Orange native Father Jim Sichko to sign advanced copies of his new book Nov. 4

Father Jim Sichko will be signing advanced copies of his new book Among Friends: Stories from the Journey on Monday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. at the Brown Estate in Orange.

​Among Friends is a compilation of short stories and insightful lessons Father Sichko experienced on his various travels as a clergyman and motivational speaker, including getting kicked out of seminary and hosting celebrities, such as Dolly Parton, Harry Connick Jr., Martin Short, Bill Cosby and former First Lady Laura Bush. 

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All Souls’ Day prays for the departed

Every year the church sets aside a special day to pray for the souls of the faithful departed. All Souls’ Day is also known as the Feast of All Souls’ or the Commemoration of all the Faithful Departed.

According to the catechism the holiday is based on the belief that if the souls of the departed have not been cleansed of venial sins or their exposure to mortal sins they will reside in purgatory and cannot attain beatific vision in heaven. They are helped to attain it by prayer and Mass.

The celebration of All Souls’ Day takes place on Nov. 2 following All Saints’ Day which honors the departed who have attained beatific vision.

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Federal judge strikes down part of new Texas abortion law

By Catholic News Service

AUSTIN, Texas (CNS) — A federal judge voided one section of Texas’ new abortion law that was scheduled to take effect Oct. 29.

Judge Lee Yeakel of the U.S. District Court in Austin ruled Oct. 28 that the admitting-privileges provision of the new law was unconstitutional.

The law required abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a local hospital. Yeakel decided otherwise, saying it would unreasonably limit a woman’s access to abortion. The provision, he said in his ruling, “is without a rational basis and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion of a nonviable fetus.”

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EWTN files second lawsuit against HHS mandate; Alabama is co-plaintiff

By Catholic News Service

MOBILE, Ala. (CNS) — The Eternal Word Television Network, joined by the state of Alabama, has filed another lawsuit challenging the federal mandate requiring most employers to provide coverage of contraceptives, sterilizations and some abortion-inducing drugs free of charge.

The suit was filed Oct. 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile.

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Young and old join pope to celebrate joy of family life

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — A Catholic wedding is not simply a beautiful ceremony; through the sacrament of marriage a couple receives from God the grace they will need to fulfill their mission in the world, Pope Francis said.

Addressing an estimated 100,000 people who came St. Peter’s Square Oct. 26 for a Year of Faith celebration of family life, Pope Francis said Catholic spouses are not naive; they know difficult moments will come.

But vowing to love one another in sickness and health, joy and sorrow all the days of their lives, Catholic couples put their lives in the hands of God and rely on him for strength.

“They do not run away; they do not hide; they do not shirk the mission of forming a family and bringing children into the world,” the pope said.

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Priest says call to new evangelization long a part of Hispanic ministry

By Tom Tracy Catholic News Service

Deacon Juan Carlos Pagan, a program coordinator in Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Lafayette, La., leads the music at an Oct. 19 session during an encuentro in St. Augustine, Fla. About 150 Hispanic ministry leaders attended the Oct 17-20 event, re presenting 16 dioceses and 17 nationalities from throughout the Southeast. (CNS photo/Tom Tracy)

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (CNS) — Pope Francis’ call for mission and the church’s emphasis on the new evangelization always has been in “our inner language,” Father Raphael Capo said about leaders of Hispanic ministry.

“Maybe now as we work together in this context of cultural diversity in the church, it becomes ever more important,” said the Piarist priest, who heads the Miami-based Southeast Pastoral Institute, or SEPI.

Father Capo was among about 150 participants representing 16 dioceses and 17 nationalities from throughout the Southeast who gathered in St. Augustine Oct. 17-20 for a regional encounter.

The leaders in Hispanic ministry came together to share their pastoral and communications strategies — including many social media and Internet-based tools — and to take up the challenge to help step up the pace and effectiveness of Hispanic church leadership across the country.

The regional encounter, or encuentro, marked the 35th anniversary of the institute, known in Spanish as Instituto Pastoral del Sureste. The event also was a precursor to the fifth national encuentro to take place in 2016.

Father Capo told The Florida Catholic, Miami’s archdiocesan newspaper, that the institute is “excited to begin new partnerships and programs for evangelization and faith formation.” During the regional encuentro, the institute launched a new online Spanish-language formation program with the University of Notre Dame.

