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Who are these people? by Barb Soricelli December 2024 Let's begin by borrowing from a poem written by Fr. Joe Veneroso, MM, that appeared in Maryknoll Magazine not too long ago. We as Christians, who believe that all of creation including every human person is worthy of respect and dignity, will resonate with the last words of this poem. Who are these Jesus... Help us to recognize they are you and they are us. We believe that these sentiments reflect what motivates those of us at St. John XXIII parish in Evanston to minister to the current influx of asylum seekers in our country currently. Over 1 ½ years ago the Chicago archdiocese requested that our parish accompany a Haitian family of 4 (parents and 2 boys ages 4 & 5) given we had a significant Haitian community in our parish. The parish responded generously. We applied for and received a grant from Catholic Charities. We responded to this request with a flood of parish volunteers, monetary donations, finding apartments, assisting in setting up households, stocking food pantry, finding employment once work permits were received, navigating applications for benefits, legal issues, asylum applications and so many other innumerable ways to assist them in their journey towards independence in their new country. We have done this for three families. It has not been easy! Lots of challenges attempting to provide case management. We’ve been learning a lot! However, the joy of being of service far outweighs the difficulties. Fortunately, our parish’s Peace and Justice committee had considerable experience with how to organize this effort. Support groups for each family we are accompanying were quickly formed; two pronged groups for each of the families we are accompanying. The first, for those who could not sustain a long term volunteer commitment but could swing into action to find apartments, set up households stock food pantries etc. The second, for keeping up contact with the family and one another through home visits, face-to-face meetings, zooms, and WhatsApp groups to coordinate ongoing efforts as described above. We committed to doing this for one year but have found that the delay in receiving work permits necessitates extending this time commitment. As relationships developed with families, we more and more realized that perhaps their agendas were not exactly ours. We had budgeted for public transportation cards to assist them; they were intent on getting cars as soon as possible! A much more expensive proposition but understandable since it often facilitated getting work. Our expectation was that any money they would earn by working and begging, (which they were encouraged to do by the shelter personnel) would go towards paying rent and other basic needs as much as they were able. They were more focused on sending money to help their extended families who were in dire need because of conditions back home. We are learning much about unconditional love and respecting the agency of the other! The money from our Catholic Charites grant will soon run out but we have a considerable amount that has been given by individual donors. We are now in the process of discerning how best to spend this money assisting asylum seekers. There are several faith-based groups in the Chicago area doing this work. We want to explore partnerships. Also, we are part of Interfaith Action of Evanston with whom we would like to explore partnering. The City of Evanston was contemplating opening a shelter but would only move forward if existing church groups who are already helping asylum seekers would also be involved in the endeavor. What will happen in January 2025 is on everyone’s minds. We pray to remain hopeful and trusting in God’s steadfast love and to act accordingly, alert to what needs to be done! We are continuously grateful to all who have contributed to this effort. If you would like to volunteer as part of a support group as we move forward, please contact: Sally Arden ([email protected]), Margaret Feit Clarke ([email protected]), or Barb Soricelli ([email protected]) Learn more on our Migrant Matters page.
The Evanston Knights of Columbus Council 1077 has received the distinction of Star Council for 2023-2024, the international organization’s top award for local councils. They were presented with a commemorative plaque at a special Mass on Veteran's Day at St. Mary Church. The Star Council Award recognizes overall excellence in the areas of membership, promotion of fraternal insurance benefits, sponsorship of faith formation programs and service-oriented activities. Council 1077 earned this distinction through its contribution to the Pope John XXIII parish and Evanston Community. Notable activities include support for the Evanston soup kitchen, vocations assistance for aspiring clergy, parish social activities including the Lenten Fish Fry, pancake breakfasts, and the ever popular donut day in January! In addition, Council 1077 participates with other Knights of Columbus Councils in supporting persons with disabilities through our yearly Tootsie Roll Drive. The Knights of Columbus is one of the world’s leading fraternal and service organizations with over 2 million members in more than 16,000 parish-based councils. For information on joining the Knights of Columbus contact local Membership Director Greg Allen at [email protected]. To learn more about the Knights of Columbus, please visit us at kofc.org.
