Florida Catholic | Diocesan Roundup

Diocesan Roundup

CARLOS BRICENO | FLORIDA CATHOLIC ST. PETERSBURG BUREAU EDITOR

Published: 12.07.07

With the newspaper taking one weekend off because of the recent Thanksgiving holiday, there’s a lot of news to catch up on. So, without further ado, here is a roundup of what’s been going on around the Diocese of St. Petersburg in recent weeks.

Gala yields $104,000 for tuition assistance

The Catholic Foundation, which works with parishioners, community leaders and businesses to ensure the future of the church within parish, school and diocesan boundaries, recently held a fundraiser at the Bethany Center. The Nov. 17 event raised $104,000, said Jeffrey Dunn, president of the foundation’s board of trustees.

The money raised goes toward the foundation’s Catholic schools tuition assistance program, which helps needy students with tuition so they can attend a Catholic primary school.

The program is a partnership between the foundation and diocesan schools that choose to participate. The foundation matches the amounts raised by the schools dollar for dollar, up to a maximum of $10,000 per participating school, said Joseph Odda, the foundation’s planned giving manager. Each school then selects which students it will help with some tuition assistance, he said.

Dunn said this was the third year the foundation has raised money to help children with tuition. Last year’s event raised $85,000, he added.

The foundation’s first Catholic School Education Leadership Award, which recognizes and honors someone who is consistently devoted to advancing the cause of Catholic school education, was given to Lori Mattox, who has served for 13 years as the chairwoman of the Our Lady of Lourdes fall festival, as well as being an adviser to Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School Parent Faculty Association board. She is also a member of the advisory board at Clearwater Central Catholic High School and all eight of her children have attended or are attending Catholic schools.

Dunn said he appreciates Catholic schools because he’s a product of a Catholic education, starting in elementary school and ending at graduate school. He is now executive vice president for the Tampa region at SunTrust Bank, and said it’s important that those children who need help to attend a Catholic school get some kind of assistance. But he admitted, “You can never provide enough. There’s always more to do.”

He added, “We wish we could give (assistance) to everybody. But the more we grow and the more people contribute and support events like this, the better ability we will have that this dream be a reality — that every kid is supported in a Catholic school.”

More than 300 people attended the event, which also included testimonials about the value of a Catholic school education.

Can drive

Speaking of Catholic schools, St. Petersburg Catholic High School students put together another canned food drive recently to help the poor during the holidays. Partnering with St. Jude Cathedral School in St. Petersburg, the high school students gathered more than 133,000 cans to donate to Daystar Life Center in St. Petersburg, which helps the poor and marginalized, said Sue Brett, the advancement director for the high school. But as an added difference this year, she said, the topic of homelessness was woven into the students’ curriculum. For instance, one of the teachers took students to Williams Park in St. Petersburg, where the homeless often congregate, and fed those who were hungry there.

“It was a very moving experience,” Brett said.

She said students talked and wrote about homelessness in their classes, as well.

“It’s one thing to collect cans and give them away, and it’s another thing to have the student body understand why they’re doing this,” she said. “It needed to be really wrapped in a learning opportunity this year.”

Warm winter

The holidays often mean a time of gift giving, but for many people who are poor, the holidays mean looking for a meal or traveling from the North where the winters are cold, to spend some time in Florida where it’s warmer.

One place the hungry are welcomed is the Santa Maria Mission in Tampa. But because of the faltering economy and other factors, such as higher rents, the mission is getting more people on its doorsteps, said Ondina Hernandez, the mission’s coordinator.

Lunch is served there every Tuesday and the number of people who ate there used to be around 50, but that figure jumped to 125 several weeks ago, and then, more recently, it was more than 200 people, she said.

That, of course, means that the mission is struggling to feed the increased numbers, so it needs groceries donated or cooked meals brought there, she said.

The mission gets most of its food supplies from Nativity Parish’s food pantry in Brandon, but the mission doesn’t get as much as before because the pantry is under the strain of doling out increased numbers of supplies, she said.

In addition to cooked meals and groceries, the mission also needs diapers, blankets, new socks, disposable razors, toiletries and toothpaste, she said.

She added that Tampa Catholic High School recently held a food drive for the mission, and her hope is that she can work with the area Catholic high schools to receive donations in the future, as well.

To make donations, or to get more information, contact Hernandez at 813-910-3575 or by e-mail at ochdez@tampabay.rr.com. To make monetary donations, send a check made out to St. Mary Parish, in care of the mission, and mail it to 15520 North Blvd., Tampa, FL 33613. The mission is at 14004 N. 15th St., north of Fletcher Avenue and east of Nebraska Avenue. The mission is open Tuesdays from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m., and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.

Fire at St. Lawrence

St. Lawrence Parish in Tampa experienced a fire Nov. 3 that disrupted its services. The fire started during the evening at the electrical votive candles, said Cris Stout, the business administrator for the parish. It was probably caused by a short in the wiring system, he added. The fire department arrived, but mistakenly went to the parish’s school, where they found no fire and left. By the time someone came to the church the next morning, the fire had smoldered and the resulting smokiness caused soot and particles to damage the ceilings, the walls, the crucifix, the pipe organ, the pews and the sound system, he said.

The parish probably won’t be able to celebrate Mass in the church until Easter, he estimated. And the final cost of the cleanup hasn’t been estimated yet, though it will be “substantial,” Stout said. Masses have had to be rescheduled and are being celebrated in Higgins Hall and in the cafeteria, he added.

But the parish has been receiving help. Nearby parishes have donated various items, such as vestments, and the parish community has banded together, he said.

The parish has been brought back to its roots, he said. It started out in a small hall and congregating again in a hall has brought them “back to what it means to be in community. People feel a bit more connected,” he said.

Sister Francis Cleary dies

On a sad note, Sister Francis Cleary died Nov. 3 at St. Peter’s Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Albany, N.Y. She was born in Savannah, Ga., Oct. 6, 1915, and was baptized Lois Katherine. In July 2007, she celebrated the 75th anniversary of her entry, at age 16, into the congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. Her religious name was Sister Francis of the Eucharist.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Tampa and a master’s degree in religious education from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and served as teacher or as principal in schools in various places such as Hochelaga, Canada; Silver Spring, Md.; Tampa; Clearwater; and Lesotho, South Africa.

In 1957, she returned to New York from Africa, serving as director of novices for nine years and then as provincial director from 1969 to 1975. In her educational ministries, as well as in her community relationships, she was known for her loving, compassionate and healing presence. In her later years, she did pastoral work at St. John Parish and at the Barnwell Health Care Facility in Valatie, N.Y. She was buried Nov. 8.

New connections

The Catholic Church is going to be welcoming another member in the diocese: the former bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Southwest Florida, John Bailey Lipscomb, who is friends with Bishop Robert N. Lynch.

The former bishop, who had stepped down from his position due to health reasons in September, recently announced the news in an open letter to his diocese. “through a long season of prayer and reflection, Marcie (his wife) and I have come to believe this is the leading of the Holy Spirit and God’s call to us for the next chapter of our lives,” wrote Bishop Lipscomb.

Bishop Lynch, meanwhile, was delighted with the news. “I have had the blessing to accompany Bishop Lipscomb on this journey for some time as have two of our senior priests with whom he has been in close contact,” Bishop Lynch wrote in a statement. “It is my fervent hope and prayer that both he and his wife will find spiritual peace among us.”

He added that Bishop Lipscomb and his wife will be entered in full communion with the Catholic Church within the month of December and will reside and worship at Nativity Parish in Brandon, where they live.

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