“The pilot program has proven to be very well accepted by our communities,” he added.

The priest and a number of other leaders shared their comments on the state of Hispanic ministry in the church today in interviews.

Deacon Juan Carlos Pagan, a program coordinator in Hispanic ministry for the Diocese of Lafayette, La., echoed some of Father Capo’s remarks.

“The new evangelization may seem new in the American setting, but this is old news for SEPI and the way that SEPI works,” he said. “When I was a kid, it was instilled in us that you get out and look for people — it is not enough only to be welcoming.”

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Pro, amateur athletes race with faith to St. Peter’s Square

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

A nun runs in a 100-meter relay race on the main road leading to St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 20. The Year of Faith event drew several hundred people, including Olympics champs, disabled people and children. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Seminarians, Vatican guards, Olympic champs, regular children and people with disabilities all took part in a morning “Race of Faith” to highlight how the church can help foster a world of sport that better respects human dignity.

Organized by the Pontifical Council for Culture, a 100-meter, three-lane tartan track was temporarily laid down along the main boulevard leading right to the edge of St. Peter’s Square.

A few hundred people showed up early morning Oct. 20 for a three-hour program featuring relay races and testimonies of faith. It was part of the council’s promotion of the Year of Faith.

Msgr. Melchor Sanchez de Toca Alameda, head of the council’s “Culture and Sport” section, said the council wanted to relay race not just because of St. Paul’s frequent analogies of the faith life being like a race, but because passing a baton onto others is also “just like passing on the faith from person to person.”

After reciting the Angelus with people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis greeted the race participants and asked them to remember that “the believer is an athlete of the spirit.”

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By declining case, high court allows monks to make, sell simple caskets

By Peter Finney Jr. Catholic News Service
NEW ORLEANS (CNS) — It took the U.S. Supreme Court to make the final decision.

Deacon Mark Coudrain and Abbot Justin Brown inspect one of the caskets being manufactured at St. Joseph Abbey in St. Benedict, La., in 2008. The U.S. Supreme Court Oct. 15 confirmed the monks have a legal right to sell handcrafted caskets by rejecting a request from Louisiana’s board of funeral directors that the court overturn an appeals court ruling that said the monks can sell caskets without having to be state licensed funeral directors. (CNS photo/Frank J. Methe, Clarion Herald)

By declining to review a lower court’s ruling, the high court Oct. 15 left standing what Benedictine Abbot Justin Brown has known in his heart for the past six years: The Benedictine monks of St. Joseph Abbey in Covington are not breaking the law by handcrafting plain cypress caskets and selling them to Louisiana residents.

Without comment, the court declined to hear an appeal of a ruling from earlier this year by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, giving the monks a victory in their legal wrangling with the Louisiana State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Homes.

For many years, the monks had made the simple caskets to bury members of their religious community. They received regular requests for the caskets from people outside their community, but a decades-old state law protecting the funeral home industry required anyone selling a casket in Louisiana to be a licensed funeral home director.

The monks tried to amend the law by lobbying the state Legislature, but a bill that would have allowed them to sell their caskets got out of a Senate committee only once and was voted down by the full body.

That’s when the monks decided to press their case in federal court, and the nonprofit Institute for Justice in Washington, which represents entities in cases of governmental overreach, took the case on a pro-bono basis. The monks won a huge victory in 2011 when U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval ruled the state law unconstitutional, allowing the monks to sell their caskets.

Still, the funeral home association pressed its case with the federal appeals court, which affirmed the lower court, and then with the Supreme Court.

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French Mass is magnifique

It was a gorgeous day for an outdoor Mass Oct. 20, as the Le Acadiens Du Texas sponsored the annual French Mass at La Maison Beausoleil Museum in Port Neches.

Father Gary Schexnayder from the Diocese of Lafayette celebrated Mass with Bishop Curtis Guillory, SVD, on the front porch of the museum.

After Mass those in attendance stayed for some hot gumbo, fellowship and tours of the museum.

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St. Jude celebrates patron

St. Jude Thaddeus, Beaumont, celebrated its parish feast day with the annual parish picnic Oct. 20. The St. Jude statue was carried out of the church in a procession to the Family Life Center. After the procession folks gathered in the center for a meal. Outside were games and activities for the kids.

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