Archive for category: Featured Stories

Bella Bailey

Multimedia Correspondent

It was a buzz and the click of a lock, disengaging inside of large metal doors, that granted jail ministry volunteers access to a multipurpose room inside of the Kenton County Detention Center, Covington. The drab gray walls, plastic folding tables and worn-down carpet, set the scene for the events of May 8, when inmate Winston Gaines was welcomed into the Catholic Church through the Sacraments of Initiation. Administered by Father Jeff VonLehmen, pastor, St. Patrick Parish, Taylor Mill, and assisted by Deacon Barry Henry, director of Community Ministries and Outreach for Catholic Charities Covington, folding tables became an altar inside a makeshift chapel.

Father VonLehmen prepared the water for baptism, pouring holy water from a cleaned and repurposed Powerade bottle into a pitcher full of tap water, blessing it, preparing it to be used in the baptism. He said to Mr. Gaines, “Water, filling this bowl, let it fill your heart, let it cleanse, let it change, let it transform, let it nourish. In that sense, you can be free from all your sins, all our sins, you can always be free in that sense and strengthened to live a happier life.”

Then, taking the water, Father VonLehmen baptized Mr. Gaines who, though handcuffed, was set free of the stain of original sin and all those he has committed. Later, taking the perfumed chrism from a vial, Father VonLehmen confirmed Mr. Gaines, as the hands of jail ministers rested on his shoulders, a symbolic sign of support.

Those same hands rested on Mr. Gaines as he received Christ in the Eucharist for the first time, as Father VonLehmen told him in the homily, “there’s no place that Jesus can’t find us, come to us … now, from the Eucharist, born from above, he can reach people where nobody else can reach, in our hearts.”

Mr. Gaines said that he has been “anticipating” receiving the sacraments, and “looking forward to it.” Through these sacraments Mr. Gaines was initiated into the Catholic Church, but they also provide for him a continued path towards healing. With Mr. Gaines saying that he is most looking forward to receiving the sacraments now that he is Catholic, and that he hopes his newfound faith will “help me to be closer to God.”

The latest success story through the work of Catholic Charities, Covington, jail ministry program, Mr. Gaines approached jail ministers inside the detention center in January and inquired about becoming Catholic. However, his journey to the faith began long before his incarceration.

Mr. Gaines’ first encounter with his faith was through his grandmother, though it was not until his adult life that he began exploring a personal faith journey. “I had been doing research and was learning about the sacraments. I was going to different churches and trying to figure out why there are so many different churches and which church to go to. I realized that Catholic is the church,” he said.

After his incarceration, Mr. Gaines made the decision to become Catholic. “When I was here, the people from the Covington Diocese, I asked them and they hooked me up with Vince,” he said.

Vince Lonneman, one of Catholic Charities’ jail ministers, and new volunteer coordinator, accompanied Mr. Gaines through OCIA, working with him on matters of the faith: Old Testament and New Testament theology, the meaning of the Sacraments, the Eucharist as the true presence of Christ, how to pray the rosary and even stations of the cross.

Mr. Lonneman was “very excited” to work with Mr. Gaines, saying, “it was a very enriching, exciting, spiritual experience for me … One of the best gifts you can give to somebody is give them their faith. It was very enriching and rewarding for me, and I’ll never forget it the rest of my life.”

Though Mr. Gaines, a quiet and introspective person, said only that his OCIA experience was “interesting,” the emotion was evident when he announced his confirmation saint, St. Vincent.

Calling the sacramental experience, “happy,” and “almost overwhelming,” Mr. Gaines looks forward to practicing the Catholic faith, and learning more with the Catechism of the Catholic Church gifted to him by Deacon Henry.

Mr. Lonneman reflected on the fruits of the jail ministry team, saying, “they are always very appreciative, and that’s what we do. We go in and we give them hope, we give them some Scripture, we give them some things they can fall back on.” And in the case of Mr. Gaines, he received new life in Jesus, and a new community in the faith.

To learn more about the jail ministry program and how to volunteer go to: covingtoncharities.org/services/community-outreach-services/jail-prison-ministry.

Laura Keener

Editor

Long before Pam McQueen ever walked the halls of Villa Madonna Academy as its first lay principal, a paperback copy of The Great Gatsby helped chart her course. Assigned by her high school English teacher, the novel gripped her so completely that, she said, “I don’t know — I read the first couple of chapters, I couldn’t put it down,” and “there was something about the characters in this that just changed my life.”

