Archive for

2010

  • Tina Voors named principal at St. Aloysius School in Yoder

    By Tim Johnson

    YODER — The German word, “wunderbar” (“wonderful”), could decribe Tina Voors’ excitement about being named principal of St. Aloysius School, Yoder. Voors, who had taught German for 18 years at DeKalb High School and was also a department chair there for six years, accepted the principalship at St. Aloysius on Aug. 9, just two weeks before the first day of school on Aug. 23.

    In the last two weeks, the new principal busied herself with diocesan principals’ meetings, going through paperwork and meeting the staff and teachers at St. Aloysius School.

    Voors will be working with a new pastor, Msgr. Bernard Galic, at St. Aloysius beginning Sept. 2. Msgr. Galic, along with current pastor Father Dominique Carboneau, were involved in the selection process of Voors.

    St. Aloysius is a good fit for Voors. The rural character of St. Aloysius is a familiar scene for her, a parishioner at rural St. Louis Besancon Parish. Her daughter Samantha, almost 12, is a sixth-grade student at St. Louis Academy. And daughter Sarah, 14, a freshman at Woodlan High School, also attended St. Louis Academy. Voors served on the St. Louis Academy school board for four years and understands the challenges of small Catholic schools. She is also a volleyball coach for the St. Louis Academy and St. Joseph Monroeville Twins.

    Husband David Voors works the family farm and is an agricultural lending officer in New Haven. Both daughters are active in 4-H and recently showed six pigs at the Allen County Fair.

    Voors converted to Catholicism in 1989 while a college student. She earned both her bachelor and master degrees from Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne (IPFW).

    While serving as department chair at DeKalb High School, Voors became interested in administration. “I enjoyed that position (of department chair) and wanted to serve more than just my classroom,” she told Today’s Catholic.

    Opportunity opened earlier this summer. “I had been online the day that this job was posted,” Voors said. “The diocese already had my application.”

    She called Father Carboneau, and asked if she could have a tour of the school. “As a (volleyball) coach for the (CYO Twins), I had only been in the gym,” she noted.

    “I think this was God’s plan,” she said. “He knows that I am very much a planner. I want to know where I am heading so I know what to do. … Looking back, I can see His hand working, creating this situation, so that this could happen. So the proverbial door closed, but He’s opened a huge gate — not just a window, not just a door — a huge gate.”

    Voors’ philosophy on Catholic education is, “I truly believe that each person, not only students, but also teachers and staff, is a purposeful creation of God. And our task in a community of a school, a school setting, is to help each student figure out what are his or her gifts and talents and abilities and to increase those academic abilities so they can work morally and work well in this world.”

    She said, “We’re in this world; we’re not of it. So they have to be able to go out and fulfill their calling that God has for them in the best way possible. And in this world, we need that knowledge and that intelligence.”

    She continued, “We’re also all called to be saints. So the gifts and the talents that each person is given is unique. It’s a piece of the puzzle. And you take those gifts, talents and abilities, and you go out to your job, your calling and your purpose is to help others get to heaven, and to be helped by others.”

    Voors said the strength of the school the staff at St. Aloysius is wonderful. “I love the whole feel. Everyone is like one big family,” Voors said. “I know that every family, each person, has a role to play … but I feel the support already. I feel the connectedness, the tradition, the history. If I may be so bold, I feel like I fit. The way that I feel and the way that I function, small is good. A small community is good.”

    Voors is comfortable with the spiritual and educational pieces but is ready to tackle the administrative roles. One of those roles is marketing St. Aloysius School. “One of my biggest goals this year is to raise the enrollment,” she said, but she also shared she wanted to let the community know, “I’m here. I love it. And I’m going to stay, God willing.”

    Voors, with a German language background, enjoys coordinating tours with groups of about 10 people to Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

    Posted on August 25, 2010, to:

  • St. Vincent de Paul Society holds regional meeting in Fort Wayne

    The Fort Wayne District Council hosted the Mideast Regional Meeting of the St. Vincent de Paul Society Aug. 6-8. Dignitaries in the picture are, front row, from left, Father Thom Lombardi, Pat and Joe Flannigan, and Roger Playwin; top row, Donna Brooke, Jim and Carolyn Dumont, Bishop emeritus John M. D’Arcy and Sister Caroline Clark.

    By Donna Brooke

    FORT WAYNE — The Fort Wayne District Council hosted the Mideast Regional Meeting of the St. Vincent de Paul Society on the weekend of Aug. 6-8.  

