Farwell to Fr. Vann...

Today was a great moment in the history of KCHS but a tough one for me personally. Fr. Vann Johnston, also known as Bishop-Elect for Southern Missouri, came and celebrated mass today with the entire school in attendance at All-Saints. Fr. Vann is one of those people you meet who you get a sense is going places. I knew him for maybe an hour and I turned to one of my then Deacon Aspirants, and said, he's not long for his current status. Fr. Vann is an unusual mixture of wisdom, confidence, scholarship, orthodoxy, athleticism, and yet he remains approachable and a guy you want to hang out with. He's a great guy, a wonderful confessor, and smart as a whip. I asked Fr. Vann to be my spiritual director a while back and he was great. He always made time for me even with his impossible schedule, and when you were with him, you felt like he was hanging right there with you, listening carefully to every word. I will miss him, and compared to many others, I hardly know him.

He really hit home our need to find God's will for our lives, and to drink deeply of the Chalice of Christ. It was a good message for our student body to hear as well as all of the teachers. Fr. Vann graduated from KCHS, and also taught here as well. Even as he moved into his position at the Chancery, he kept in close contact with the Religion Dept. and administration. He spoke briefly of his fond memories of Catholic, but mostly preached form the daily readings. He got a standing ovation a the end of mass by the student body, and talked excitedly about the three Catholic high schools in his new diocese.

Fr. Vann is one of 26 graduates of KCHS to enter religious life as a priest, sister, or brother; he is the first one to be ordained a bishop. We are intensely proud of Fr. Vann. He asked us to please pray for him on the day of his ordination and installation as well as afterwards. Please consider adding soon-to-be Bishop Johnston into your daily prayers. Last, please pray for vocations for the priesthood. We are losing a wonderful priest that brought many gifts to bear in our diocese. We need more like him to continue our growth here in East Tennessee. - Deacon Pat

While some are closing, we are growing...

On the way to work this morning, I heard a disturbing NPR program about how the Diocese of Washington D.C. is planning to close seven of its Catholic schools in order to create public “charter ”schools so as to take advantage of public funds and keep them going. While this will serve the neighborhoods in having schools stay close, all of the crucifixes will be removed from the walls, prayer before each class will cease, children will no longer have mass, and any discussion of God will cease. It was explained that the diocese had been charging $3500 per student as tuition when the per-student cost was actually $7500, hence a loss of $3000 per student. The bishop explained that they could not afford to keep the schools open and that this was the best solution to strengthen the remaining Catholic schools.

Not too long ago, many of us were present when Fr. Al came here to Schaad Hall to bless the crucifixes that are now on the walls in each of the new classrooms. How different is our experience from the people in Washington, D.C. Our life here at KCHS is vibrant, we are growing rather than dissolving, we are gaining momentum in this area, and our Catholic witness is self-evident. We have so much to be thankful for in our now seventy-five years of shaping and molding young peoples’ minds and hearts. Soon, we will have to take Fr. Vann’s photo off the wall of the A building and change his title from Fr. to Bishop. Think about that! Our school has helped to produce the first bishop from the Diocese of Knoxville. That kind of news is staggering, when taken with the bad news from Washington, D.C. We are incredibly blessed to be a part of this community. We should be thankful each day we come through the doors of this holy place. May God continue to bless our school, and may we continue to put crucifixes on the walls here rather than take them down. –dpat

KCHS Haiti Mission Trip #7

There were eight of us total who made the trip to Boucan-Carre, Haiti from Jan. 10-17th. It was a great trip, the kids were fantastic, and we had many amazing new experiences in our time there. First, we photographed over 1200 students in both the primary and secondary schools, which is our primary way to provide people with the opportunity to adopt Haitian students each year. Each student that is "adopted," receives a year's education, uniform, and in the primary school, one hot meal each day. Through the generosity of our Cathedral Parish of Sacred Heart, and many many others, our primary school is thriving. the secondary school continues to have great need as the roof blew off of it a few months ago. the secondary school students are now meeting in three different places, including inside the sanctuary of St. Michele's Catholic Church and on the grounds of the rectory. This school will be the primary focus of our fund raising at Catholic for the next few years.

The kids spent a fair amount of time with Odette, who is the woman we built a house for last year. It was great to see her living in a solid concrete home that began as a dream of Cindy Mire, Jordan Pyda, and many of our KCHS students. Seeing the finished structure created a new pride in our projects there, past and future. The students really get fired up when they see real examples of their faith put into action. The Haiti Club at KCHS continues its explosive growth under our excited and energetic moderator, Hope Parks.

The hospital is another place we visit often when we're in the village, and the kids were treated to getting to hold the hand of a tiny infant born a month before our arrival. She was about 8' long and stole all our hearts. She lay on a bed with her mother breathing on her own but under the watchful eye of the nurses in the hospital that we support. Partners in Health continue to be our valuable partner in Boucan-Carre. Any meaningful project in Haiti begins with prayer, but quickly turns to clean water, health care, and a serious look to the poverty of the country. We are all very proud indeed to have learned so much from our friends at PIH (Zamne Lasante in Creole).

Being able to bring first time students down to Haiti continues to be a font of great joy for me. Watching the kids take it in and begin the process of trying to work out what they feel in their hearts is a special gift for me personally. In just five days, we visited the sick in the hospital, visited people in jail, received food gifts from Odette (can you imagine?), and worshiped with the community as we shared communion at the Lord's table in the holy sacrifice of the Mass, etc. the gospel is something that bites you in the face in Haiti. Haiti continues to be a huge gift that brings new attention and interest in serving the poor, and causes us all to reflect on our own blessings of family, health, and life.

