This Lent take the first steps to ‘Walk With One’ in the Campaign of Mercy

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Laura Keener

Editor

With the announcement of the Campaign of Mercy last June, Bishop John Iffert is inviting the people of the Diocese of Covington to prayerfully consider a work of mercy and to engage in service to others, allowing that service to deepen their faith life and to draw them closer to Christ.

In support of the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger has been highlighting a spiritual or corporal work of mercy and a person, parish ministry or local social service that embodies that work. The goal of the Campaign of Mercy is to evangelize through that work of service inviting someone — a family member, friend or acquaintance — to join you in that service work and through that relationship grow in faith.

With the onset of Lent, the Messenger is pausing its series on the works of mercy and turning attention to the foundational aspect of the Campaign of Mercy — personal and intercessory prayer. Lent is a penitential season of the Church that invites its members to a deepening of faith through the practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving. For the Campaign of Mercy, the Messenger invites readers on a Lenten journey to Walk With One.

At the conclusion of the Eucharistic Congress last July, the U.S. bishops launched a national evangelization initiative entitled “Walk With One.”

“As we prayed, we realized that perhaps the profundity is found in the simplicity,” said Kris Frank, vice president of Growth and Marking for the National Eucharistic Congress, about the Walk With One Campaign. “That if one person can just reach out to one other person, that’s where we could see great results. That’s where we could see change really start to take root as the revival takes root in each one of us.”

Walk With One and the Campaign of Mercy dovetail perfectly. Both start by developing or increasing a personal relationship with the Lord through prayer. Both invite the Holy Spirit to lead to the person God has in mind for you to journey with. And both encourage daily intercessory prayer for the person so that their heart and mind will be open to Lord.

“When we’ve encountered Jesus, that changes us,” said Tanner Kalina, project manager, National Eucharistic Congress. “The Eucharist is not our private possession. The Eucharist longs to be shared with others and Jesus desires to do that through us.”

Resources developed by Eucharistic Congress organizers for the Walk With One campaign offer a four-step process: identify someone in a spirit of humility; intercede for that person in communion with the Holy Spirit; connect in Eucharistic friendship and invite that person on a path most suitable for him or her. With the help of the National Eucharistic Congress team, each of these four steps will be explored throughout the weeks of Lent, in print, on the web and the diocese’s YouTube page.

“The Church’s invitation for us to Walk With One is not an invitation for us to add one more task to do, it’s actually an invitation for us to step into the fullness of the Christian life by walking with someone and inviting them into different stages of the spiritual journey,” said Mr. Kalina. “We actually become more alive and closer to Jesus. It is about getting us to be a Eucharistic people, a people who are really living the fullness of the Christian life and, therefore, tasting the abundance and joy of the Christian life.”

The Messenger’s Lenten feature will be available online at covdio.org/messenger. For additional Walk With One resources from the National Eucharistic Congress visit eucharisticrevival.org/walk-with-one.

St. Thomas Parish growing and connecting With One Heart

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Laura Keener

Editor

One of the truly unique aspects of the With One Heart pastoral plan is that it includes not only the diocesan pastoral plan but also the pastoral plans of every parish in the Diocese. And while each parish’s pastoral plan is unique, common themes and initiatives have developed, especially around the need for faith formation and evangelization.

St. Thomas Parish, Ft. Thomas, has made great strides in implementing its parish pastoral plan. Its three stated priorities are welcoming, faith formation and outreach. What has been foundational to all three of these priorities has been updating the parish Camino database.

“Before we could do any outreach, we had to make sure that we know who we are and making sure that we have a good, accurate database of our parishioners so that we can communicate with them,” said Father Ross Kelsch, pastor.

Updating the parish database took a lot of time and effort by the parish staff. Data sheets for each family were distributed at Masses. Families that did not pick up a data sheet were called. What the parish found was that for the 1,000 families in the database, nearly 80 percent had inaccurate information — phone landlines were discontinued and replaced with mobile numbers, e-mail addresses had changed, some had new home addresses, children had moved out of the family home and started a new family of their own — all of these updates are important when trying to communicate with parishioners.

