Wednesday Update, Vol. 2, No. 41, Nov. 6, 2019

                            
Vol. 2, No. 41
Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2019

This week, Nov. 3 -9, is National Vocations Awareness Week. Please take a moment to pray for our seminarians, priests and religious.  On Tuesday, Nov. 5, our Vocations Department held a bowling event, "Let's Strike for Vocations" to celebrate vocations.  More than 200 people and 14 priests attended. It was lots of fun.



Coming up: Fall national bishops conference
I will be attending the Fall General Assembly of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) next week in Baltimore, Maryland. Here is the Catholic News Service story previewing
 this event.

Bishops to vote for USCCB president, vice president at fall  assembly
By  Catholic News Service
 
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- The U.S. bishops are scheduled to elect the next president and vice president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops at their upcoming fall general assembly taking place Nov. 11-13 in Baltimore.
Each office is elected from a slate of 10 candidates who have been nominated by their fellow bishops. Released Oct. 9 by the USCCB, here is the slate for president and vice president:
 
-- Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese of the Military Services.
-- Bishop Frank J. Caggiano of Bridgeport, Connecticut.
-- Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City.
-- Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco.
-- Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas.
-- Archbishop Jose H. Gomez of Los Angeles.
-- Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki of Milwaukee.
-- Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield in Illinois.
-- Bishop Kevin C. Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Indiana.
-- Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron of Detroit.
The president and vice president are elected to three-year terms, which begin at the conclusion of the fall assembly. The current president, Cardinal Daniel N. DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, and the current vice president, Archbishop Gomez, will complete their terms at this meeting.
 
USCCB bylaws provide that the first election is that of president by a simple majority vote of members present and voting. In a special exception to this bylaw approved by the bishops at their June assembly, 17 bishops in Rome for their ad limina visits from the New York region will be allowed to participate remotely in the election as well.
 
Following the election of the president, the vice president is elected from the remaining nine candidates. In either election, if a candidate does not receive more than half of the votes cast on the first ballot, a second vote is taken. If a third round of voting is necessary, that ballot is a run-off between the two bishops who received the most votes on the second ballot.
 
During the meeting, the bishops also will vote for new chairmen of six committees: Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance; Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs; Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis; Committee on International Justice and Peace; Committee on the Protection of Children and Young People; and the Committee for Religious Liberty.
 
 

Watch a live stream of the conference at http://www.usccb.org/live    Public sessions of the general assembly, discussions, votes and press conferences will be livestreamed at: usccb.org/live. Catch the CNS stories on the General Assembly along with other Catholic news at catholicnews.com. Please also check out our website at diocesetucson.org for information.

Please prayer for us as we deliberate new leadership and as we make other decisions on behalf of the US church. 

Recap: Men’s  Conference
I reported in my last Update (Oct. 30) about the annual Men’s Conference held last Saturday.
The keynote speakers were Father Dennis Billy, a Redemptorist priest, author and professor of spiritual and moral theology at St. Mary Seminary and University in Baltimore; and Randy Cirner, a Catholic therapist, evangelist and family minister.  He also holds a master’s degree in theology.
Approximately 300 men attended this year’s conference and Mass following the day’s sessions.

My thanks to the Knights of Columbus, which sponsors the event, and to Joe Perdreauville, our assistant director of Pastoral Services, for working so hard to make this conference a success.

A bit more about the Knights of Columbus.
In the  photo above I received a generous check of $3,000 from Mario Vassallo, state deputy of the Knights of Columbus to support our Prayer & Action program.

I received the check during the Men’s Conference.

  The program, now in its third year here, gives students a chance to serve others through service to our elderly senior citizens.  Junior and senior high school students spend part of the camp days doing yard work, repairs or house painting.  Other parts of the day are dedicated to faith sharing, being teens and prayer. 
 
Welcome
The Pastoral Services Department announced yesterday that Ana Chavarin has been hired as Coordinator of the Office of Human Life and Dignity.  Ana started her part-time position Nov. 4.  She will continue the work that Sister Leonette Kochan was doing in this office. 

Ana is a member of St. John the Evangelist Parish and has many years of experience working in the areas of Human Life and Dignity with Sister Leonette and other leaders in the Diocese.  She was featured in the November Issue of the Catholic Outlook as the recipient of the 2019 Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award. Ana will receive the award on  Nov. 11 in Baltimore from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.