Archive for category: Featured Stories

Laura Keener

Editor

Bishop John Iffert led the inaugural Good Friday praying of the Stations of the Cross, April 3, at the newly dedicated Gardens of St. Patrick’s. Hundreds of people from across the Diocese of Covington participated. It was one of several events held at the Gardens during Holy Week, which culminated with sunrise Easter Sunday Mass with Father James Sichko.

Before opening prayers beginning the Stations of the Cross, Bishop Iffert shared that the Church of St. Peter in Gallicantu is one of his favorite places he visited in Jerusalem. The church is believed to be built over the house of the high priest Joseph Caiaphas, and the place where Jesus was held in a lower-level dungeon the night before his passion and death.

“It’s a moving place,” said Bishp Iffert. “And one of things that makes it so moving is that as you descend the stairs down into the stone pit, you pass crosses and graffiti that has been scratched into the wall.”

Some of the graffiti dates to the late first century. The graffiti, said Bishop Iffert, “is part of the testimony that says this is the place where Jesus was held. It’s because of those early pilgrim witnesses who went there to join him in his place, so today, here in Maysville, Kentucky, we join ourselves to all of those believers in Jesus, all of those Christians, all of those who seek to be self-emptying like Christ. We join them in remembering the journey that Jesus took to his cross and to his tomb and beyond.”

At the Gardens there are 15 stations featuring life-sized bronze statues, 14 traditional stations with the 15th being the Resurrection. The 14th Station — Jesus is Laid in the Tomb — is nearly complete. The tomb and its 5,000-pound rolling stone are there; the statues are on the way. The tomb and rolling stone were hand carved by Kentuckians from ancient limestone, 485 million years old. The 15th Station — the Resurrection — still needs to be installed. Bishop Iffert said that he likes that the Gardens are not complete for the inaugural events because it reminds us that we aren’t complete and that God is continually drawing us to him.

The Via Dolorosa — the Way of Suffering — begins with visitors passing by a 6,000-year-old olive press, a tangible reminder of the Garden of Gethsemane, an olive garden, were with a kiss Judas betrayed Jesus, an innocent man.

Bishop Iffert invited everyone to join him in praying for all those wrongly accused, detained and imprisoned throughout the world.

The journey ends at reflection pools with fountains surrounding a 7.5 story lighted cross near the 15th Station. The cross is prominently placed so that it can be clearly seen by travelers passing along Route 62.

“To meditate on the suffering and death of Jesus Christ is to invite Jesus to be with us in carrying our crosses,” said Bishop Iffert, “to ask Jesus for the grace not that our cross would go away, not that our cross would be removed from us, but that Jesus will be with us under our crosses, and Jesus will strengthen us to be able to carry the cross that is ours in life.”

The evening revealed the event’s quiet power through the eyes of a young participant, Juan Briseño, a student from St. Patrick’s School who volunteered to serve for Bishop Iffert. He described being deeply moved while walking among the Stations and seeing them “brought to life,” an experience he said left him newly motivated. Like many in attendance, he was surprised by the size of the crowd — a testament to the strong sense of community and shared faith that shaped the night.

Visitors described the experience as deeply emotional, noting how the Stations of the Cross immediately invited personal reflection. The quiet, prayerful atmosphere allowed participants to pause and reflect on Christ’s passion in a way that felt both intimate and profound.

“I’ve lived here all my life, and this just touches my heart when you think about how much he (Jesus) did for us. This is the most amazing tribute someone could give to our community,” said Debbie Mason, parishioner at St. Patrick Parish, Maysville. She was especially moved by the First Station — Jesus is Condemned to Death. “That station reminds me that we all had a part in it — whether we want to admit it or not — through what we’ve done or failed to do.”

Several visitors emphasized how the scale and presentation of the displays intensified that experience. Helen McKay, parishioner, St. Patrick Parish, Maysville, noted that the larger-than-life elements made a lasting impression, explaining that “it’s much more moving than a three‑by‑three.” For her, the physical size and presence of the stations deepened the sense of walking alongside Christ on his journey.