“What that has provided us now is a clean snapshot of who our parishioners are,” said Father Kelsch.

With the updated database, parish ministries can now accurately contact parishioners. So far, the parish is working on a new parish directory, with parishioners uploading their favorite photo to the database.

“Now, in the office here, we get to see those photos in Camino. When we’re talking on the phone with somebody, we can see their face and be like, oh, I see him at Mass every weekend or oh, I see her in the school pickup line. It’s been a real community builder to be able to put the face with the name,” said Elizabeth Gruenschlaeger, parish business manager.

Ms. Gruenschlaeger and her coworker, Audrey Wilson, helped Father Kelsch with the arduous task of updating the database. Their hard work is being rewarded. A ministry fair was held which garnered over 150 new registrations for parish and school ministries — from adding lectors and Eucharistic ministers, to servers, choir members, landscape help and more.

“It’s lightened the burden for everyone who has been serving, but it’s also just nice to have more people involved in ministry roles here,” said Ms. Gruenschlaeger.

Parishioners also receive a weekly digital communication from the parish right to their phone or e-mail through Flocknote.

“We went from no clear vision of who our parishioners are to being able to engage them intentionally and get them involved,” Father Kelsch said. “Outreach is not only helping people outside of the parish, it’s also helping us reach our own people and strengthening those connections, deepening those relationships, so that, ideally, people feel like they belong; to know that we would miss them if they were not here.”

Annual Connect retreats seek to strengthen students’ bond with each other and God

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Bella Young

Multimedia Correspondent

The Youth Ministry Office of the Diocese of Covington hosted what is known as a “Connect” retreat, Feb. 22, for sixth, seventh and eighth graders of the Diocese at Thomas More University, Crestview Hills. This retreat, which happens three times a year, serves to bring students together in community and helps them build a relationship with God.

Michelle Bump, senior theology student at Thomas More and a member of the leadership team, said, “The point is really to bring all the parishes together as a community … it is a time for them to come together for community and for faith and to get to know Jesus a little bit better.

“Any retreat, in particular Connect, is an opportunity for students and young people to get away from the craziness of their daily lives. Students are always packed with school and sports and extracurriculars and family time and friends. It can be really overwhelming … Connect is a special opportunity for students to take that step back and remember their roots, get back to the foundation of, ‘I am a child of God, and this is my time to spend with the people around me,’” said Ms. Bump.

During the retreat students break into small groups and hear from different speakers, they play ice breaker games, get know each other, sing worship songs and participate in Eucharistic adoration.

“We start with the ice breakers … get people comfortable with each other because that way when it is time to pray and praise the students feel more comfortable being themselves and openly worshipping Jesus,” said Ms. Bump.

This year, 130 students attended, a welcome increase from the 80 that attended last year. The students came from all over the Diocese, with many also being either homeschooled or attending a public school.

Angie Poat, diocesan Youth Minister, said about the 47 percent increase in attendance, “it’s really special, it speaks to the desire and the need this is filling … it is like casting the nets, come one, come all.”

Saving Troubled Marriages Worldwide

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Pope calls artists to be ‘custodians of the beatitudes’ during Jubilee

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Justin McLellan

Catholic News Service

Artists and cultural figures must be “custodians of the beatitudes,” embracing their vocation to create beauty, reveal truth and inspire hope in a troubled world, Pope Francis wrote to people participating in the Jubilee for Artists and the World of Culture.

“Art is not a luxury, but a necessity of the spirit. It is not an escape, but a responsibility, an invitation to action, a call, a cry,” said the homily Pope Francis prepared for the JubileeMass Feb. 16 in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, celebrated the Mass with artists from more than 100 countries and read the pope’s homily during the liturgy.

