Maura Baker

Staff Writer

One of over 400 catechumens and candidates to enter into the Church in the Diocese of Covington this year, catechumen Chris Santiago of Mother of God Parish, Covington, will be baptized and receive the sacrament of First Communion at this year’s Easter Vigil.

A teacher working for the Cincinnati nonprofit Healthy Visions, Mr. Santiago’s conversion story began with his friend and former girlfriend and her grandfather, and their influence in his life.

Although her grandfather passed away last March, Mr. Santiago describes these interactions as “integral” to his story.

“We went to Church with him all the time,” Mr. Santiago said. “He had stage four cancer.”

Previously having no ties to religion, Mr. Santiago’s time with his previous girlfriend and her grandfather developed his relationship with God.

When they first started going to Mass together, “It was for her,” said Mr. Santiago, “and her family.”

Although Mr. Santiago describes going to Mass with her family as “nice and peaceful,” a turning point occurred during a day of prayer in Cincinnati — where he and his girlfriend were climbing steps, praying the rosary together in a crowd of other faithful.

“All of it was kind of breathtaking,” he said, “And it was, ‘wow!’ … It was something that took me back.”

Her grandfather, who had continued to get sicker, passed away sometime afterwards — and from there, Mr. Santiago’s relationship to God continued to grow.

“I’m building this relationship with God, and it’s just kind of snowballing into this thing,” Mr. Santiagio said. “I started feeling close to God.”

Although Mr. Santiago and his former girlfriend have since separated, the two are still friends — with her still showing up to support him on his faith journey.

“I always appreciate her for bringing me close to God,” he said, “because I feel like this connection that I have … I needed it more than anything. I was getting to a point in my life where I’m 28 years old, I have a good job, I have a good house — I’m doing all the things I’m supposed to do, but I still felt like I needed something … and I didn’t know what I needed. And, come to find out, it was this thing that every Sunday — that I was kind of like ‘Oh, here we go again!’ — but actually putting down my head, paying attention and worshipping … these past couple months have been amazing.”

Mr. Santiagio expressed his excitement as the Easter Vigil approaches, especially towards receiving his first Communion.

“All these conversations we’ve had about the power of God and Jesus, and we’re actually taking him in … it’s kind of overwhelming a bit to me. The idea of doing that as one of the sacraments and being able to do that for the rest of my life — it’s kind of amazing,” he said. “And I can’t wait.”

Maura Baker

Staff Writer

A crowd gathered in the Curia’s Bishop Howard Memorial Hall, Covington, for a presentation titled “An Evening of Prayer, Reflection and Conversation”, March 2. The presentation, organized by the Intercommunity Sisters Peace and Justice Committee, welcomed Thomas More University’s Hannah Keegan, director of the Center for Faith, Mission and Catholic Education, as the speaker. The presentation discussed Catholic social teaching and its key principals through the lens of two Papal documents: Pope Francis’s “Dilexit Nos” (“He loved us”) and Pope Leo XIV’s “Dilexi Te” (“I have loved you”).

The documents — which speak mutually on Christ’s human and divine love — are continuations of each other. “Dilexi Te” was originally conceived by Pope Francis before his passing and later completed and published by Pope Leo XIV last October.

The presentation tackled themes such as humility, love and the dignity of the poor — with Hannah Keegan defining key principles within Catholic social teaching. (These principles being human dignity, common good, solidarity, subsidiarity, universal destination of goods and option for the poor and vulnerable.)

“Everything that Pope Leo is saying is built on the non-negotiable reality that all human beings share an intrinsic dignity due to being made in God’s image and likeness,” Mrs. Keegan said. “And this dignity is not dependent on wealth status, economic status, mental or physical functioning.”

She described this with the words “Dignitas Infinita,” or infinite dignity — as outlined in “Dilexi Te.”

“There’s a kind of material dignity that you can’t lose,” said Mrs. Keegan. “Someone who’s living in homelessness is not living in a dignified place, and we have to recognize that, but they can never lose their intrinsic dignity.”

“We, who have enough, have the responsibility — we’re obligated — that we should have a particular preference for the poor and the vulnerable, for those who can not care for themselves adequately,” she said.

Mrs. Keegan also encouraged those at the presentation to read the documents for themselves — citing them as a “great thing to read for Lent.”

“It’s so helpful to put your heart in the place of receiving what the Holy Spirit is asking right now,” she said.

Laura Keener

Editor

The public phase of the Diocesan Parish Annual Appeal kicked-off, March 3, with the first of two dinners. Over 50 people gathered with Bishop John Iffert, Lisa Knochelmann, DPAA general chair and Dr. Greg Salzman, DPAA leadership gifts chair, at Blue Licks State Park for the event.

Before the dinner, guests perused a mini-ministry fair with eight diocesan offices and 3 community ministries benefiting from the DPAA sharing their good works.

With her involvement leading the DPAA this year and last year, Mrs. Knochelmann said, “I’ve learned more about many of the organizations that the campaign helps support. It’s a blessing to hear their stories and see the good works they do.”

The theme for this year’s DPAA is “Live as Children of Light,” from St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians (5:8–9): “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light, for light produces every kind of goodness and righteousness and truth.”

“When I read that Scripture, I can’t help thinking of that great proclamation also from the Gospels, ‘you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Let your light shine,’” Bishop Iffert told attendees.

This year, in addition to monetary goals each parish has been assigned a participation goal. According to Jennifer Cox, DPAA secretary, the DPAA team has been noticing a trend. Each year, while the DPAA monetary goal is greatly exceeded, fewer parishioners have been making pledges.

“By giving a participation goal, we thought it would encourage those that just want to get started,” she said, encouraging everyone to give a little.

The participation goal is calculated using last year’s number of parishioner participants and adding five percent. It’s important to note that an increase in participation and any increase in DPAA monetary donations does not affect a parish’s future DPAA goal. Instead, DPAA goals are calculated using a three-year average of a parish’s weekly collections. Also, like in year’s past, all monies collected over and above a parish’s goal is rebated back to the parish for parish projects.

At the dinner, Dr. Salzman announced that the DPAA’s first phase, the leadership gifts phase, has raised $690,065 in pledges from 146 donors towards the DPAA’s $2.754 million goal.  During the leadership gifts phase, 50 solicitors reached out to the top 250 donors of last year’s DPAA asking them to match or increase their gift to the DPAA.

“To those who have already donated and committed, we say ‘Thank You,’” said Dr. Salzman.

The second DPAA kick-off dinner is planned for March 5 at Receptions, Erlanger. Other important dates are announcement weekend, March 14–15 and commitment weekend, March 21–22, both in parishes.