    Nearly 150 People from Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan gathered for a weekend of business, spirituality and Vincentian family friendship. On Friday night, the spiritual director for the Fort Wayne district, Father Thom Lombardi, greeted everyone as they gathered for an informal evening of entertainment and fellowship.
    Saturday morning included a welcome by Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry, and business meetings with the National President Joe Flannigan; the National Executive Director Roger Playwin; and the Vice President of the Mideast Region Jim Dumont. 

    Flannigan announced that the cause for the canonization of Blessed Frederic Ozanam, the St. Vincent de Paul founder, was moving forward. The afternoon consisted of three Vincentian- related training and spirituality sessions.

    Bishop-emeritus John M. D’Arcy celebrated Mass at St. Charles Borromeo Parish for the Vincentians and parishioners. The day ended with a banquet and entertainment.

    The St. Vincent de Paul Society is the largest Catholic lay organization in the world with a presence in 145 countries with 700,000 members from all walks of life who help the disadvantaged. The services that are provided by the society range from running homeless shelters, feeding the hungry, visiting the ill and those in prison, helping people with job searches, clothing those in need, helping with living expenses and donating furniture and appliances.

    The society’s core values encompass holiness of life, service of the poor, humility, simplicity, and charity and justice.  

     

    Posted on August 25, 2010, to:

  • Judge stops federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research

    By Nancy Frazier O’Brien

    WASHINGTON (CNS) — A federal judge ruled Aug. 23 that the Obama administration’s guidelines for funding embryonic stem-cell research violate federal law and stopped such funding while a lawsuit against it continues.

    Chief Judge Royce C. Lamberth of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said in his 15-page ruling granting a temporary injunction that Drs. James L. Sherley and Theresa Deisher, both adult stem-cell researchers, had standing to challenge the guidelines because they faced the possibility of losing funding from the National Institutes of Health when NIH funding for embryonic stem-cell research was expanded.

    The lawsuit had originally been filed on behalf of the two doctors; Nightlight Christian Adoptions, an adoption and counseling agency that facilitates international, domestic and embryo adoptions; embryos themselves; two couples; and the Christian Medical Association. Lamberth ruled in 2009 that none of the plaintiffs had legal standing, but an appeals court overruled him only in the case of the two doctors.

    The Aug. 23 ruling said the researchers’ attorneys had shown that the Dickey-Wicker amendment, approved annually since 1996 “without substantive alteration,” demonstrates that “the unambiguous intent of Congress is to prohibit the expenditure of federal funds on ‘research in which a human embryos or embryos are destroyed.’”

    “By allowing federal funding of ESC research, the guidelines are in violation of the Dickey-Wicker amendment,” Lamberth wrote.

    He also ruled that “the guidelines threaten the very livelihood of plaintiffs Sherley and Deisher” because their “injury of increased competition … is actual and imminent.”

    Supporters of the Obama administration’s guidelines for funding embryonic stem-cell research have argued that no embryos will be created and destroyed for the research since only already existing embryos created for in vitro fertilization and later discarded would be used.

    Steven H. Aden, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, co-counsel in the lawsuit, said the decision “is simply enforcing an existing law passed by Congress that prevents Americans from paying another penny for needless research on human embryos.”

    “Experimentation on embryonic stem cells isn’t even necessary because adult stem-cell research has been enormously successful,” he added. “In economic times like we are in now, it doesn’t make sense for the federal government to use precious taxpayer dollars for this illegal and unethical purpose.”

    The Catholic Church strongly supports adult stem-cell research but opposes any research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

    Charmaine Yoest, president and CEO of Americans United for Life, said in an Aug. 23 statement that “the Obama administration has attempted to skirt the law by arguing that they are only funding research after the embryos are destroyed.”

    “Today’s sensible ruling reconfirms what we already knew, that administration policy is in violation of the law,” she added.

    But Dr. Irving L. Weissman, director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, told The New York Times that the decision would be “devastating to the hopes of researchers and patients who have been waiting so long for the promise of stem-cell therapies.”

    Posted on August 24, 2010, to:

  • Podcast: August 29, 2010

    The Aug. 29 issue of Today’s Catholic covers the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of St. Patrick Parish in Ligonier. The new Roman Missal will be implemented in Advent of 2011. Mother Teresa of Calcutta still impacts the world, even 13 years after her death. Teresa Tomeo will be the speaker at the Women’s Conference in October. Permanent deacon candidates received the office of acolyte on Aug. 22.
    Listen Now

    Podcast: Play in new window | Download

    Posted on August 24, 2010, to:

  • History of the Annual Bishop’s Appeal

    Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades explains the meaning of his diocesan coat of arms to those gathered for the Annual Bishop’s Appeal kickoff dinner at the Grand Wayne Center in Fort Wayne on Thursday, Aug. 19.

    Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades kindly asked me to write an article on the history of the Annual Bishop’s Appeal and its importance for the mission of the Church in our diocese. I welcome the opportunity. As I recall how the appeal unfolded, I am struck at how quickly this initiative became not only a fundraiser, but an instrument of evangelization and a means of what the Church calls “communio.” This is a central work of the bishop — to bring people together in Christ.

    Also, from the beginning it was directed to help the parish, lifting a burden and awakening new resources to strengthen the life of the parish.

    In my first months as a bishop, I was approached by priests who explained to me the great burden of the system in place: A 13 percent tax on all income: Collections, fundraisers, school tuition. I remember Fathers John Suelzer and Bob Epping, CSC, and I recall an important and courageous public intervention by Father John Pfister.

    Quickly, we formed a committee of 10 priests and six laity under the dynamic chairmanship of Father Bill Schooler. They met over many months at various parishes.

    Having received their report, I met with them at Sacred Heart Parish, Warsaw. I told them I accepted their report completely, with one admonition. The report advised that the bishop should be “out front” in the appeal. I promised I would be so, but told them this would not carry the day. The parish priest would have to be “out front.” If the priest made it his own and gave it his support, it would be successful. This, plus the fact that from the beginning the appeal was parish-oriented, represent the fundamental reasons why our effort brought such blessings and achieved widespread acceptance. Indeed from this past appeal alone $1 or $2 million is being returned to parishes which have exceeded their goal.

    Communion
    The appeal has brought us into closer communion with each other. Communion between priests and their bishop. Communion between priests and their advisors. Increased communion between our two major cities, created by alternating the leadership in the diocese each year. Communion and evangelization through the video, in which people see and support the work of the Church from one end of the diocese to the other.

    Parish schools
    The struggle to preserve and strengthen Catholic schools across the country is well known. As the appeal developed, assisting schools became a shared effort between the diocese and the parishes. I recall a meeting in Syracuse with priests, educators and business leaders. The priests, even though they would bear the burden suggested an effort to increase the appeal by one half million dollars, so that we could have a substantial increase in teachers’ salaries. It was achieved, and the partnership between the diocese and the parishes helping parish schools, grew rapidly and was strengthened later by the Legacy of Faith, which gives almost a million dollars every year to parishes with schools and returned over $9 million to all parishes.

    The high schools
    The subsidy previously given by the diocese to the high schools varied with enrollment. This presented serious budgeting problems. The four Catholic high schools, so beloved in our diocese and so important for many reasons including as a ground for vocations to the priesthood, have a special place among us. The appeal stabilized the finances of the high schools, provided funds for students who otherwise could not have attended our high schools, kept tuition increases moderate and secured the future of these educational gems.

    A historic development
    When the appeal began, the salaries of our teachers were inadequate. An adversarial relationship existed between the diocese and the teachers. We were losing teachers to the public schools. Sometimes a teacher would be with us two or three years and then go to the public schools. Often they would leave after a few weeks at the beginning of the school year. All this has changed.

    In the past year, one could read about communities all over our diocese, laying off public school teachers and the freezing of salaries. This is regrettable and something which we hope will not continue. At the same time, we should note the situation in our schools. Because of the Annual Bishop’s Appeal and the Legacy of Faith, last year every full-time teacher in our schools received an increase of $800. In the year just beginning they will receive an increase of $900. No teachers have been dropped for financial reasons. This is a result of the generosity of our people to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal and the Legacy of Faith. It is important that this progress continue.

    Strength even in the
    economic downturn
    In the last year, unemployment in some parts of our diocese, was over 18 percent and some of our communities were among the hardest hit in the nation.

    Despite the severe economic downturn, the deepest and most prolonged since that of the Great Depression, our most recent Annual Bishop’s Appeal was the highest in history.

    Here are the totals for the last three years:
    • 2007-08: $5,542,447
    • 2008-09: $5,568,513
    • 2009-10: $5,745,113

    How was all this possible in such difficult times? It is possible because our people love their faith, appreciate Catholic education, love their priests and want the Church to continue and grow.

    Now the 24th appeal
    The appeal just ahead of us takes on a special importance. For the first time in 25 years, we have a new bishop. He has left his home diocese to offer himself to Christ for us and for our diocese, and he has come with a spirit of dedication.

    As I have done every year, I will increase my gift this year and will increase it by a larger amount than in the past. I hope all will do this as a welcome to the new bishop, but even more to help him build up the Church so the mission Christ has given to him and to us may be brought to fulfillment.

    Our schools, the education of priests, our service to the poor, our ministry to young people, the care of retired priests and the strength of our parishes, depends on your generosity and mine. The call for generosity is from Christ. Let us be generous to Christ and his work, in response to the Lord’s generosity to us.

    Posted on August 24, 2010, to: