Archive for category: Featured Stories

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

There was standing room only under the white peaked tent at St. Patrick Cemetery, Maysville, as ground was ceremoniously broken on the new multimillion dollar, life size, bronze, Stations of the Cross and meditation garden. The June 3 event drew together notable community leaders such as Maysville Mayor Debra Cotterill, Mason County Judge Executive Owen McNeill and Kentucky State Representative William “Buddy” Lawrence. Also in attendance were friends, family, community members and others involved in the project.

This project, many years in the making, is led by Jerry Lundergan, former chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party, and Alissa Tibe, executive vice president of the Lundergan Group Companies.

“The idea and purpose behind this project is not only to beautify the cemetery and this wonderful space, but to take pride in our beautiful Catholic church, St. Patrick, and even more so, the community of Maysville, and to bring visitors from far away. Pilgrims, those of religious descent and folks that are looking for spirituality and community to find solace here on these sacred grounds,” said Mrs. Tibe.

Mr. Lundergan said the decision for the garden to reside at St. Patrick Cemetery was an easy one, “we’ve always had a love for the St. Patrick Cemetery and were brought up that way as children … about 15 years ago I purchased that piece of property over there … and I said, ‘we’re going to build a little meditation garden over there and people can come and just sit on the bench and think about life and think about how they’re going to get to where they’re supposed to go.’”

The garden, which will begin with a seventy-foot tall cross, will be exactly 2500 feet, and an exact replica of the route Christ took on his road to Golgotha. Along the route will be six-foot tall statues designed by Mr. Lundergan and Reto Demetz, chief executive officer, Art Studio Demetz, Italy. Each statue will be 300 pounds and hand carved by Mr. Demetz and his team of sculptors.

“We made an effort that they [the sculptures] have no base. So, once a visitor comes up to the stature, he’s looking at the raised statue, but brings Jesus down to the same eye level as us,” said Mr. Demetz.

Nine of the stations have already been completed, with the tenth underway. Stations 11, 12, 13 and 14 are expected to be finished before the intended project completion date of April 2026.

John Carman, senior principal of CARMAN Landscape Architecture Firm, said, “the journey is meant to be a very meaningful journey, very spiritual. It’s meant to engage whoever’s walking on that path to understand really what that final walk was all about. So, creating the Passion and also trying to give a feel of the anguish that Christ understood and that he went through.”

Mr. Carman and his team will seek to incorporate many aspects of symbolism into the landscape including the use of the color white. White is a symbol of pureness, meant to enhance the sacredness of the space. In conjunction with the white will be small pops of color courtesy of Redbud Trees, or Judas Tree.

“The seven-story cross … it’s made up of a cluster of four-square columns. Four has to do with a lot of meaning and symbolism. Symbolism in the Bible, such as the four Gospels. The Garden of Gethsemane was actually an olive garden. While we can’t grow olive trees here, we’re going to have about a 200-year-old antique olive mill and press in the garden,” said Mr. Carman.

The goal, Mr. Lundergan said, is to have the project completed within 10 months, just in time for Easter, so that every aspect of the Triduum can be celebrated at the garden.

“The idea would be to have a very important Holy Thursday service, to have a 7 p.m. Stations of the Cross on Friday, and a sunrise Mass, which we are building an altar over there on the hillside, we’ll have a sunrise service on Sunday morning,” said Mr. Lundergan.

The intent for the Stations of the Cross and garden is to encourage people to have a deeply spiritual experience and to drive people from all over the world to Maysville.

“If we could just get 200,000 more people coming into Mason County in Maysville for the filling stations, the restaurants, the hotels and leave a donation of some type, which will be distributed between the upkeep of the garden, the upkeep of the cemetery, and the upkeep of St. Patrick School and Church, then we will have fulfilled our dream,” said Mr. Lundergan.

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

Celebrated among a congregation of the people of the diocese – including family, friends and many fellow clergy – Father Joshua Heskamp was ordained to the Order of Priest, June 7, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington.

Bishop John Iffert was the celebrant of the Mass, and welcomed the now ordained Father Heskamp to the presbyterate alongside priests fro across the diocese – and some beyond, including St. Vincent Seminary faculty Benedictine Father Jude Brady and Benedictine Father Isaac Haywiser.

Father Heskamp’s family also partook in the Mass, with notably his uncle, fellow priest, Father Jeffery Von Lehmen, pastor of St. Patrick Parish, Taylor Mill, serving as vesting clergy for his investiture.