Mrs. McQueen said she saw herself most in Nick Carraway — the observant narrator who tries to make sense of the people around him and, ultimately, chooses integrity over illusion. As a young reader, she was drawn to Nick’s role as listener and truth-teller, she said, and to “the way he watches everything and then decides what really matters.”

That perspective, Mrs. McQueen explained, stayed with her in education: paying close attention to students’ stories, weighing competing voices and leading with a steady moral compass.

This spring, Mrs. McQueen will deliver commencement remarks one more time — like always, with Gatsby “in there” — and then retire from the principal’s office after 30 years leading the Benedictine school. She will remain at Villa Madonna Academy in the role of president focusing on strategic planning, alumni engagement and the next phase of fundraising.

Mrs. McQueen became principal three decades ago after teaching English at St. Henry District High School and Newport Central Catholic. “Brand new principal — first lay principal here,” she recalled.

She remembers arriving to an unfamiliar culture and quickly learning that the job was more than first-day excitement. “The first days were challenging,” she said, but she found mentors and, importantly, a warm welcome from the Benedictine Sisters who founded the academy. “They were incredibly supportive … and from the get-go, made me feel like part of their family,” Mrs. McQueen said. “I always felt welcomed, always.”

Over the years, Mrs. McQueen worked to make Villa Madonna’s Benedictine identity unmistakable. “I set out [that] the minute you walk into this building, you need to know you’re in a Benedictine school,” she said, describing graphics, a prominent Benedictine cross and giving each freshman a copy of the Rule of St. Benedict. “Every day we talked about hospitality and respect and reverence and stewardship. It’s in our announcements and it’s in everything we do.”

Those values, she said, helped sustain a close-knit faculty community through decades of change. “We don’t go to work in the morning — we go to school,” Mrs. McQueen said. She points to milestones such as opening the new gym in 2000, earning multiple National Blue Ribbon recognitions and other honors and navigating a major capital campaign that began in 2019 and paused during the pandemic. Despite rising costs, “we raised the money to renovate that building,” she said and the campus’ new STEM wing is nearing completion.

Mrs. McQueen also championed a distinctive grade-level model, integrating junior high students into the high school setting. The approach, she said, reframes early adolescents as “young adults,” giving them expectations and role models while surrounding them with a Benedictine house system designed to teach community. “It works. The model really works well,” she said.

During her tenure, she and faculty members began connecting with 24 other Benedictine high schools in the United States, forming a colloquium. “We have this tight knit group of Benedictine heads of school and we all work together,” said Mrs. McQueen, noting that she, faculty members and students have visited and welcomed students from California, New Jersey, Alabama and more.

Next year, Villa Madonna Academy will return to a leadership structure that separates day-to-day academic oversight from long-range operations and advancement. Mrs. McQueen has held a dual role, but the school is splitting responsibilities so she can focus on the president/executive director portfolio.

In the model, the president leads advancement, finance and community relationships, while the principal concentrates on curriculum, student life and instructional leadership. “It’s become more and more — I think more and more is expected of principals through the years,” Mrs. McQueen said, citing student mental health needs, teacher support and new programming. “So, you really need somebody that can focus 100 percent” on the principalship.

The search for a new principal is nearing completion, with the school down to its final candidates, she said.

As she transitions, Mrs. McQueen says she will work intentionally to give the incoming principal room to lead. “For me, it’s going to be important to step back and let the new principal create his or her culture,” she said, while still staying present with students and families. “I want to do that too … but to not be intrusive … just to be a support, however they might need me to be.”

About her time as principal, Mrs. McQueen said, “Being here has been the gift of a lifetime. It’s bittersweet … I will miss it,” she said, as she looks toward a new chapter — still at Villa Madonna Academy — in a singular role as president.

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

May in the Catholic Church is dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, Mary. Traditionally, and in many parishes today, one way that she is celebrated during the month is through a “May Crowning” — a ceremony where a statue of Mary is crowned, typically by the parish’s children, representative of her role as Queen of Heaven.

May Crowning at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, coincided with the Sacrament of First Communion for three parish children, May 3. These children were the ones to crown Mary during that morning Mass, celebrating with their parish, families and with Father Ryan Maher, the Cathedral’s rector as well as the Mass’s celebrant and homilist.