The next two weekends, come welcome and support the students in our parish Confirmation program!
Sunday, October 20, 2024 Introduction of Our First-Year Candidates
Sunday, October 27, 2024 Commitment of Second-Year Candidates
Esprit D'Amour Charismatic Prayer Group invites you to come celebrate our 30th anniversary! Join us in the Pope John XXIII School Cafeteria on the St. Nick's Campus on Saturday, October 26, 2024, from 6:30-10 p.m. We will have Haitian food for dinner and a concert featuring The Believers, a gospel group from Brooklyn, NY.
Donations are $75/ticket before October 12 or $85 after. Please contact Saradienne Delva (847.477.6110) or Marie Ange Sagaille (847.532.2248) to reserve your tickets, or catch one of them after Mass this weekend at St. Mary! Come have a good time with us! Charlie Luczak is a beloved longtime parishioner at St. Mary. For decades, he was a daily Mass sacristan, lector, and all-around church caretaker! He made close friends with all the priests over the years. Charlie's warmth, charm, and smile attract everyone to him; you always leave feeling lighter and more joyous after being with him. On Thursday, October 3, Charlie celebrated his 99th birthday! It's harder for him to get out these days, so a few of his friends decided to bring the party to him. Fr. Jean-Philippe offered to celebrate Mass on his front lawn. A group of friends and parishioners gathered together to tell stories, share our gratitude, and bless Charlie. He was beyond thrilled! Please enjoy a few photos from this day. Jacob Hooker, a 9th grader who was confirmed at St. John XXIII Parish this past April, wrote the bulletin reflection for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time. While we couldn't fit the whole reflection in the bulletin, we thought the parish deserved access to the full thing! Thank you so much, Jacob! A Reflection by Jacob Hooker, Parishioner Some of my favorite memories are spending time outdoors with family and friends. Every year, my family and I visit national parks and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, places that make me feel connected to myself, others, and even God (our natural world is, as The Gospel by Gen Z would say, “a W for the Top G”). This week’s reading reminds us of our baptismal call to be prophets, which means living a life of service. A kind of service that is important to me is care for the environment. Our faith calls us to be stewards of the earth. To me, that looks like limiting our fossil fuel emissions, but it also means being educated about what’s happening around us and what we can do about it. I have learned about an ethic called “leave no trace”, which teaches the importance of reducing your impact upon the natural world. Applied to everyday things, like picking up litter, these actions leave a place better than we found it. There is joy in this service. I have done a few beach sweeps with my friends and it was fun because we got to hang out while also cleaning up nature. We’d had competitions about who could find the weirdest object or pick up the most trash in the shortest amount of time. Although these were few and far between, these outings helped deepen my connection to both them and the environment. “Leave no trace” makes me think of other ways human beings can take greater responsibility for our common home. Much of our day-to-day life revolves around technology, which is developing so rapidly that we can’t keep up with the energy demand. For example, artificial intelligence data centers need a lot of energy to operate which, in most cases , still comes from burning fossil fuels. According to a study recently done by the UN, a request made through ChatGPT consumes as much as 10 times the electricity of a typical internet search. And, as the prevalence of AI increases, these centers could account for nearly 35 percent of the US’ energy use by 2026 (The UN Environment Programme, Sep 21 2024). Now technology alone isn’t the problem here. The problem is the copious amounts of fossil fuel energy they consume, which pollutes the air we breathe. And, in our country and around the world, often it is the most economically and politically vulnerable communities who are disproportionately affected by the highest levels of pollution created by these systems. As Pope Francis so finely put it in his second encyclical Laudato Si': “There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gasses can be drastically reduced, for example, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy” (Laudato Si', para. 26). As this week’s reading states, “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”. Moses reminds the Israelites, who are lost and complaining in the wilderness, that we all are prophets (Nm 11:25-29). We are all called to a new way of living. In our world today, that means to live our faith in such a way that shows responsibility and care for the vulnerable, which includes the environment. This week, I encourage you to make time to be in the natural world and reflect on ways you can care for our common home. Then, do something.
