HEARING GOD’S CALL ON SPRING BREAK

It isn’t always easy to find God on a college Spring Break, but Jennifer did. Instead of a beach vacation, Jennifer went on a mission trip sponsored by the Catholic campus ministry at her university. A medical student, Jennifer heard God calling her on that mission trip, and today she is a pediatrician helping to meet the medical needs of underserved children. Because non-Catholic college campuses in the Archdiocese are at record-breaking enrollment levels, Catholic campus ministers are now reaching out to more than 95,000 students—many of them adults returning to school for retraining after job loss. Your support of the CMA helps fund campus chaplains and peer ministers who reach out to students of all ages on non-Catholic college and university campuses throughout the region.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM CATHOLIC CAMPUS MINISTRY

Here are some other ways in which you are feeding, teaching, and healing college students through your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal:

• At St. Monica/St. George, serving the University of Cincinnati, your CMA pledge helps fund Thursday night suppers—informal opportunities to build community and strengthen faith—for 60-80 students each week.
• The ever-growing Newman Center Catholic community at Wright State University looks forward to breaking ground on a new chapel soon. Your CMA pledge helps fund the services of professional campus ministry staff who offer weekly Masses, retreat opportunities, and year-round faith formation programming.
• At Miami University, as at the other institutions served by Catholic campus ministry, one visible measure of how students are being reached is the enthusiastic level of participation in worship. In 2011, more than 500 campus community members attended Ash Wednesday services—even though it was during spring vacation! In 2010, when school was in session, Ash Wednesday attendance exceeded 2,500.
• Spring Break service projects and mission trips like the one Jennifer participated in offer life-changing opportunities to hundreds of students each year, and allow them to serve others as they have been served.
• At Sinclair Community College, campus minister Dr. Jane Steinhauser was approached by a young woman who seemed anxious and distraught. Suspecting academic, financial, or relationship trouble, Jane was surprised and moved when the student blurted out, “Will you talk to me about God? No one has ever talked to me about God before.” Increasingly, Catholic campus ministers are reaching out to unchurched young people, with the help of your CMA pledge.
• Vocations are born from the outreach of campus ministry. Wright State’s Newman Center currently has two students preparing to enter seminary. Miami University has seen recent graduates join the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, enter the Franciscan novitiate, and study for the priesthood. And many Catholic families begin with marriages solemnized in campus chapels.

SPIRITUAL HEALERS: THE ROLE OF CHAPLAINS IN HOSPITALS AND PRISONS

Your Catholic Ministries Appeal pledge supports the healing presence of chaplains—both clergy and lay volunteers—in hospitals and correctional institutions throughout the Archdiocese. These ministries are driven directly by the Gospel, and are part of the traditional Corporal Works of Mercy. Through your support of the CMA, you care for those who are ill and visit those who are in prison, and by doing so, you do these things for Jesus himself.

Do you know what it’s like to have the darkest night lit with God’s comfort and care? The next time you hear a siren, think about how God is present in times of illness and confinement. Your pledge of support to the CMA helps make sure that pastoral care workers are standing by in our region’s hospitals to hold worried family members’ hands. Chaplains bring care to the sick, comfort to the dying—and share joy with those restored to health. With help from parish volunteers, chaplains carry out prison ministry in jails and correctional institutions in our area.

Health care privacy regulations prohibit sharing too much personal information, but Mrs. Tara Urbanek, a chronically ill patient at Bethesda North Hospital, gave permission to share her story of gratitude for the pastoral care provided by Fr. Jim Elsbernd—pastoral care you help make possible with your CMA pledge. Mrs. Urbanek’s words stand for those of so many others:

“I have been a kidney transplant recipient for more than 6 years, and recently learned that my health is seriously deteriorating. Fr. Jim has been there for my family and me. His enriching and loving words have helped and encouraged us. He has helped us with the Sacrament of the Sick and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. His counsel has given me the ability to withstand this trial with God’s grace and confidence. He has been God’s hands, ears, and heart for us.”

MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT CHAPLAINS IN HOSPITALS AND PRISONS

Here are some other ways in which you are feeding, teaching, and healing people throughout our Archdiocese through your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal:

• Pastoral care workers and chaplains serving the Kettering Health Network respond to more than 2,400 emergency room calls and staff and parish referrals each year. Many patients and families come from outside the Dayton area—from as far south as Kentucky and as far north as Toledo.
• This past Christmas and Easter, for the first time ever, Mass was celebrated for male and female inmates of the Hamilton County Justice Center in the center’s chapel. Your support of the CMA helps provide spiritual comfort and sacramental presence for those who are incarcerated.
• Contact with chaplains during times of illness often prompts Catholics who have become estranged from the Church to be reconciled and come home. One chaplain put it this way: “Hospital ministry is deeply rewarding for us priests. When I was in parishes, I had to go out and beat the bushes to find those who had fallen away. In the hospital, they come to me.”
• Volunteers from Our Lady of Sorrows Parish in Monroe, along with fellow prison ministers from around the Archdiocese, rely on the support of the CMA to help provide prisoners in the Lebanon and Warren County Correctional Institutes with Bibles, hymnals, and religious periodicals.
• Residents of long-term care facilities and hospices benefit from the counsel offered by chaplains and pastoral care workers about medical ethics and end-of-life issues. Your pledge to the CMA can help reunite separated family members and give peace to those facing terminal illness.
• Pastoral care workers often partner with parish knitting ministries to provide prayer shawls, lap robes, and baby layettes for those in hospitals and care facilities who can use an additional sign of warmth and care.