St. Patrick parishioner Dana Casey, agreed. “To stand next to the life‑size Stations of the Cross instead of seeing them as small icons on the wall makes the story feel personal and real,” said Ms. Casey. An exceptionally emotional moment for her came at Station Four — Jesus Meets His Mother. “The moment when Jesus sees his mother — just that silent glance between them — really stayed with me. They didn’t need words. She had to say ‘yes’ at the beginning, and she had to say it again at the end.”

For others, attending the stations was an intentional part of observing Good Friday.

St. Catherine of Siena parishioners David and Sharon Kohr who traveled from Ft. Thomas echoed that sense of personal connection. Mr. Kohrs said that praying, “The Stations of the Cross were always very emotional—[they] go straight to the soul.”

Mr. Kohrs expressed the importance of making the time for Holy Week observances despite busy schedules, saying, “When we saw this in the Messenger, we just made it happen. We made ourselves make it into our schedule that we would come down and spend Good Friday here.” He added that retracing “the real journey of Christ, through his passion,” is “such an integral part of our faith,” and something they wanted to hold “in our heart and our soul.”

Mrs. Kohrs shared that the experience left a lasting impression. “It’s such a blessing,” she said, adding that she was “absolutely” glad they made the trip. The combination of personal prayer, art and shared worship made the observance both meaningful and memorable

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

As the one day in the liturgical year that Mass is not celebrated in the Catholic Church, the Good Friday observance, which this year fell on April 3, is a solemn observance and celebration of the Lord’s death and Passion.

Good Friday services include a liturgy marked by solemnity — with a silent procession. It is customary during the liturgy for the congregation to come forward and venerate the cross, typically with a kiss or reverent touch.

Father Ryan Maher, rector, was the celebrant at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption’s Good Friday service. Vice-rector Msgr. Kurt Kemo served as the homilist.

“Good Friday forces us to slow down and look at what our salvation costs,” Msgr. Kemo said during his homily. “Not an idea, not a symbol — a body. Blood poured out of love.”

Msgr. Kemo said that “Jesus does not die peacefully in his sleep. He is betrayed by a friend, abandoned by his disciples … nailed to wood, and yet, this is not defeat.”

“He does not have his life taken from him,” Msgr. Kemo continued. “He hands it over on the cross … The work is complete, the work of love, the work of obedience, the work of redemption. Good Friday reveals the truth about God. God does not save us from a distance, he enters our suffering.”

In addition to this truth, Msgr. Kemo said that Good Friday “also reveals the truth about us.”

“We are the ones who shall be crucified,” he said. “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them.’ … God responds to sin not with vengeance, but with mercy — not with power, but with self-giving love. When we venerate the cross before us today, we are not honoring suffering for its own sake. We are honoring love that holds nothing back, love that goes to the very end — love that trusts the Father, even in darkness.”

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

The Gardens at St. Patrick’s beckoned hundreds to a celebration, ribbon cutting and Mass on April 1, with founder Gerald Lundergan, his wife Charlotte Lundergan and other esteemed guests such as former President of the United States Bill Clinton, a personal friend of the Lundergans; Archbishop Emeritus of New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan; former University of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari; and the diocese’s own Bishop John Iffert and Bishop Emeritus Roger Foys. Together, they cut the symbolic ribbon in front of the state-of-the-art welcome center, opening the Gardens to all, inviting them to a place of prayer, reverence and personal pilgrimage, where they can follow along in Christ’s paschal mystery.

Cardinal Dolan began the celebration of Mass outdoors, among the stations, with Bishop John Iffert; Father Augustine Aidoo, pastor, St. Patrick Church, Maysville; Father Joshua Heskamp, parochial vicar, St. Patrick Church; Father Michael Black, parochial administrator, St. John the Baptist Parish, Wilder; Father Andrew Young, pastor, St. Joseph Parish, Cold Spring; and Deacon Steve Winbigler, also of St. Joseph Parish, Cold Spring, before the threat of rain and increased wind speed necessitated the celebration to move indoors.

“Sometimes when you have these kinds of emergencies, it’s more memorable, and it kind of reminds us, it’s his sacrifice, it’s his supper; we’re blessed to participate in it,” said Cardinal Dolan of the change in location mid-celebration.