Bishop Iffert began his homily acknowledging to the contribution of Father Heskamp’s family to his formation. Even though he addresses him as his “own dear son,” Bishop Iffert said, and that “this is an acknowledgment that I’m able to introduce [Deacon Heskamp] to the life of grace-filled service to God’s people in the priesthood,” he said, “in no way is this little reference of endearment meant to supplant the role of Deacon Heskamp’s own father and his own family…who gave him life and nurtured him in the faith.”

“It’s a profound gift,” said Bishop Iffert, “that Deacon Heskamp presents today in offering himself to be set apart for the ministry. I thank you for supporting his in his vocational discernment.”

As part of his homily, Bishop Iffert also reflected on a question that a student asked him at a dinner at Thomas More University, Crestview Hills. The student asked him why he thought that God chose him as a bishop, to which Bishop Iffert replied that, after a moment, the reason is that, “God is always being merciful, and always leading us to salvation.”

“I can only presume that God has allowed me to be here,” he said, “because there is something in this experience that will help me towards salvation, something that I need to be able to grow in holiness and be more like Christ.”

“As soon as I said it, I recognized that truth of it,” said Bishop Iffert, then addressing the soon to be ordained Deacon Heskamp, “Joshua, we are not called to be priests because we are such swell guys…We are called to be priests because the empty, needful, broken space inside us conforms to the way Christ and his Holy Spirit long to fill us and make up for our sins and our failure. We are called not because of our personal strengths, but because we boast in our weakness and in the cross of Christ that is our salvation.”

“Today,” Bishop Iffert said, “you are called to be a father to the faithful. As you will pray over the fathers of the children you will baptize, so we all pray for you today.”

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

The 2025 Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal (DPAA) is well underway, with a recent mailing encouraging parishioners from across the Diocese to dedicate their contributions if they have not already.

As of the end of April, the DPAA has raised more than $2.6 million which will be used to help fund the ministries of the diocese. This is just short of the $2.7 million goal of the whole campaign — but, more than that, there are goals for the individual parishes that are yet to be met for the campaign.

In July, money collected over the goal amount for any specific parish is returned to the parish as a rebate. This money is used towards parish construction projects and ministries. However, with only 17 parishes having exceeded their goal so far, there is still a long way to go in terms of raising money for diocesan parishes.

St. Henry Parish, Elsmere, has successfully exceeded its DPAA goal this year — and has been setting aside rebates since 2022 for the pavement and restriping of the parish’s parking lot this year, according to Kris Staverman, a parishioner. “The lot was last resurfaced with new asphalt in 1989,” said Ms. Staverman, who notes that additional funds will be put towards a new sound system for the church.

Other parishes who have exceeded their goals include St. Therese Parish, Southgate, whose pastor, Father Michael Grady, hopes to put the money towards tuition assistance for St. Therese’s school. “We see a need there and we try to fill that need so that our families can afford a Catholic education,” said Father Grady.

Holy Spirit Parish has also exceeded its goal, and will be putting their 2025 DPAA rebate into a “transformative project,” according to parishioner Alex Bramel. These projects include a new limestone retaining wall, new landscaping and an irrigation system.

However, with these parishes on track to receive funds towards their projects — many other parishes are still working together to meet those goals.

Giving for the 2025 DPAA is still open — and pledges and contributions are needed to assist not just the parishes of the Diocese of Covington, but the ministries and people, as well. More information, including giving, can be found online at https://covdio.org/ stewardship-missions/.

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

Kentucky House Bill 90, AN ACT relating to maternal health and declaring an emergency, was passed on March 27 with a veto override vote in both the House and Senate. The bill, lobbied on by Addia Wuchner, executive director, Kentucky Right to Life, included three main components.

“House Bill 90,” said Mrs. Wuchner, “is a comprehensive maternal health bill covering many aspects that concern maternal health in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.”

The three main components are the establishment of a licensing framework for free standing birthing centers in Kentucky, the providing of legal and clinical clarity for maternal health interventions that are not elective abortions and the expansion of access to perinatal palliative care.

A freestanding birthing center is described in the bill language as, “a safe and regulated alternative for maternity care, offering a medically directed care, midwifery-led model that emphasized holistic, patient-centered care.”

The establishment of freestanding birthing centers was the core of House Bill 90 before the two latter elements were introduced to the Bill framework.

The legal and clinical clarity for maternal healthcare helps physicians to distinguish comprehensive and appropriate medical care from elective abortion. It provides clarification on medical conditions that are not abortions and therefore are explicitly protected medical treatments under Kentucky law. Conditions such as miscarriage management, ectopic pregnancy treatment, molar pregnancy treatment, sepsis treatment, hemorrhage control and the management of fetal demise and stillbirth.

This portion of the Bill was cited by Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear as his reason for vetoing the Bill. The primary concern of all those against House Bill 90 was the restrictive nature of an exhaustive list of treatable conditions under Kentucky law.