Where do we go from here? by Carol Michelini On Thursday, July 25, three vans carrying 17 parishioners and friends of St. John XXIII parish left for an 11-day pilgrimage to learn about the Civil Rights Movement and ongoing systems of injustice and inequality. We traveled through Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama visiting historic sites and hearing first hand from those who participated in the movement and those who continue today to work with people on the margins. The theme “Many Rivers to Cross to Justice and Equality” emblazoned on the back of our tee shirts said it all. Rivers served as gateways through which the inhuman flow of enslaved people fueled the economy of our country. Ironically rivers also provided a route for those enslaved people to seek freedom. On our trip we crisscrossed many rivers: the Ohio, the Alabama, the Tennessee, and the Cumberland. As we moved from state to state, stopping at historic sites like the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, we were awed by the personal courage of those who were on the front lines seeking voting rights and fighting Jim Crow laws and domestic terror. It’s easy to think that the civil rights movement had its heyday in the 50s and 60s and while many important issues like voting rights and desegregation were in the spotlight, there is still work to be done. As Dr. Avis Williams said, “We are blessed to be doing ministry, doing what the Lord has called us to do: to serve our brothers and sisters.” Our journey was at times both overwhelming and challenging; energizing and tiring yet we experienced the joy and power of the people in the communities we visited. We look forward to sharing more about it all during a presentation later this year. Stay tuned.
While I experienced so much over those four days in Indianapolis, there are four takeaways from this pilgrimage that I’d like to share with you. 1) The Depth of the Church We saw every kind of Catholic: religious men and women, seminarians, families with young children, youth, lay leaders, charismatic Catholics and contemplative Catholics, deacons, priests, and bishops. We heard praise and worship music and Gregorian chant. We were offered liturgies according to the Byzantine Rite and the Syro-Malabar Qurbana Rite; the Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal; liturgies in English, Spanish, and Vietnamese; and Mass specifically for youth. We saw young, fresh, and joyful faces. We even saw parents bringing their kids (which honestly made me nervous given the crowds)! We saw youth groups, diocese groups, and parish groups. This congress brought together tens of thousands of individuals from all 50 states and 16 other countries who together spoke 43 languages. We saw a Church in love with Jesus, opening its arms to him as a bride opens her arms to receive the love of her bridegroom. 2) The Hunger for Inspiration and Catechesis Every day, there were impact sessions, breakout sessions, and a multitude of talks to choose to attend. The convention halls were full. The speaker lineup was comprised of theologians, bishops, apologists, and experts in Catholic social teaching and today’s cultural issues; the topics were relevant and catechetical. People wanted to know what the Church teaches on so many issues in today’s world. Even if they struggle or critically disagree with some of the doctrines of the Church, they still wanted to learn and understand. It’s hard to live your faith if you don’t know what your faith teaches about living a life of holiness.
There are Catholics who believe the Church is archaic, puritanical, and resistant to change. At the National Eucharistic Congress, I saw a church alive with hope, vigor, and renewal. In Matthew 28:20, Jesus says, “Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” The Church is both human and divine, a Church of saints and sinners. Because it has divine origin, it has not only survived many attacks from within and without, but it has grown and developed remarkably in its 2000 years of existence, and it remains one of the oldest institutions in the world. I will close with this: Bishop Robert Barron shared the idea of “Walk with One.” He said that missionary discipleship is not about you converting the masses; it begins with ONE person, someone you will pray for, love completely, and accompany on their journey. And when the opportunity arises to share your faith and the joy you experience in knowing and loving God, then do so. That will have more of an impact than anything else you do. I am honored to serve St. John XXIII Parish, and I keep you all in my prayers. In God’s love, Shelley Please visit the NEC website to learn more. I didn’t even mention the Eucharistic Procession through downtown Indianapolis or the Eucharistic Pilgrimage to Indianapolis from the four corners of the U.S. There is too much to tell! Visit the NEC YouTube page for more recorded videos of the revival sessions.  |
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