Given the abrupt change, Cardinal Dolan’s homily was brief but impactful. He reminded those who remained of the spiritual song which says, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” In response, Cardinal Dolan told the crowd, “You bet we were and we sure are. Thanks to these living stations of the cross here in Maysville, we were there. We are there. The passion, death and resurrection of the Lord didn’t just happen. It is happening.”

This echoes a sentiment which Cardinal Dolan shared with the students of St. Patrick School, Maysville: “These are life-size. These are really going to make the Passion and death of our Lord come alive because it is alive. Jesus is still on this cross. Jesus is still rising from the dead, and he wants us to be close to him.”

“Our life is united to the life-size stations of the cross. Our life is united to Jesus, who told us that he is the way, the truth and the life,” he said to the students.

The Gardens at St. Patrick’s is a 6-acre recreation of the Passion of Christ, complete with extraordinary attention to detail and a 7.5-story-tall lighted cross. Visitors will begin their journey in a symbolic Garden of Gethsemane, where a 6,000-year-old olive press sits, a reminder of Gethsemane’s original function as an olive garden before its key role as the location of Judas’ betrayal.

“You can walk through this garden and touch that implementation and think of Jesus and his work and the incarnation and the way he emptied himself out to become one of us,” said Bishop Iffert at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

The garden will lead visitors down a scaled replica of the Via Dolorosa, the path which Christ walked to crucifixion, where they will marvel at the strategically placed life-sized stations of the cross. The sculptures were hand-carved by Italian sculptor Reto Demetz and his team in Northern Italy, before being shipped to their permanent home at the Gardens of St. Patrick’s.

“I want it to be just like it is in Jerusalem,” said Mr. Lundergan at a private endowment luncheon prior to the public celebrations. “I want it to be exactly like Jerusalem so that when people come they go to Jerusalem, they’ll know exactly what our Lord went through, for each and every one of us.”

Praying the Stations of the Cross is a common practice during Lent, a time of penance and sacrifice, as a way to connect with Christ and his great sacrifice on the cross.

“We have a tradition,” Bishop Iffert said at the ribbon-cutting. “We speak of that as those who are baptized into Jesus as being called to live as Alter Christi — other Christs. After his pattern, in his style of loving the people he loves, learning to live sacrificially as he lives.”

“This is what a garden like this is about. This is what the Stations of the Cross are about,” he said. “Inviting us to walk literally in the path of Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at, but rather he emptied himself out, becoming human, like one of us in all things but sin. That’s what this garden is about. It’s about forming people, forming people to live like Christ, to live into that baptismal call, to become the hands and feet, the extension of Christ in the world.”

The beautifully, intricately carved stations serve as a stark recreation of the Passion of Christ. With the emotion shown raw on the statue faces, livid anger and gut-wrenching sadness, it makes real the passion, death and resurrection.

“Anybody who thinks that God is distant, anybody who thinks that God doesn’t know what they’re going through, anybody that thinks that God is way beyond this, let them come to Maysville and let them come to this Garden of St. Patrick. Let them look in the eyes of the life-size Christ. Let them see him fall and try to get back up. Let them see his mother’s tears as she greets him on the Via Crucis. Let them see the anger and the violence in the soldiers. Let them see,” said Cardinal Dolan at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

“These gardens are more than just soil and stone,” said Mr. Lundergan at the endowment luncheon. “They are a sacred path that tells a story of suffering, sacrifice and ultimately redemption. These stations remind us that Christ himself carried a cross, and in our own lives, we are each called to carry our cross.”

Speaking to the hundreds gathered at the welcome center, Mr. Lundergan said, “No matter if you’re Catholic, Protestant, Christian, as long as you believe in the Lord and what he did for us, this is your garden.”

Bishop Iffert said to the crowd, “When we have the stations built on such a magnificent stage, such a magnificent proportion, maybe it will just help us to think for just a moment about how living after the image and likeness of Jesus means that he takes all of us, every gift that we have to give, every sorrow we have to suffer, and he takes it … he blesses it, he breaks it, he shares it, he makes it plenty. That’s what a place like this can do for us.”

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. “The month of April offers us the opportunity to come together to protect our children and ensure every child has a safe and nurturing environment where they can grow and thrive,” wrote the USCCB Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection in the conference’s 2026 materials.