“No one, including legislators, can possibly create an exhaustive list of emergency situations that may occur in a hospital or medical facility. Gaps in the law are literally a matter of life and death,” said Governor Beshear in his veto.

Mrs. Wuchner refutes this claim, saying that it is necessary to define what is not an intentional abortion so that medical intervention is able to be exercised without fear of legal retribution.

“While we already define what is an abortion, let’s define what isn’t an abortion. We defined an outline that miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, septic miscarriage, are not abortions … The common language defining that these are not considered an elective abortion so that it was clear that women in Kentucky … have the care that they need,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

“Working with the medical community was to assure that there’s no question when it comes to the care that women in Kentucky are going to receive and deserve. We didn’t think that there was a question before, but since it kept being brought up that there were concerns, we wanted to eliminate those concerns,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

Representative Kim Moser, chairwomen of Health and Family Services committee, said, “This is about offering real options and real support when families face incredibly difficult medical news. House Bill 90 brings clarity when a maternal complication requires medically therapeutic treatment or critical life-saving interventions.”

Faye Roch, director of the Diocese of Covington ProLife Office, worked closely with Mrs. Wuchner, in listening sessions and advocating for pieces in the Bill.

“We’re working together to keep a close eye on everything that’s going on in Frankfort,” said Mrs. Wuchner.

When asked what she wanted Messenger readers to know about the Bill, Mrs. Wuchner said, “I hope that when they hear about this, I want them to be proud of Kentucky and proud of what the General Assembly gas done.”

Laura Keener

Editor

Cohort 2 completed four weekends of Parish Missionary Disciples training, May 17, at St. Joseph Parish, Cold Spring. Carla Molina, leadership consultant, Catholic Leadership Institute, led the training, with Deacon James Fortner, diocesan chief operating officer and Jamie Schroeder, chancellor, leading the sending at the final meeting.

In his comments, Deacon Fortner emphasized the importance of PMD as a model of how diocesan offices and parishes should work together, as envisioned by Bishop John Iffert.

“To him, this is the model of a lot of our ministries, where we provide some training, some accompaniment, some skill building and then we turn the lay faithful loose, to go work back at their parish,” said Deacon Fortner. “Parish life is ground zero, that’s where relationships are struck, that’s where we lead people to the sacraments.”

PMD is a training program designed to equip parishioners with the skills needed for effective evangelization. This includes knowing and be able to articulate a personal faith witness and to engage with others through prayer. PMD is part of the With One Heart initiative and a Leadership Development strategy of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan. PMD training is led by consultants from the Catholic Leadership Institute (CLI) and has been offered to members in the Diocese of Covington at no charge, thanks to generous donations from benefactors committed to promoting evangelization efforts in the diocese.

“We’re blessed to have CLI that brings this capability,” Deacon Fortner said.

Cohort 1, a group of 60 witnesses, completed PMD training in April 2024. Cohort 2 adds another 31 witnesses to Bishop Iffert’s goal of 500 witnesses, impacting 90 percent of parishes in the Diocese. Two initiatives begun by two couples from Cohort 1 will help the diocese to meet its goal.

The first is the establishment of the GYMM, an acronym for Growing Your Missionary Disciples Muscles. Bill and Kim Dehlinger, parishioners, Blessed Sacrament Parish and Jerry and Bridget Otto, Mother of God Parish, host a monthly meeting for PMD witnesses. At the GYMM, witnesses practice what they learned — praying together and sharing their faith story.

“The idea for the GYMM is that this is a place where you can go back and review and be refreshed and be renewed and get support and network with everybody else that’s been through Parish Missionary Disciples,” said Mrs. Schroeder. “I really encourage you to do that, just to keep this going and to keep that fire burning.”

The second is to continue honing a shorter, more easily presentable discipleship program to implement at parishes. Mr. and Mrs. Otto have already taken leadership of this program. With the blessing of the CLI, the Otto’s took the information from PMD training and distilled it into three two-hour sessions. Last month, the Otto’s held the first presentation at Mother of God Church. “It was a big success,” said Deacon Fortner noting that about 25 people from parishes across the diocese attended. “Honestly, that’s kind of what we’re thinking is the path forward, to reformulate this and to do an intermediate kind of a program.”

Having quantitative measures is certainly a worthy goal, but Deacon Fortner said, more important “is transformation.”

“You guys need to take this competency and run with it,” Deacon Fortner said, “We’re never going to have all the training, trust me. You’re never going to feel like you got it all, because we don’t. It’s all about the Holy Spirit. You know how to love. Invite others to dinner, invite them into a relationship and let the Holy Spirit come lead.”