VOCATIONS OUTREACH AND MINISTRY EDUCATION: A NEW HARVEST

The northern part of our Archdiocese is rich farmland, but it has also traditionally raised a bumper crop of vocations to the priesthood. In recent years, that much-needed harvest is spreading throughout the region, fueled by God’s grace and powerful new vocation outreach efforts. Among these successful programs aimed at encouraging young men to consider the priesthood are Cast Your Nets events, Andrew Dinners, and even an Ultimate Frisbee Tour of seminarians.

Young men are hearing the call to priesthood, and helping their brothers hear it, too. But financial resources are needed for their pastoral preparation and education. The annual cost of a seminarian’s formation at The Athenaeum/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary is approximately $30,000.

Your pledge to support the Catholic Ministries Appeal helps make it possible for a new generation of men to hear and answer the call to priesthood. Your gift also promotes the formation of deacons and lay ministers.

MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT VOCATIONS OUTREACH AND MINISTRY EDUCATION

Here are some other ways in which you are feeding, teaching, and healing God’s people by helping to raise up vocations and prepare ministers through your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal:

• Among 15 college seminarians entering Mount St. Mary’s in fall 2011, 13 had attended a Cast Your Nets event or Andrew Dinner at least once. Six attended both. Your pledge of support to the CMA helps these important vocations outreach events continue to expand.
• When Archbishop Schnurr came to Cincinnati, the Archdiocese had 28 seminarians. Three years later, that number had risen to 42, and the Archbishop as challenged the Vocation Office and Mount St. Mary’s Seminary with achieving and maintaining a level of 75 seminarians. Your prayers and support will help make this possible.
• As a means of reinforcing a culture of vocations—not only to priesthood, but also to religious life, chaste single life, and marriage—in the Archdiocese, the Vocation Office invites groups of young people to carry out Walks for Vocation, walking in pilgrimage from parish to parish, with stops for Eucharistic Adoration. This prayerful witness touches many lives along the way.
• Answering the call to the Diaconate is a family affair for many men. Your pledge to the CMA helps fund Family Retreats and Days of Reflection for Wives of Deacons, as well as education and ongoing formation for the deacon community. There are dividends: two current archdiocesan seminarians are the sons of deacons.

RETIRED ARCHDIOCESAN PRIESTS: LIVES OF UNENDING SERVICE

When Fr. Bob Obermeyer retired as a pastor, his parishioners built him a house. It wasn’t a retirement home for him to live in, but a Habitat for Humanity house for a needy family, inspired by Fr. Bob’s decades of devoted service to God’s people. The cincinnati.com news website covered the story in September, 2011:

“There’s a new house on McCormick Street in Mt. Auburn and Our Lord Christ the King parishioners are celebrating. The church was a major sponsor of the Habitat for Humanity house that was built in honor of Pastor Robert Obermeyer who retired this summer after celebrating his Golden Jubilee. The home, referred to by parishioners as ‘The House That Father O Built,’ was dedicated on Sunday, August 28.

“The new house—one of sixteen planned this year by Habitat for Humanity—will become home to a single mother and her children.

“The dwelling is much more than just shelter, explained Marissa Woodly, Habitat’s Development Director, who was the master of ceremonies. She said the home builds families by providing them with a strong foundation. ‘Today is a celebration for everyone,’ added Woodly, who praised the many volunteers, donors, and supporters who made the home a reality.

“Father Obermeyer, who had the opportunity to say a few words, was clearly moved when he talked about the significance of ‘. . . building a good house for a good family.’ He recalled how his father was a homebuilder and that it was especially fitting to have this great gift from the parishioners of Christ the King considering his background.”

Fr. Bob didn’t settle into idleness at retirement. Like many other priests of our Archdiocese, who retire after decades of active ministry, he continues to be of service.

Retired archdiocesan priests go on giving of themselves—teaching, feeding, and healing, wherever they are needed, as long as they are able. Their housing and medical expenses are not covered by government programs, and your pledge of support to the Catholic Ministries Appeal helps offset this great debt of gratitude. This support benefits not only the retired priests themselves, but also the entire Archdiocese, which receives the voluntary services of many retired priests who continue to assist in parishes and institutions and to remember us all in daily prayer.