Participation in raising awareness for Child Abuse Prevention Month includes wearing blue, the recognized color for child abuse prevention and awareness, or displaying pinwheels — another symbol of the movement. The Diocese of Covington, including the Curia building in Covington, and other Greater Cincinnati organizations and businesses will also be participating in the “Light it Up Blue” campaign, shining blue light onto their buildings and businesses — a campaign that Julie Feinauer, director, Office of Safe Environment, says that individuals are encouraged to participate in, too, lighting their homes blue in support of this important initiative.

Other ways to support child abuse prevention, both in April and year wide, is to support “local agencies that help women who are in domestic violence situations,” Mrs. Feinauer said, “because that is one place (homes) where children are abused, are in these violent homes.”  Such organizations include the Brighton Center, Catholic Charities and the Rose Garden Home Mission.

“All of these places give support to low-income families or to families who are struggling,” said Mrs. Feinauer. “Anytime that you are taking stress out of people’s lives, it’s helping to ensure that children aren’t going to be put into abusive situations.”

“Unfortunately, the Catholic Church in particular has become associated with abuse,” she said, “We want to be seen as the Church moving forward doing everything that we can to prevent, to help educate and to give resources to children and families in need.”

The Diocese of Covington continues to support this mission of healing — with 3 p.m. monthly Holy Hours held at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, held on the third Thursday of each month praying for victims of abuse. And with programs such as VIRTUS, which vet the volunteers and individuals who interact with children in the diocese and educate adults on important topics such as how to create safe environments for children as well as recognize and report suspected abuse — as all adults in Kentucky are considered mandatory reporters. And by educating its school children, preschool through 12^th grade, on safety by identifying boundaries and reporting to safe adults through the VIRTUS Empowering God’s Children program.

“We are grateful for the work of individuals, organizations and policymakers who continue to work for the protection of children from abuse and neglect,” the USCCB concluded their letter for 2026 Child Abuse Prevention Month, further encouraging all Catholics and people nationally to continue the mission.

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

Seventh and eighth-grade students from St. Therese, Southgate; St. Paul, Florence; St. Philip, Melbourne and Prince of Peace, Covington, were invited to join UNHEARDOF brand shoe designer Phil Lipschutz, March 27, along with representatives from Adidas and shoe influencer and photographer Andrew Dutton, to the launch of his new collaborative sneaker at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.

The “Piggy Runners” released during the drop were given for free to each student present, in bright, nostalgic spring colors. Specifically, students received the shoe in a green “Cupcake” colorway, named for one of Mr. Lipschutz’s childhood friends.

The Contemporary Arts Center welcomed students with colorful, springtime and Easter-themed décor matching Mr. Lipschutz’s shoes, and mascots of Mr. Lipschutz’s pink pig mascot “Porkchop” (named after his own childhood nickname) and green pig mascot “Cupcake” joined in the festivities.

Donating these special shoes has become a tradition for Mr. Lipschutz as a way to give back to his community, crediting especially the efforts of his former teacher and current diocesan Safe Environment director, Julie Feinauer, for his success following a turbulent childhood growing up in Latonia.

Speaking directly to the students present, Mr. Lipschutz said, “I know what it’s like with some of the challenges and some of the experiences that you guys go through, but what has really helped me through my life is my friends and building new friends and communicating with my friends. I’ve done a lot of shows with Adidas over the last few years,” he said, “I’m not going to run through them all, but a lot of them talk about mental health and suicide prevention.”

Mr. Lipschutz, who lost his sister to suicide, said that he advocates in particular for kids to “continue to talk each other” and “continue to speak up.”

“If we quit the name-calling, quit the picking on one another, and we just hash out our differences and our problems — we can ‘oink’ the whole world,” said Mr. Lipschutz, humorously referencing his pig-themed branding and mascots.

“You guys are going to change the world,” Mr. Lipschutz told students. “You guys are going to make an impact and make this an even cooler, doper planet that it already is. Without a doubt, I’m so fortunate and I’m so thankful to be alive, and you should too, because you only get one life. You’ve got to maximize it. You can’t waste it. You can’t give up on yourself.”