During his homily, Father Maher descended from the sanctuary to sit with and speak directly with the first communicants. He began his homily speaking to the children about St. Peter.

“It was Peter that Jesus chose to be the head of the 12 and the head of the Church,” Father Maher said, “and we know about Peter’s life in the Scriptures — Peter sometimes got excited about something and wasn’t able to follow through.”

“Sometimes,” he said, “he wanted to love Jesus with his heart — and then, when Jesus needed him, he wasn’t around. He betrayed Jesus.”

Father Maher pointed out to first communicants the depictions of St. Peter in the cathedral’s windows, where he is seen dressed in gold vestments — “because he was chosen by the Lord to be the head of his Church and the head of all of us in the life of faith.”

Referencing the second reading of the Mass, as St. Peter speaks to the Church’s early disciples, Father Maher told the children, “He says, go to him. Go to him, a living stone. Jesus, he’s talking about, is a living stone. Jesus is chosen and precious in the sight of God, be built into a spiritual house.”

“The same Jesus who forgave Peter forgives us when we are far away from the Lord,” said Father Maher. “… Peter is telling the early Church to go to him and to become like him because we are chosen. We are precious in the sight of God … and we are to be built into a dwelling place.”

While the Cathedral itself can be considered a spiritual dwelling place, Father Maher said that “Jesus, in the Gospel today, speaks of another type of dwelling place … it’s the place of Heaven.”

“Did you know?” he asked communicants, “Did you know that God, the Father, has already made a place for you in Heaven? For me in Heaven? For all of you in Heaven? That’s how much he loves us.”

“On this day, the day of your First Holy Communion, make a dwelling place in your heart for Jesus,” Father Maher continued, “… Every time you come to Mass, open your heart because you are chosen and you are precious in the sight of God. If we can all remember that we will truly become a dwelling place that’s fit for the Lord Jesus — a place to know in Holy Communion how much we are loved, how much mercy the Father has for us. When we allow ourselves to be built into living stones and our heart becomes a tabernacle for Jesus in the Eucharist, you know what changes? Our whole life.”

Laura Keener

Editor

The Diocese of Covington has formed three commissions that will spend the next four months studying, praying and discussing a strategic plan that will guide the diocese for 30 years or more. These three commissions are — Catholic Schools Commission, Catholic Charities Commission and Catholic Foundation Commission. A fourth commission — the Diocesan Governance Commission — will begin its work in the Fall, building on the needs and direction identified by the other three commissions.

The Catholic Foundation Commission is examining whether to create a Catholic Foundation — an independent nonprofit that could help parishes, schools and diocesan ministries with long-term giving and fundraising support. The Catholic Foundation Commission held its first meeting April 15, where Bishop John Iffert addressed the Commission via video.

Referencing the With One Heart planning process that parishes and the diocese have been implementing the last three years, Bishop Iffert said, “Tonight we’re kicking off on another kind of parallel strategic planning process. In this process, especially, we want to work on developing the capacity of the local Church to be able to support ministries that make a difference in people’s lives.”

The work of the Commission, Bishop Iffert said, is “to study and to bring into fruition a Catholic foundation to encourage giving in support of the mission of Jesus and his kingdom. That’s what this foundation is all about, to encourage that natural response that we need to give.”

The conversation for a foundation started about a year ago during efforts to better coordinate planned giving and estate planning across the diocese. Jim Hess, diocesan director for Stewardship and Mission Services, said early talks with Catholic Charities raised a simple question: How can the Church make it easier for people to include their parish, school or ministry in their long-term plans?

“We were having conversations about encouraging planned giving in the diocese and estate planning, and how we could both do that and coordinate that work together,” Mr. Hess said.

When leaders asked other dioceses how they manage that work, he said the answer was consistent: “Every diocese that we talked to said that you have to have a foundation in place.”

Mr. Hess said Bishop Iffert has approved a planning process to explore the idea. Whether or not to move forward with forming a foundation or what the final structure of the foundation would look like is the work of the Foundation Commission and its three subcommittees.

“None of these things have been decided,” Mr. Hess said. “This will be the work of the commission, and it’ll be an intensive work over the next four months.”

