Catholic Charities. Providing Help. Creating Hope.
VISION: Believing in the presence of God in our midst, we proclaim the sanctity of human life and the dignity of the person by sharing in the mission of Jesus given to the Church. To this end, Catholic Charities works with individuals, families, and communities to help them meet their needs, address their issues, eliminate oppression, and build a just and compassionate society.
MISSION: Rooted in the Mission of the Diocese of Youngstown "to minister to the people in the six counties of northeastern Ohio . . .(and) to the world community", we are called to provide service to people in need, to advocate for justice in social structures, and to call the entire Church and other people of good will to do the same.
GOALS: Catholic Charities is devoted to helping meet basic human needs, strengthening families, building communities and empowering low-income people. Working to reduce poverty in half by 2020.
KEY VALUE: Hospitality
WHAT WE DO: Organizing Love. "As a community, the Church must practise love. Love thus needs to be organized if it is to be an ordered service to the community" (Deus Caritas Est, par. 20)
On Sunday, (Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time http://usccb.org/bible/readings/071413.cfm) we read from the Gospel of Luke about Jesus great and powerful story about the Good Samaritan. Here we hear about the two great laws being lived out and practiced: love of God and love of neighbor. The Good Samaritan, because of his love of God is able to recognize the other as a brother or sister related by our common human condition and creation as children of God. But Jesus calls us to go out beyond family and friends and allies to recognize each "other" we meet along the road as a person made in the image and likeness of God. The first reading seeks to find God's message and asks if we need to fly to heaven to find it. The LORD tells us that His message is right in front of us. Jesus shows how we are to practice our faith and love of God by our very acts of love and kindness to each other that the Good Samaritan modeled for us. 
http://sloopie72.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/good-samaritan.jpg
Catholic Charities (http://www.ccdoy.org) continues that work of the Good Samaritan as our Church's corporate ministry of the corporal works of mercy. Catholic Charities is there to help us all, as a faith community and as individuals, to live out our love of God and love of neighbor. We are there to give food, drink, care, healing and love to each person we encounter. No one is an "outsider" but all are neighbor to each of us. Thanks to your generous support to the Annual Bishop’s Appeal for Catholic Charities and Church (http://www.doy.org) we continue to bring this Good News -- we are called to care for each other, sharing God's abundant love.
Reflection from Church Documents and Official Statements
http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/how-we-teach/new-evangelization/year-of-faith/images/year-of-faith-logo-montage.jpg
Using a preaching-stand, pastorale (crozier, above) and chalice all fashioned from the wood of the wrecked boats piled up along the nearby coastline of Europe's "Ellis Island," in the major event of his first trip outside Rome – a four-hour pilgrimage to Lampedusa, the aspired destination of some 20,000 refugees who died en route over recent years – the Pope delivered the following homily on Monday July 8, 2013
Immigrants who died at sea, from that boat that, instead of being a way of hope was a way of death. This is the headline in the papers! When, a few weeks ago, I heard the news – which unfortunately has been repeated so many time – the thought always returns as a thorn in the heart that brings suffering. And then I felt that I ought to come here today to pray, to make a gesture of closeness, but also to reawaken our consciences so that what happened would not be repeated. Not repeated, please! But first I want to say a word of sincere gratitude and encouragement to you, the residents of Lampedusa and Linosa, to the associations, to the volunteers and to the security forces that have shown and continue to show attention to persons on their voyage toward something better. You are a small group, but you offer an example of solidarity! Thank you! Thanks also to Archbishop Francesco Montenegro for his help and his work, and for his pastoral closeness. I warmly greet the Mayor, Mrs Giusy Nicolini. Thank you so much for all you have done, and for all you do. I give a thought, too, to the dear Muslim immigrants that are beginning the fast of Ramadan, with best wishes for abundant spiritual fruits. The Church is near to you in the search for a more dignified life for yourselves and for your families. I say to you “O’ scia’!”[trans.: a friendly greeting in the local dialect].
This morning, in light of the Word of God that we have heard, I want to say a few words that, above all, provoke the conscience of all, pushing us to reflect and to change certain attitudes in concrete ways.
“Adam, where are you?” This is the first question that God addresses to man after sin. “Where are you Adam?” Adam is disoriented and has lost his place in creation because he thought to become powerful, to dominate everything, to be God. And harmony was broken, the man erred – and this is repeated even in relations with his neighbour, who is no longer a brother to be loved, but simply someone who disturbs my life, my well-being. And God puts the second question: “Cain, where is your brother?” The dream of being powerful, of being as great as God, even of being God, leads to a chain of errors that is a chain of death, leads to shedding the blood of the brother!