“To instruct in beauty is to instruct in hope, and hope is never separated from the drama of existence — it crosses the daily struggle, the fatigue of living, the challenges of our time,” the homily said.

Pope Francis was unable to attend the Mass because he was hospitalized for treatment of a respiratory tract infection. He had also missed the audience he planned with artists and other Jubilee pilgrims Feb. 15.

In a message for the midday Angelus, released by the Vatican after the Mass, Pope Francis wrote that art is “a universal language that spreads beauty and unites peoples, contributing to bringing harmony into the world and silencing every cry of war.”

At the beginning of the Jubilee Mass, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça blessed artists and cultural leaders, calling them “cultural prophets” and “drivers of peace” and praying for their vocations.

Reflecting on the beatitudes from the day’s Gospel account from St. Luke, the pope’s prepared homily said that “artists and people of culture are called to be witnesses to the radical vision of the beatitudes,” emphasizing that their mission is to “give voice to the voiceless” and “transform pain into hope.”

At the heart of the beatitudes, he said, is a divine reversal of worldly expectations — where the poor, the meek, the persecuted and the suffering are the ones truly blessed. “Art is called to participate in this revolution,” he said, urging artists to “bow before the wounds of the world, listen to the cry of the poor, the suffering, the persecuted, refugees, and those imprisoned.”

Particularly in a time of deep social, economic and spiritual crises, Pope Francis wrote, artists play a crucial role in ensuring that humanity does not lose sight of the “horizon of hope.”

Yet that hope is not a “comfortable refuge” but “a fire that burns and illuminates like the word of God,” he said.

“For this reason,” the pope wrote, “authentic art is always an encounter with mystery — with a beauty that overtakes us, with a pain that interrogates us, with a truth that calls to us.”

Particularly at a time when “new walls are raised, in which differences become pretexts for division rather than opportunities for mutual enrichment,” cultural figures “are called to build bridges, to create spaces of encounter and dialogue, to illuminate minds and warm hearts,” he said.

Later that evening, after St. Peter’s Basilica was closed to the public, participants in the Jubilee were scheduled to cross through the basilica’s Holy Door and partake in a quiet, contemplative walkthrough of the basilica’s interior.

Presenting the Jubilee’s events at a press conference Feb. 12, Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça explained how artists have a special relationship with the basilica as a place where faith, history and artistic genius converge in their highest form.

And in welcoming the artists into the basilica for Mass, he began his opening prayer with a reference to one of Pope Francis’ favorite artists, the 19th-century Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, who famously wrote: “Beauty will save the world.”

“The beauty that saves the world is manifested in Christ,” the cardinal said, praying that artists would embrace their vocation with courage, offering their challenges and uncertainties in service of the church and the world.

With One Heart update— Diocese begins a six-month pilot to unify social media presence

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Staff Report

The Diocesan communication team is taking the next step in advancing the communication goals outlined in the “With One Heart” Diocesan Pastoral Plan. During the information gathering phase in developing the pastoral plan, one of the key priorities that emerged from the parish listening sessions, focus groups and Deanery strategy sessions was the desire for a more unified and dynamic social media presence across the Diocese.

To help make this vision a reality, the Diocese is launching an enterprise-wide, 6-month pilot of the “Catholic Social Media” platform by Prenger Solutions Group. This content development and distribution tool will allow the Curia to upload social media content, which parishes and schools can select and share on its own social media accounts.

“Many of our parishes and schools have vibrant social media platforms with engaged subscribers and followers,” said Laura Keener, communications director. “The listening sessions conducted by With One Heart have confirmed that the faithful are eager to gain insights into Diocesan events and happenings. Social media has emerged as a desired platform for them to seek and disseminate this information.”

Already, staff in the offices of Catechesis and Evangelization, Catholic Charities, Stewardship and Missions Services, Youth Ministry and the Messenger have met with the Catholic Social Media team on how to use the platform. They care currently working to load content to Catholic Social Media.