CATHOLIC CHARITIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES: GIVING THE GIFT OF LIFE

Devon survived homelessness as a teenager, and was starting a new life in college when a crisis pregnancy nearly derailed her. With help from Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley, Devon claimed the courage to give life to her daughter Alana, and the skills to make a home and a new life for them both. “I am so thankful to my Catholic Social Services Pregnancy Counselor, Lori,” Devon says. :Having been on my own since a young age, I wasn’t used to asking for help from anybody. I’ve always just depended on myself. More than anything, Lori taught me that I don’t always have to go it alone.”

Throughout our Archdiocese, Catholic Charities and Social Services help give the gifts of new life and a fresh start to thousands of people in need every day. With the help of your pledge in support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal, 80,000 people a year know where their next meal is coming from. Refugee families fleeing war and famine find freedom and safety. Parents stressed by joblessness and poverty get help breaking the chains of poverty and domestic violence.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM CATHOLIC CHARITIES AND SOCIAL SERVICES

Here are some other ways in which you are feeding, teaching, and healing people throughout our Archdiocese through your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal:

• Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley responds to more than 1,200 requests a month for food assistance through its food pantry, which serves the urban poor in Dayton. When much-needed fresh commodities like fruits, vegetables, and meat were not available from the city’s overburdened FoodBank, your CMA pledge helped CSSMV purchase these foods so families wouldn’t go hungry.
• In the northern area of the Archdiocese, CSSMV provides parenting education and individual and family counseling—critical services in times of economic stress—to more than 1,300 people a year.
• Your support of the CMA helped Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley continue to provide Early Childhood Outreach to young children with emotional and developmental difficulties when government funding for these critically needed services was cut.
• With help from your CMA pledge, Catholic Charities SouthWestern Ohio reaches nearly 1,800 students—in the Hamilton County Youth Detention Center and in refugee children’s centers as well as in Catholic schools—with its Postponing Sexual Involvement program.
• Catholic Charities SouthWestern Ohio will celebrate its 100th anniversary of service in 2014. Thank you for helping to feed, teach, and heal more than 92,000 people last year through CCSWO’s 19 programs.
• In rural Brown Country, where public transportation is unavailable, the CCSWO Senior Center provides transportation to grocery stores and doctors’ appointments, helping seniors maintain their independence and remain in their homes.

ST. RITA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF: THE SCHOOL OF THE POSSIBLE

St. Rita School for the Deaf is named for Saint Rita of Cascia, traditionally recognized for her prayerful intercession in “impossible” situations. At St. Rita School, the impossible is transformed into possibility every day for children with communication difficulties.

Diagnosed at the age of 2 with apraxia, a disorder that causes difficulty in processing speech and hearing, Phoebe used to be trapped behind communication barriers that shut her off from the world as powerfully as iron bars. Her mother worried that Phoebe would never be able to share the simplest joys of friendship. Then Phoebe came to St. Rita School for the Deaf, where she was helped to find her voice. Now she and her friends can’t stop talking and laughing and singing, and there are no barriers in sight for any of them.

St. Rita School for the Deaf helps children from infancy through high school overcome debilitating communication difficulties. With help from your pledge of support to the Catholic Ministries Appeal, Jesus’ miraculous work of healing goes on today for children and their families who had given up hope.

MORE GOOD NEWS FROM ST RITA SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF

Here are some other ways in which you are feeding, teaching, and healing children with communication difficulties through your support of the Catholic Ministries Appeal:

• St. Rita School for the Deaf serves a growing number of students from diverse backgrounds and 8 different U.S. states. Your pledge of support to the CMA helps enable small classes, individualized instruction, and the use of assistive technologies in classrooms.
• The Learning Garden is a unique program developed by St. Rita School for the Deaf to provide hands-on learning experiences that support state standards in Math, Science, and English. By working in the garden and greenhouse, students gain a tactile appreciation for the wonders of God’s world. Organic gardening helps students make choices that are healthy for the planet and for their own nutrition.
• St. Rita School for the Deaf’s thriving afterschool activities programs, which are open to mainstreamed as well as St. Rita School students, offer students vital opportunities to develop social skills and improve communication. Clubs, hobby classes, and team sports serve as a creative outlet for self-expression, teamwork, and building self-esteem.
• Vocations to the priesthood come from St. Rita School for the Deaf. The late Fr. Jim Hall, a 1955 St. Rita graduate, was ordained to the priesthood in 2001 at the age of 64, becoming only the 7th deaf person to be ordained as a Catholic priest in the United States. 1988 graduate Fr. Michael Depcik was ordained in 2000, and currently serves deaf Catholics in Chicago. “God’s favorite language is silence,” Fr. Depcik says. “We need to be silent to listen effectively to God.”
• No child is too young to benefit from the care and education St. Rita School for the Deaf provides. The LOFT program — Language Opportunities for Tots — provides critical early intervention in the Montessori style for children from infancy through age 5.
• The Signing Choir of St. Rita School for the Deaf performs in community settings throughout the region. Watching the choir perform “We Are Family,” one young audience member whispered to his mother, “Mom, those kids can’t hear. How can they learn music?” “They have special teachers,” she replied.

Your pledge to the Catholic Ministries Appeal helps make the impossible possible for children at St. Rita School for the Deaf.