish’s pastor Father Baiju Kidaagen. Chaplains from schools across the Diocese of Covington concelebrated the Mass, as well.
“Some students will be excited, others may be anxious and some might not want to come at all,” said Kendra McGuire, superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Covington as she gave opening remarks before Mass. “Our job is to invite them all with great joy and to welcome them and instill in them a wonder and curiosity about the learning that will take place in your classroom this year.”
Mrs. McGuire continued, “Our job is to help nurture their gifts and to help them realize that God created each and every one of your students for a purpose. We have a responsibility to show them the beauty of God’s creation — to seek the truth.”
In his homily, Father Kidaagen spoke of teaching in a Catholic school as a vocation, because “we know we cannot make it to Heaven alone and Catholic education involves all parties being united by God to a common goal, eternal life … your job is a vocation because what you are doing has not only a temporal, but also a supernatural dimension to it,” he added.
“In your work as Catholic educators, you are asked to form young people not simply to be a successful person in this world, but to be prepared to take their place in the Kingdom of God as God’s sons and daughters. If your job is a vocation, then you proclaim in a definitive way that Jesus must be at the heartbeat of everything you teach,” he said.
Before the closing of the Mass, the teachers in attendance rose for a commissioning by Father Kidaagen on behalf of Bishop Iffert, “No matter which subject you will teach, remember that your task as a Catholic school teacher is to teach our students love of God and love of neighbor.”
Photo: Various school teachers sing along during the Mass service.
Maura Baker, Staff Writer
With the month of May underway, the 2023 Cross the Bridge for Life is quickly approaching. This year, the event will take place June 4, at Festival Park, Newport. Festivities are set to begin at 1 p.m., with the namesake walk across the Purple People Bridge to begin at 2 p.m. Festivities for the 2023 Cross the Bridge for Life will include live music by Lee Roessler, face-painting and hot dogs donated by Bluegrass Meats.
The first Cross the Bridge for Life was held in 2005. Despite missing a few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event returned last year.
“Every year it seems to get bigger, and we’re kind of rebuilding since COVID,” said Faye Roch, director of the Pro-Life Office for the Diocese of Covington and one of the event’s coordinators, “It did well last year, but we were in the midst of awaiting the Supreme Court decision (regarding the overturning of Roe v. Wade), so I think there was some fear with people attending last year, and it was a little bit harder to promote it.”
This year, however, now that Roe v. Wade has officially been overturned and abortion legislation has been returned to the states, Cross the Bridge for Life is hoping to see if the “decision made a difference in the attendance of the event.”
“We are trying to reach out ecumenically to a lot of the Christian protestant churches,” said Mrs. Roch, “to let them know about this event — because this isn’t about being Catholic. It’s not just a Catholic event. It’s about bringing our entire community together in support of the gift of life, at all stages.”
OSV News — With contributions from Laura Keener, Editor
The Diocese of Covington has opened a lottery for its 250 discounted tickets to the 2024 Eucharistic Congress, July 17–21, at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The congress is expected to draw more than 80,000 people, and organizers have compared the event to World Youth Day, with prayer and liturgies, catechesis for individuals and families, and a festival-like atmosphere. Registration is expected to fill quickly, Tim Glemkowski, executive director of the National Eucharistic Congress, told OSV News in an interview.
In the Diocese of Covington, the cost of the discounted tickets is $100 each. Households may now go online — www.covdio.org — to register their name and the names of household members for an opportunity to purchase tickets. Tickets are non-transferrable. Children under two do not require a ticket, so their names would not be required. Single adult households may include the name of a guest. Registering households must be located in the Diocese of Covington.
Launched last year, the National Eucharistic Revival is a three-year campaign by the U.S. bishops to increase the Catholic understanding of and devotion to Christ’s real presence in the Eucharist. The Year of the National Eucharistic Congress and Missionary Sending 2024-25 is the third and final year of the U.S. bishops’ National Eucharistic Revival.
Part of the impetus for the campaign was a Pew Research Center study in the fall of 2019 that showed just 30 to 40 percent of Catholics understand and believe in the Real Presence. A more recent study conducted by the Center For Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University found that 50 percent of Catholics know the teaching on the Real Presence in the Eucharist and only 40 percent believe this teaching. The study also showed that only 15 percent of Catholics attend Sunday Mass on a weekly basis.
The revival opened June 19, 2022, on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, a feast that celebrates the Body and Blood of Christ. Many dioceses marked the day last year with Eucharistic processions.