These two questions resonate even today, with all their force! So many of us, even including myself, are disoriented, we are no longer attentive to the world in which we live, we don’t care, we don’t protect that which God has created for all, and we are unable to care for one another. And when this disorientation assumes worldwide dimensions, we arrive at tragedies like the one we have seen.
“Where is your brother?” the voice of his blood cries even to me, God says. This is not a question addressed to others: it is a question addressed to me, to you, to each one of us. These our brothers and sisters seek to leave difficult situations in order to find a little serenity and peace, they seek a better place for themselves and for their families – but they found death. How many times to those who seek this not find understanding, do not find welcome, do not find solidarity! And their voices rise up even to God! And once more to you, the residents of Lampedusa, thank you for your solidarity! I recently heard one of these brothers. Before arriving here, he had passed through the hands of traffickers, those who exploit the poverty of others; these people for whom the poverty of others is a source of income. What they have suffered! And some have been unable to arrive!
“Where is your brother?” Who is responsible for this blood? In Spanish literature there is a play by Lope de Vega that tells how the inhabitants of the city of Fuente Ovejuna killed the Governor because he was a tyrant, and did it in such a way that no one knew who had carried out the execution. And when the judge of the king asked “Who killed the Governor?” they all responded, “Fuente Ovejuna, sir.” All and no one! Even today this question comes with force: Who is responsible for the blood of these brothers and sisters? No one! We all respond this way: not me, it has nothing to do with me, there are others, certainly not me. But God asks each one of us: “Where is the blood of your brother that cries out to me?” Today no one in the world feels responsible for this; we have lost the sense of fraternal responsibility; we have fallen into the hypocritical attitude of the priest and of the servant of the altar that Jesus speaks about in the parable of the Good Samaritan: We look upon the brother half dead by the roadside, perhaps we think “poor guy,” and we continue on our way, it’s none of our business; and we feel fine with this. We feel at peace with this, we feel fine! The culture of well-being, that makes us think of ourselves, that makes us insensitive to the cries of others, that makes us live in soap bubbles, that are beautiful but are nothing, are illusions of futility, of the transient, that brings indifference to others, that brings even the globalization of indifference. In this world of globalization we have fallen into a globalization of indifference. We are accustomed to the suffering of others, it doesn’t concern us, it’s none of our business.
The figure of the Unnamed of Manzoni returns. The globalization of indifference makes us all “unnamed,” leaders without names and without faces.
“Adam, where are you?” “Where is your brother?” These are the two questions that God puts at the beginning of the story of humanity, and that He also addresses to the men and women of our time, even to us. But I want to set before us a third question: “Who among us has wept for these things, and things like this?” Who has wept for the deaths of these brothers and sisters? Who has wept for the people who were on the boat? For the young mothers carrying their babies? For these men who wanted something to support their families? We are a society that has forgotten the experience of weeping, of “suffering with”: the globalization of indifference has taken from us the ability to weep! In the Gospel we have heard the cry, the plea, the great lament: “Rachel weeping for her children . . . because they are no more.” Herod sowed death in order to defend his own well-being, his own soap bubble. And this continues to repeat itself. Let us ask the Lord to wipe out [whatever attitude] of Herod remains in our hears; let us ask the Lord for the grace to weep over our indifference, to weep over the cruelty in the world, in ourselves, and even in those who anonymously make socio-economic decisions that open the way to tragedies like this. “Who has wept?” Who in today’s world has wept?
O Lord, in this Liturgy, a Liturgy of repentance, we ask forgiveness for the indifference towards so many brothers and sisters, we ask forgiveness for those who are pleased with themselves, who are closed in on their own well-being in a way that leads to the anaesthesia of the heart, we ask you, Father, for forgiveness for those who with their decisions at the global level have created situations that lead to these tragedies. Forgive us, Lord!
O Lord, even today let us hear your questions: “Adam, where are you?” “Where is the blood of your brother?” Amen.
Some important date(s) this week:
See website http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/ByDate.aspx for biographies of Saints and Blessed celebrated this week.
Thursday July 18. St. Camillus de Lellis (1550-1614)
Humanly speaking, Camillus was not a likely candidate for sainthood. His mother died when he was a child, his father neglected him, and he grew up with an excessive love for gambling. At 17 he was afflicted with a disease of his leg that remained with him for life. In Rome, he entered the San Giacomo hospital for incurables as both patient and servant, but was dismissed for quarrelsomeness after nine months. He served in the Venetian army for three years. Then, in the winter of 1574, when he was 24, he gambled away everything he had–savings, weapons, literally down to his shirt. He accepted work at the Capuchin friary at Manfredonia, and was one day so moved by a sermon of the superior that he began a conversion that changed his whole life. He entered the Capuchin novitiate, but was dismissed because of the apparently incurable sore on his leg. After another stint of service at San Giacomo, he came back to the Capuchins, only to be dismissed again, for the same reason.
