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| January 7, 2009 |
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 August 2008 Bishops’ longtime education voice moves onAfter 11 years as associate director of education for the Florida Catholic Conference, Larry Keough is departing to pursue similar duties with the Ohio Catholic Conference. In an interview with the Florida Catholic’s Karen Osborne this week, Keough told her, “I am most proud of being a faithful follower in that I have tried to be a prophetic voice for the least of our brothers and sisters, including the downtrodden and those with disabilities.” Throughout his tenure, Keough spoke before lawmakers and the media, advocating for vouchers and other methods of school choice; worked to equalize funding and opportunities for students needing special–education services; and spoke out for Catholic school accreditation, bus transportation for private school students, school accountability, the adoption of universal voluntary prekindergarten programs, and rules that scheduled the timely evaluation of students who might need special–education services so they would not have to wait up to a year to receive them. Ed Foster Jr. | 08.28.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Flooding turns ‘helper’ into receiver of helpMELBOURNE | In the aftermath of the 2004 hurricane season, Ramona Bernard gladly signed up to be a Hurricane Helper for a buddy, another Ascension parishioner in Melbourne, who indicated he might need assistance in the event of a hurricane. As Tropical Storm Fay approached, Bernard checked with her buddy to ensure he was prepared and then again that he was OK and didn’t have any needs following the storm. But, as Fay continued to dump more and more inches of rain in Melbourne, Bernard the helper became the one receiving help. MORE... Laura Dodson | 08.27.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Damage, Catholic response to Fay is widespreadORLANDO | Florida tourism officials might wish other visitors were as determined as Tropical Storm Fay to reach just about every part of the state on their summer sojourns. The storm headed toward north Florida Friday, Aug. 22, after a quick jaunt through Key West Aug. 18, followed by a landing in southwest Florida, an invigorating slog across the Everglades to the Treasure Coast and the Space Coast and a lazy two–day stay off Daytona Beach. But Fay was not a gracious guest. The tropical cyclone’s winds never reached hurricane force as feared. But the storm left a trail of flooding, rough surf, tornados and other effects that damaged or destroyed property and crops, drove people from their homes, knocked out power, put people out of work and led to at least seven deaths from causes such as ocean drowning, automobile accidents and generator–related carbon monoxide poisoning. MORE... Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.22.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Perpetual adoration persists in stormMELBOURNE | The effects of Tropical Storm Fay have many Floridians focused on their safety and security. They are also focused on their faith. Parishioners at Ascension Parish here were calling prayer captains Thursday, Aug. 21, worried that the 24/7 watch in the Blessed Sacrament adoration chapel might be interrupted. After all, the watch has been uninterrupted since June of 2002. As Fay’s fury began to pummel central Florida Aug. 18, Susan Esposito, who has participated since the chapel’s inception and is the ministry captain for the 5 p.m. hour, visited the chapel. “Even though the storm was very bad, I was there,” Esposito said. “Adoration is so important. I feel nothing could hurt me going to adoration to be in the presence of Our Lord. MORE... Laura Dodson | 08.21.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Following Fay easier with Web software
Screen Capture ORLANDO | As a boy growing up in Lake Worth, Matthew Wensing, 26, remembers the Saturday pre–hurricane drill quite well: Board up the house. Take it all down. Board it up again. While many of these hurricanes veered away at the last minute, he remembers the ones that didn’t. Wensing, a software developer, watched from a desk in Chicago as Hurricanes Jeanne, Frances and Wilma slammed into Florida, battering relatives’ houses in Lake Worth and West Palm Beach. He clicked through one Web site after another, unsatisfied that he couldn’t find an application that would answer all of his questions. Frustrated, he decided to make one himself. MORE... Karen Osborne | 08.21.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Flooding of fields means long–lasting disasterIMMOKALEE | Tropical Storm Fay may not have carried hurricane–force winds when it made landfall in the Diocese of Venice Aug. 18, but it still managed to dump seven to 14 inches of rain from Naples to Moore Haven, causing minor damage to four churches and leaving several vegetable crops in jeopardy. Fay took nearly the same path through the diocese as Hurricane Wilma in October 2005. This time, there was less wind, but the long–term impact could be equally severe if initial reports of crop losses prove to be accurate. MORE... BOB REDDY | 08.21.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Preparing to be in the next bulls–eyeORLANDO | When a tropical storm just might take aim at your coastal community parish, there’s more to think about than whether the buildings are battened down. Just ask Cindy Ser, parish manager for Santa Maria del Mar in Flagler Beach, which was in that situation Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 20. Tropical Storm Fay was offshore, after causing widespread flooding and a couple of tornados on a path across the state from south of Fort Myers to around Cape Canaveral. And forecasters were saying the storm’s next target would be between Daytona Beach and St. Augustine, putting the parish in the bulls–eye. Ser’s parish was prepared, not just to do its best to prevent property damage but also to make sure the corporal and spiritual needs of parishioners and the community’s needy would be met if the storm were to hit. MORE... Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.20.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Farmworkers, tornado victims will get helpORLANDO | Farmworker communities and tornado victims emerged Wednesday, Aug. 20, as the initial targets of storm relief efforts by Florida’s coalition of Catholic Charities agencies. “Tropical Storm Fay destroyed the fall tomato crop, which had just been planted,” said Deacon Marcus Hepburn, emergency management specialist for the Florida Catholic Conference. As part of that role, Hepburn coordinates the coalition, known as Catholic Network Florida. He said the network’s damage assessements show a particularly strong need among farmworkers in communities including Immokalee, LaBelle and Clewiston in the Diocese of Venice and in southern Brevard County in the Diocese of Orlando, where the storm left flood and tornado victims in its wake. MORE... Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.20.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page After Fay, ‘Please stay in your homes’Parishes and schools in the Diocese of Palm Beach fared well, but some in St. Lucie and Martin counties were closed on Wednesday due to street flooding. PALM BEACH GARDENS | A call to St. Bernadette Parish in Port St. Lucie Wednesday, Aug. 20, a day after Tropical Storm Fay began dumping rain there, found a telling announcement: “Our office is closed due to the aftermath of the storm. Please stay in your homes.” St. Bernadette’s pastor, Father Victor Ulto, summed up the transportation situation: it’s tricky to get in and out of town unless you “have a boat, are a scuba diver or happen to be a duck.” MORE... Linda Reeves | 08.20.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page No hurricane, but still flooding dangerORLANDO | Tropical Storm Fay reached Florida a little sooner and with less force than forecast, prompting prayers of thanksgiving from Key West and the state’s southwest coast. “The Blessed Mother was good to us again,” Deacon Peter Batty of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Key West said Tuesday morning Aug. 19 by telephone to the Florida Catholic’s state headquarters in Orlando. The parish had boarded up its 100–year–old stone church building Sunday, expecting the storm to pummel the island late Monday evening. The storm moved through around 3 p.m. Monday with lots of rain but winds shy of those predicted. According to media reports, residents and tourists were walking on the beach by 5 p.m. MORE... Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.19.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Venice Diocese in storm’s projected pathVENICE | The first rain bands of Tropical Storm Fay reached the Diocese of Venice — in Everglades City — before 9 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18; By the time they reached Venice about 2:30 p.m., area residents were looking at an ominous official forecast from the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters there were predicting the storm would intensify during the evenine into a category 1 hurricane and make landfall on Florida’s southwest coast, probably in the diocese around Naples, around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Bob Reddy | 08.18.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Catholic Floridians brace for stormORLANDO | The Victorian Gothic–style stone church of St. Mary Star of the Sea Parish in Key West has stood for a little more than 100 years, weathering all the storms the tropics have sent its way. Monday morning, Aug. 18, it stood boarded up and battened down, waiting for the arrival of another — Tropical Storm Fay. “It’s moving in. It think the eye is pretty much going to cross Key West, but that won’t be until around 10 o’clock tonight,” Deacon Peter Batty of St. Mary said by telephone to the Florida Catholic’s state headquarters in Orlando at around noon Monday. MORE... Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.18.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Olympian feat: 1 school, 5 athletesOne Catholic high school in Florida may hold the record for number of alumni taking part in Beijing 2008. Ana Rodriguez-Soto explains why St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale is such fertile soil for growing world-class athletes and tells when and how to watch the five Olympians on the Web. Her sotry begins here. Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.14.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page More Catholic doctors scrub contraceptive scriptsThough the number of U.S. gynecologists and family physicians whose practices reflect what the Catholic Church teaches on birth control is small, it is growing, according to One More Soul, an Ohio–based organization that keeps track of such things. Florida Catholic correspondent Kristie Nguyen examines why doctors in Ormond Beach, Naples and Panama City are embracing the trend. Her report begins here. Denise O’Toole Kelly | 08.14.