At the commission’s first meeting, about 60 people attended, including priests, school leaders, parents and other parishioners. Mr. Hess said the group’s questions took up so much time that organizers didn’t get to the second half of its agenda.

“It was wonderful to see how curious people are,” Mr. Hess said, adding that the discussion helped explain “what a foundation could provide for the diocese and also what a foundation is not.”

In general terms, Mr. Hess described a diocesan foundation as a separate nonprofit organization created to serve the Church’s local needs. “A diocesan foundation would be an independent 501(c)(3), an independent nonprofit that works to support our parishes and schools,” he said.

He said it could offer services the diocese is not currently set up to provide, such as education on estate planning, support for planned giving, and help establishing and growing endowments for parishes and schools.

Mr. Hess said those funds could be professionally managed and “invested ethically … in Catholic and ethical portfolios.” He also said a foundation model can add oversight through a lay board and clearer reporting, giving donors “visibility into how their money is being used, how it’s being invested.”

Just as important, Mr. Hess stressed that a foundation would not replace parish offertory or compete with schools and parishes for donations. “We’re not competing with the parishes and schools,” he said. “The foundation actually expands the capacity of parishes and schools to be able to accept different ways of giving that right now they’re not set up to receive.”

One practical example is fundraising consulting. Mr. Hess said parishes and schools often hire outside firms for capital campaigns, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars for a standard campaign. A foundation could reduce that cost by building an in-house team.

Equally important, when outside firms leave, he said, “any of the relationships that they’ve created with our faithful leave with them.” A diocesan foundation, he said, could help ensure those relationships stay in the Church.

Deacon Jim Fortner echoed the need for a coordinated approach.

“Today, everybody’s separate. There’s no strategy,” he said, noting that parishes are often “on their own” when it comes to endowments, planned giving or major fundraising.

Deacon Fortner said he sees a foundation as “the umbrella that everything hooks into,” helping keep donor relationships and information “inside the Church” instead of handing them to consultants “who come and go and take all that valuable data with them.”

Mr. Hess said recent research into local giving trends has been “very eye opening.” Looking back over decades of records, he said, “on average, the diocese and its parishes receive less than one percent of their income from bequests,” and “the majority of those funds come from priests.”

In dioceses with a working foundation, he said, bequests often average “eight to 10 percent.” For a diocese this size, he added, that can mean around $2.5 million a year in bequest gifts. Currently, the diocese averages about $25,000 in bequests each year.

Deacon Fortner said other dioceses encouraged Covington leaders to start talking about estate planning sooner rather than later. “Faithful are passing and we’re just not in the conversation,” he said. Deacon Fortner also pointed to broader challenges, including fewer households participating in parish life, saying the diocese needs “a more strategic approach” if it wants ministries to remain “healthy and robust.”

Mr. Hess said a foundation could also help parishes teach stewardship in a practical way.

“A major aspect of living a life of stewardship is deciding what you’re going to do with the gifts God has entrusted you with when we pass on from this earth,” he said. Mr. Hess said many Catholics have not taken that step, adding that “70 percent of Catholics don’t have an estate plan in place.”

When families do plan, he said, it can bring relief: donors often feel “an immense peace of mind … for their children and grandchildren” because it can prevent the estate from going through probate court and tying things up for months or years for loved ones.

Mr. Hess said that planned giving isn’t only for the wealthy. “For the vast majority of people, the largest gift they’ll ever make in their life is their estate,” he said, which may include a home, insurance policies, or retirement accounts. He said the foundation’s work would especially help “the vast majority of people that doesn’t have … a network of financial planners and legal advisors.”

For example, the average teacher that might have an estate of $30,000 when they die, doesn’t have a legal team but still has a need to sit down with someone to guide through estate planning.

Questions about oversight are central to the commission’s work. Mr. Hess said there are “different models” for how much involvement a bishop has, and the Governance Subcommittee will study what has worked in other dioceses. He said the goal is to set up something that will serve local Catholics for the long haul: “For the decades and centuries to come, we want to take our time now to establish something that is going to serve the Diocese best.”

Over the next four months, the commission will continue gathering feedback and reviewing possible services and governance options before making recommendations. For now, diocesan leaders say the discussion is about building a stronger support system for parishes and schools — while making sure any new foundation is clear in purpose, transparent in operation and focused on serving local Catholic ministries.

For more information on the Planning Commissions visit www.covdioplanning.org.