2007 March for Life Video

Please copy and paste the following link into your browser window to see the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m6QF-BQP6c

Colorado Shootings...

Up until a few years ago, each February, I spent teaching photography to young evangelical missionaries in Kona, Hawaii. I would go for a week each year and I was the only Catholic teacher out of about 50 faculty that came to that base each year. I would teach all day and then after dinner, I would come back to the classroom each evening to look at student portfolios and talk about faith and theology. Each visit, there were many people that were really on fire for Jesus that had no clue about the Catholic Church. Usually by mid week, the entire class plus friends would come to our informal gatherings where we'd discuss heaven, hell, purgatory, Mary, the Trinity, and of course, Jesus Christ. The Kona base was part of a worldwide missionary group called Youth with a Mission, or YWAM for short. "YWAMMERS" are all over the globe, and bring their Gen-X style of ministry to whatever country they are called to serve in. When the shots rang out in Arvada, Colorado the other day, YWAM was in the news. All four of the poeple shot and killed were staffers with YWAM. It hit home immediately that I probably ate meals with some of them in Hawaii, or at least that we know some of the same people.

As I watched the news unfold on CNN, I watched an emotionally charged YWAM spokesperson beg for prayer, not just for the families of those that were shot and their families, but also for the shooter. He called for his community of believers to forgive this man for outright murder, just hours after the event took place. It struck me that this man had a true faith in Jesus Christ. To be talking about forgiveness that soon after a deep wound was profound, and I remembered the homily that I heard on the Sunday following the Tuesday of 9/11 those many years ago. Fr. Finucane called for us to forgive the terrorists who had crashed the planes into the Pentagon and World Trade Center. He was and is a man of great faith. I remember hating what he had to say about Jesus and forgiveness, but I could not get it out of my head either. I was challenged by his words and the way in which he talked about the Lord. He was certain he was right and he told us it was normal to grieve but not to hate.

Sometimes it takes a tragedy to move us from being Christian tourists to actually plugging ourselves into God. It's as if we're on the sidelines all the time, and then something catastrophic happens and then we turn to our Father in heaven for help. We must open our lives each day all the more not just to the Love of God, but also to His authority. Seeking a God who will fit into our personal theology or our shopping-kart mentality of the Church's teaching is wrong. When we do that, we suffer the consequences when we need God's help. We need to look deeper into the beauty and depth of the Church's mind and heart. For some, this means attending mass more frequently, to others, reading books, and to still others, simply beginning to pray regularly. When we take the time and invest ourselves in God, we can then better appreciate his investment in us. As we wait in anticipation to open presents in a few weeks, let us also take stock in our faith in Jesus Christ, and then make moves to improve our relationship with Him. This is what the joy of Advent is about... Waiting with patience on the Lord. May his will be done in each of our lives. Dpat

Greetings from Bama...

As I write this, I find myself in Birmingham, Alabama, awaiting the Tennessee game which will take place tomorrow. I should be pumped to be with the Vols and I am... but there is a big part of me that ever grows that wishes I was at the A&E game tonight with all of you. The community of KCHS has been more than welcoming and I was sitting here reflecting on what an enjoyable experience it's been to get to know some of you. My life has been changing a lot over the last few years. The gospel of Jesus Christ is more and more on my mind. I can remember a few years ago, that I could get through the better part of the day and never think about God. These days, I find myself thinking about Him all the time, especially when I'm in the school. I wonder sometimes if you guys have any idea what's at the center of the spirit of KCHS... I wonder if you realize it is Jesus himself. I'm extremely proud of we all dealt with our recent crisis that made the newspapers. We came together when it counted, and wept together. And then we began to help each other heal. It's so obvious Jesus is amongst us every day at Catholic. I thank God for the many relationships that have started between myself and the students, teachers, parents, administrators, and staff. I often feel like I'm the one being ministered to by all of you. Thank you for your patience with me, for my crazy schedule, and for the many quiet smiles, waves and "Dpats" I receive each day.

little bread and no water???

Because all the priests of the Diocese are on retreat this week, there are communion services taking place at many parishes. Many of my brother Deacons have been called upon to offer these less-than-mass services, which include Liturgy of the Word and the reception of Holy Communion from the tabernacle reserves. Today at KCHS, we had such a service and when I opened the lid of the Ciborium, there were about half as many hosts as there were students to receive. So I simply broke them in halves, and then into quarters, and some even received less than that. BUT! the Church tells us that all who received communion today received the fullness of Jesus Christ no matter how small the piece of Him was.

At Catholic we have been beset with water problems with no water being available to the "B" building last week. I've been reflecting on how we closed the school, in part, due to this fact. And I began to think about my friends in Haiti, I thought about how they'd laugh at us for closing school because one building on our campus had no water. The would find great humor in that as many of the kids attending our grammar schools there are walking 2-3 hours to get to school each day with NO clean water along their route and none at home to draw from either. We are so blessed to have water on tap 24/7 in our country, and to know that you won't get sick from drinking it. And then there is ice... The Haitians are often amazed at our penchant for buying frozen water and paying real money for it. They must think us so wasteful... and we are. Many of the students that I spoke with mentioned to me how they took water for granted until last week. All of a sudden, there was no place to wash your hands, you couldn't use the toilet because there was no way to flush them, and even a quick sip of cold water from the drinking fountain was not an option.

Sometimes it's good to give things up, even if only for a short while. It is important to thank God not just for what he gives us, but also for what he takes away. Please be praying for our retreat this Friday. We're all very excited about it and hope you are as well. See you in the Thunder-Dome... dpat