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page U.S. executions are not a ‘Catholic thing’On July 3, 2007, The Irish Times reported on a pro-death penalty Supreme Court justice’s address to the University College Dublin. The article noted the expression of his view that many U.S. states believe justice requires the death penalty. This evangelization of the American death penalty gospel to members of the European Union is not new. I have encountered it firsthand with other American commentators who travel abroad to advocate the restoration of the death penalty in Europe. Presumably, the purpose of this effort is to shore up the U.S. retention of the death penalty, which currently isolates our country from all other Western democracies in the world. For calendar year 2007, we shared the honor of being in the top five countries for executions with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the same group members that were our capital punishment peers for 2005. For calendar year 2006, Sudan and Iraq edged out the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, causing our country to fall to 6th, still ahead of the Saudis. Another common thread I find among those who preach the virtues of U.S. executions abroad is assertion of the erroneous belief that American Catholicism, as a demographic presence in the country, supports and bolsters the use of the American death penalty. MORE... Dale Recinella | 08.12.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Web site offers multitude of info to inform votersORLANDO | The candidates have spoken and one Web site, sponsored by the Florida’s Catholic bishops, offers ways for voters to hear what the candidates have to say on issues of importance to Catholics. Voters are encouraged to visit www.informedcatholicvoter.com before they fill out a primary ballot for the Aug. 26 election. Since July, the Florida Catholic, in conjunction with the Florida Catholic Conference, the Florida Council of Catholic Women and the Florida State Knights of Columbus, have worked to gain responses to a 10–question survey from candidates for the offices of state representative and senate, and the U.S. House of Representatives. Through a letter campaign and personal phone calls, as of Aug. 8, 50 percent of the 166 candidates involved in a primary election for those three offices responded to the questionnaire. Read the complete article here. Jean Gonzalez | 08.08.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Judge: voucher, religious freedom proposals OKProposed constitutional amendments expanding religious freedom will remain on Florida’s Nov. 4 ballot, but opponents plan to appeal. TALLAHASSEE | A Tallahassee circuit court judge ruled Aug. 4 that a state commission did not exceed its constitutional authority by placing on November’s ballot two proposed constitutional amendments that expand religious freedom. The first, Amendment 7, would remove anti–religious language that was placed in Florida’s constitution more than 100 years ago. The second proposal, Amendment 9, will require school districts to spend a minimum of 65 percent of their funds in the classroom, while removing a constitutional obstacle to programs that allow students to attend private and parochial schools at the state’s expense. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper ruled that the Taxation and Budget Reform Commission stayed within its mandate by approving the two amendments. Read the complete article here. Jacquelyn Horkan | 08.05.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Claver Knights convene in ‘love and fellowship’JACKSONVILLE | With men in dark suits, women in white and officers in regalia, 1,500 African-American Catholics from across the country gathered in worship with six bishops and the priests, deacons, brothers and religious that came to support them. For many, Mass was the highlight of the 93rd annual national convention of the Knights of Peter Claver and Ladies Auxiliary, held in Jacksonville July 25-30. “Mass on Sunday was beautiful,” said Mary J. Holley, Grand Lady of St. Felicitas Court #223 in Pensacola, a parishioner of St. Jude Parish there and the recipient of the Order’s national Grand Lady of the Year award. “Bishop Victor B. Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine presided. Our national chaplain – Bishop Joseph N. Perry of the Archdiocese of Chicago – and four more bishops concelebrated as well. The overall message for me was of love and fellowship, a sea of Catholic men and women able to worship together.” Read the complete article here. Laura Dodson | 07.31.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page Post–abortion healing and the penitent womanOne in an occasional series of columns about Project Rachel post-abortion ministry in Florida. For more than 20 years, the Archdiocese of Miami has offered the Project Rachel program for those who have been involved with abortion, the second victims. Those of us who have been privileged to work in this ministry have been touched in a most profound way by the mothers and fathers of the aborted babies. There were three special-interest groups that were close to the heart of Jesus: the poor, children and sinners. Even though we are all sinners, most of us tend to separate ourselves from the group of serious sinners. Jesus addresses this in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus is invited to the home of a Pharisee, a man who saw himself as a decent and upstanding person, not a serious sinner. The Pharisee neglects to show respect to Jesus by performing the customary washing of feet. However, a sinful woman approaches Jesus and begins bathing his feet with her tears and drying them with her hair. Jesus goes on to teach us why the behavior of these two people is totally different. Read the complete article here. Barbara Groeber | 07.31.08 | Return To Top | Florida Catholic Online Home Page |
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