Parishes will be brought onboard in four waves. Pastors in wave 1 have already been contacted and will be onboarded in late March, early April. The following waves will be starting soon.

“We’re excited about the possibilities and can’t wait to see how this collaboration will bring our Diocese closer together as we share the Gospel message,” said Mrs. Keener.

Numerous (arch) dioceses and parishes in the United States utilize the Catholic Social Media platform to oversee their social media operations and have discovered its advantages. The Diocese of Covington will assess the platform’s benefits at the conclusion of its pilot program in June 2025.

George Weigel joins Institute for Religious Liberty in commemorating the anniversary of Pope St. John Paul II’s death

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Maura Baker

Staff Writer

Thomas More University’s Institute for Religious Liberty welcomed George Weigel, theologian and Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) as the keynote speaker for its Feb. 12 presentation, “Pope St. John Paul II and Religious Liberty.” This presentation is first in a series by the IRL, commemorating the 20-year anniversary of the titular saint’s death.

Heralded as “one of America’s leading public intellectuals,” Mr. Weigel is best known for his widely translated and internationally acclaimed two-volume biography of Pope St. John Paul II: the New York Times bestseller, “Witness to Hope,” and its sequel, “The End and the Beginning.”

As the keynote presenter, Mr. Weigel’s talk began detailing large parts of the history of religious liberty and the Catholic Church, from the way church and state intertwined throughout the Byzantine Empire and middle ages, to the American revolution, and beyond.

“The Church had spent hundreds of years thinking that in one way or another, it needed the help of the state to do what it alone could do,” said Mr. Weigel, “The American experience suggested that there might be another way of looking at this.” — that being the separation of Church and state, allowing for Rome to appoint bishops in the new world and handle its own affairs separate from politics. This led directly into the Second Vatican Council where “groups of bishops came eager for a Catholic affirmation of religious freedom,” said Mr. Weigel.

In 1895, only 70 years before the Council, on the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the American hierarchy, Pope Leo XIII sent a letter to the bishops of the United States, in which he “commented very favorably on the growth of the Church in the United States … and said that this distinctive American arrangement, a constitutional separation of Church and state institutionally, could be tolerated.”

As George Weigel’s presentation was the first in the series, those interested in the celebration of Pope St. John Paul II and the Institute for Religious Liberty can look forward to the second installment on March 31 with keynote speaker Dr. Paul Kengor, titled “John Paul the Great: Seven Things Every Catholic Should Know.”

Annual solicitors luncheon kicks off phase one of the DPAA

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Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

The Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal, DPAA, is fast approaching as phase one officially commenced with the solicitors luncheon, Feb. 12. The luncheon is used to thank the solicitors who volunteer to call the top DPAA donors.

In years past, the number of donors contacted has stayed consistent at 200, with approximately 30 solicitors making calls. This year however, there were over 60 solicitors, allowing for the top 300 donors of previous DPAA efforts to be contacted.

Jeff Jehn, general gifts chair for the DPAA, said “Due to the fact that we had such good recruitment of adding new people, we’ve increased the number to 300 and because of that, we are going to see, I believe, some very good results for what we are trying to accomplish.”

By the time the DPAA is launched in parishes in late March, thanks to the work of the solicitors the campaign will be closer than ever to its goal of $2,700,000.

At the luncheon, solicitors peruse cards containing the names of 300 top donors, finding people they may know.

“The dollar figure of the number of gifts that are represented by that table … will be over $1,600,000. That will take us over 50 percent of the total goal of the DPAA. I think that is pretty incredible, that our top 300 donors are a little over $1,600,000. I’m so happy that we are doing this process, I think it is a real strength of our Diocese and of the DPAA,” said Jim Hess, director of the Office of Stewardship and Mission.

Lisa Knochelmann, leadership gifts chair, quoted Bishop John Iffert saying, “‘As we begin this Jubilee year inspired by Pope Francis’ call to mercy, our DPAA theme, ‘Pilgrims of Hope, Missionaries of Mercy,’ invites us to find the heart of Christ by sharing our spiritual and material gifts. We can extend God’s love, compassion and hope to those who suffer.’”