Again, back at San Giacomo, his dedication was rewarded by his being made superintendent. He devoted the rest of his life to the care of the sick, and has been named, along with St. John of God, patron of hospital, nurses and the sick. With the advice of his friend St. Philip Neri, he studied for the priesthood and was ordained at the age of 34. Contrary to the advice of his friend, he left San Giacomo and founded a congregation of his own. As superior, he devoted much of his own time to the care of the sick.
Charity was his first concern, but the physical aspects of the hospital also received his diligent attention. He insisted on cleanliness and the technical competence of those who served the sick. The members of his community bound themselves to serve prisoners and persons infected by the plague as well as those dying in private homes. Some of his men were with troops fighting in Hungary and Croatia in 1595, forming the first recorded military field ambulance. In Naples, he and his men went onto the galleys that had plague and were not allowed to land. He discovered that there were people being buried alive, and ordered his brothers to continue the prayers for the dying 15 minutes after apparent death.
He himself suffered the disease of his leg through his life. In his last illness he left his own bed to see if other patients in the hospital needed help.
Stories:
A doctor in Philadelphia is a modern Camillus. An AP news story reports that the thirty-one-year-old bachelor does not have an office, and gave up a lucrative health center job to treat the chronically ill in the inner city who cannot get to a clinic. He limits his practice to house calls in that neighborhood.
Comment:
Saints are created by God. Parents must indeed nurture the faith in their children; husbands and wives must cooperate to deepen their baptismal grace; friends must support each other. But all human effort is only the dispensing of divine power. We must all "try" as if everything depended on us. But only the power of God can fulfill the plan of God–to make us like himself.
For Daily Readings http://www.usccb.org/calendar/index.cfm?showLit=1&action=month
CHARITIES NEWSBYTES
Welcome to our Summer Interns: Catholic Charities is proud to have 2 interns this summer
1. Marie Voitus: Panera-thon..come join us...
Marie Voitus -- a senior at Walsh University -- is working with Catholic Charities and the HMHP Foundation to organize teams for the upcoming August 25 PANERATHON and to help raise awareness of the benefits of the Panerathon and the work of the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Cancer Center located at St. E's. This is part of our Catholic sponsored health care ministry.
The easiest way for you to help this cause and support the efforts is to join the Panerathon. 100% of all proceeds directly support the Joanie Abdu Breast Care Center through grant funded program, Joanie’s Promise so more women can get breast care including screenings and services. Ohio has the 4th highest mortality rate for breast cancer, but with your support we can continue to provide preventative care to uninsured or under-insured women who are eligible financially. Since the first year of the Panerathon over 13,500 people have participated in raising half a million dollars to support the Joanie Abdu Comprehensive Breast Care Center and Joanie’s Promise.
The Catholic Diocese would like to start a team to participate for the event; we hope you would join us in this event to help support this valley and their fight against breast cancer. To sign up for the Panerathon, teams must consist of five people or more and can get registered online http://panerathon.org/.
If you would like more information about teams, feel free to contact Marie Voitus at 330.480.3055 or mxvoitus@hmis.org.
The race is August 25, 2013 at the Covelli Center in Youngstown, Ohio.
10k individual cost: $30 pre-registration, $35 day of race
2 mile individual run/walk: $25 pre-registration: $30 day of race
TEAM REGISTRATION: $20 per person
2) Fadi Mashhour Bataha: Fair Trade and Language Education
Fadi Mashhour Bataha, a recent top ranked graduate in computer science from the Bethlehem University in Bethlehem/West Bank/Palestine, will work with Catholic Charities and the Office of Religious Education to develop a fair trade marketing plan for our Fair Trade Tienda, and will assist staff in the Catholic Charities Legal Immigration Office to study Arabic. Fadi is one of seven interns sponsored by Catholic Charities USA, and we are very excited to have him here for a month.
Please join me in welcoming Marie Voitus and Fadi Mashhour Bataha.
2013 Annual Bishop’s Appeal for Catholic Charities and Church.
The in Church/parish appeal is now underway. Please consider a gift to help support the work of Catholic Charities and other ministries of the Diocese of Youngstown https://secure.acceptiva.com/?cst=450afc
PAPAL INTENTIONS: JULY
World Youth Day. That World Youth Day in Brazil may encourage all young Christians to become disciples and missionaries of the Gospel.
Asia. That throughout Asia doors may be open to messengers of the Gospel.
Corporal Works of Mercy: The seven practices of charity toward our neighbor
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for current updates and calls to action that we can all use.
For more information on Catholic Social Doctrine and its connection to our ministries, visit my blog at: http://corbinchurchthinking.blogspot.com
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