Speaking to the media in November about the revival, Bishop Andrew H. Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, said the beauty and diversity expressed in those processions “capture what is at the heart of this movement, which is a movement that we seek to invite people to a transformative encounter with Christ in the Eucharist that they might be healed, unified and sent on mission.”
For additional information about the Eucharistic Congress and Revival or to purchase non-discounted tickets visit the Eucharistic Revival website, www.eucharisticcongress.org. The Messenger contributed to this article.
Maura Baker, Staff Writer
Curia staff loaded a Catholic Charities truck full of diapers, baby clothes, blankets and other necessities for moms and babies, April 26. The truckload of supplies was delivered to the Life Learning Center in Covington for distribution to families in need.
These supplies were gathered from members across the diocesan community, from both parishes and schools at the urging of the diocesan Pro-life Office.
This “Community Baby Shower” was hosted by the Northern Kentucky Pregnancy Care Network, a network of non-profit agencies and ministries collaborating to improve the health and well-being of childbearing families in Northern Kentucky. Around 160 people registered to attend the event. But, Faye Roch, one of the collaborators for the shower and director for the diocese’s Pro-Life Office, estimates over 200 people in attendance.
In addition to providing the physical necessities for infants, members of the Pregnancy Care Network also set up tables at the shower, where families could walk around and learn about the multitude of services provided by these agencies and ministries — such as St. Elizabeth Healthcare, the Rose Garden Home Mission, Catholic Charities and Care Net.
“It was a huge success,” said Mrs. Roch about the shower, “I think probably bigger than anticipated.”
While challenges were faced, they were also overcome — and the Pregnancy Care Network intends to meet again to streamline the process; and intend to hold more community showers in the future, looking towards other counties in Northern Kentucky to host them in.
Laura Keener, Editor
The three-year Eucharistic Revival makes a major shift on the solemnity of Corpus Christi, June 11. On that day, the Year of Diocesan Revival will end, and the Year of Parish Revival begins.
In November 2021, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) called for a National Eucharistic Revival, “To renew the Church by enkindling a living relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist.” This is a three-year effort, which began June 19, 2022, on the Feast of Corpus Christi and will culminate with a National Eucharistic Congress in Indianapolis, Indiana, July 17–21, 2024.
To celebrate the transition to the Year of Parish Revival (June 11, 2023–July 14, 2024) in the Diocese of Covington, parishes are being encouraged to participate in the diocese’s annual Corpus Christi services and procession and a subsequent 40-Hour Devotion.
Beginning the morning before the feast, Father Jordan Hainsey, bishop’s administrative assistant, invites parishioners to assist with making sawdust carpets. This centuries-old tradition was reestablished in the Diocese last year. Several hundred pounds of sawdust are dyed and fashioned into large carpet-like squares along the route of the Eucharistic procession. The colorful carpets feature designs and symbols inspired by the Cathedral’s decoration.
Everyone is welcome to join in the creation of the sawdust carpets beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the gardens of the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, June 10.
On the day of the solemnity, June 11, Eucharistic adoration will begin following 10 a.m. Mass at the Cathedral. Confessions will also be heard. At 2 p.m., the priests, deacons and faithful of the Diocese will begin a liturgy of the Word service that culminates with Bishop John Iffert leading the Eucharistic procession.
This year’s First Communicants are encouraged to wear their dresses and suits in the procession. To accommodate the expected crowd, the Diocese is asking the City of Covington and State of Kentucky to close the streets of the procession route.
The procession will exit the Cathedral through its front doors on Madison Ave., travel one block down Madison and turn right on Robbins Street, then right on Scott Street, re-entering the Cathedral campus through the Scott Street parking lot adjacent to Covington Latin School, traveling past the North side of the Cathedral and re-entering the Cathedral back through the front doors on Madison Ave.
Later that evening 40-Hour Devotion will begin after 5:30 p.m. Mass and continue until Vespers, 6 p.m., Tuesday, June 13. Confession will also be available Monday from 6–9 p.m. To ensure that the Blessed Sacrament is never left alone, adorers are asked to select a time using the online link on the Diocese of Covington website, www.covdio.org/corpuschristi. Private security detail will be present at the Cathedral during the overnight hours, 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., Sunday and Monday.
To assist parishes in their participation of the Parish Year of Revival, the National Eucharistic Revival website has made available a Leader’s Playbook, online at EucharisticRevival.org.