As solicitors were enjoying lunch, Bishop Iffert spoke to them about what giving to the mission of the DPAA truly means.

“All of life is a return to the Lord what he has given to us, that is what we’re here for. The Lord reveals himself to us, reveals his loving nature, reveals his redemptive purpose, reveals his desire that we are all to be saved and to spend eternity in his divine company … We respond with a grateful return into the Lord. Not just a percentage of who we are, but we respond with our whole being,” Bishop Iffert said.

Part of that whole being, Bishop Iffert said, is the way we live your economic, financial life. That is not to say that one should begin selling off assets.

“How much you give does not make you a member or not member,” said Bishop Iffert, “All we ask people to do is enter into a relationship with the Lord and do what God asks us to do. That’s how we’re judged. God judges us by our conscience, some people will only be able to give a very small gift.”

Bishop Iffert ended his talk in gratitude for the solicitors. “Thank you for joining us … thank you for saying yes to that invitation,” said Bishop Iffert.

Dr. Mandy Sanchez returns to the Diocese of Covington fora presentation on ties between apps, video games and pornography

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Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

Dr. Mandy Sanchez, director of programming at Culture Reframed, will return to the Diocese of Covington on March 3 for another presentation on the dangers of pornography. In a presentation titled, “Just a Click Away – Monitoring the Risks and Rewards of Gaming and Apps for Our Youth,” Dr. Sanchez will explore the most popular social media apps and give parents advice on how best to monitor them effectively.

Dr. Sanchez visited the Diocese of Covington previously on November 2024, to give a presentation titled, “Growing up in a Porn Culture: How Social Media, Gaming and Pornography Harms Our Youth.” She spoke about popular social media apps like Snapchat and Instagram, and how their connection to the porn industry is stronger than many think.

Julie Feinauer, director of the Safe Environment Office for the Diocese of Covington, said that the decision to invite Dr. Sanchez back for another presentation was an easy one. The feedback they received from those in attendance was staggering. “They were all saying specifically this is what people need to hear,” she said. “That was something we felt very strongly about because we realize that a lot of parents are in the dark about what is out there and so it is hard hitting.”

A goal for the March 3 presentation being given by Dr. Sanchez, is to have as many people in attendance as possible. “We want to make sure that we get as many people there as possible,” said Mrs. Fienauer, “She is going to go back over some of the pieces about pornography and access and what’s actually happening in some of the details … she’s also going to bring in social media, the apps, and the gaming. That is what parents are asking for.”

“She is going to talk a little bit about age appropriateness. About when kids should have access to these kids of apps and games … I think that is really important,” said Mrs. Fienauer.

The presentation, Mrs. Feinauer said, “is not for somebody that is going to be prudish about what they’re going to hear because they are going to hear the truth and they are going to hear about very difficult things.” The presentation will take place on March 3, at the Thomas More University Ziegler Auditorium, Crestview Hills. The doors will open at 6 p.m. with the program beginning at 7 p.m.

Young Adult/Youth Minister

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Immediate opening for a full-time Young Adult (18-35) & Youth (14-17) Minister who would work with our mass servers (children and adults) and facilitate Bible Studies. Our current Young Adult ministry is well-established, but the Youth ministry still needs to be organized. Candidates must be outgoing, organized, and have strong people skills. They must be flexible and professional, have an aptitude for learning, and be familiar with technology. This is an exempt, salaried position that involves evenings and weekends. The Young Adult and Youth Minister must be enthusiastically Catholic, living in full communion with the Catholic Faith, and desiring to promote the Church’s mission. They will need to be (or become) an active parish member. We offer a competitive wage. Interested candidates should send a letter of interest, a simple resume including references with email addresses, and compensation history to Stephen Koplyay at skoplyay@covdio.org, or fax to 859/392-1589.