Bishop Peter Jugis incenses a statue of Mary, Mother of God, during the start of a special Mass held Jan. 12, to open the Diocese of Charlotte's 50th anniversary year. The diocese, which spans the 46 counties of western North Carolina, was founded on Jan. 12, 1972.
‘There is so much to celebrate’
CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte’s 50th anniversary in 2022 will be a year of faith, thanksgiving, charity, and prayer and devotion, Bishop Peter Jugis declared as he formally opened the celebration Jan. 12.
Bishop Jugis, the first native son to serve as Bishop of Charlotte and the diocese’s longest-serving bishop, inaugurated the anniversary celebration exactly 50 years from the date of the diocese’s founding in 1972.
Approximately 100 people joined the bishop at the cathedral for a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration and recitation of the rosary, followed by the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, which was also watched by another 800 people live online on the diocese’s YouTube channel.
The Mass also featured the debut of a statue of Mary, Mother of God – patroness of the diocese – that will be taken on an unprecedented pilgrimage to 100-plus locations of significance to Catholics in western North Carolina during the anniversary year. The bishop blessed and incensed the statue, which was then placed in the sanctuary of the cathedral for the opening celebration. (She will remain at the cathedral until Friday morning, when she will go to St. Vincent de Paul Church for the Mass for the Unborn preceding the annual Charlotte March for Life.)
“The 50th anniversary celebration is not an event of only one day – Jan. 12, 2022 – but a celebration that lasts an entire year.”
— Bishop Peter Jugis
Bishop Jugis leads Benediction during a Holy Hour of Eucharistic Adoration at St. Patrick Cathedral to start the 50th anniversary celebrations Jan. 12.
In his homily, Bishop Jugis noted that the theme for the diocese’s 50th anniversary – “Faith More Precious Than Gold” – comes from 1 Peter 1:7. In it, St. Peter encourages people to rejoice in their faith, considering it a gift “more precious than gold that is perishable even though tested by fire.” The connection between the diocese’s golden anniversary and the Scripture verse describing our faith as more valuable than gold is meaningful, he noted.
“You could call this 50th anniversary year a ‘year of faith,’” he said. As the Gospel reading from Matthew 16:16 chosen for the opening Mass states, “We are proclaiming along with St. Peter in today’s Gospel: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.’”
The anniversary year is also a “Year of Thanksgiving to God” for His faithful love through all these years, blessing the amazing growth of the Charlotte diocese, Bishop Jugis said.
“Like a tiny mustard seed the Lord planted so long ago, the Catholic faith put down roots in our state, and is growing and maturing, spreading forth its branches,” he said.
This year will be a “Year of Mission” to bring the Light of Christ to others, Bishop Jugis also emphasized. “This is a ‘Year of 50 Acts of Charity’ to demonstrate the vibrancy of our faith by living the corporal and spiritual works of mercy,” he said.
The diocese is encouraging parishes, ministries, schools and families to engage in “50 Acts of Charity” – commemorating the founding of the diocese by participating in greater outreach, service and solidarity with our brothers and sisters in need. Progress towards the goal will be tracked on a special website for the anniversary year, www.faithmorepreciousthangold.com.
The bishop recalled Jesus’ words during His Sermon on the Mount: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and then put it under a bushel basket; it is set on a lampstand, where it gives light to all in the house. Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.” (Matthew 5:14-16)
“By bringing the Light of Christ to others,” the bishop continued, “we will have an important impact on our local communities through our 50 Acts of Charity. Everyone will know that the Catholic Church is here, and that Christ is alive in the community of faith.”
The 50th anniversary year will also be a “Year of Prayer and Devotion to the Spiritual Life,” he suggested. “Good works of charity and faith arise from our personal communion with Christ. Jesus is our Way, our Truth and our Life.”
The 50th anniversary celebrations at the cathedral in Charlotte were echoed at other churches around the diocese, where clergy were encouraged to offered Holy Hours and Masses Jan. 12 in a spirit of unity and communion.
The Jan. 12 events kick off a year full of celebrations and programs spotlighting the diocese’s shared faith, history, diversity and progress.
The 2022 Eucharistic Congress, planned for Aug. 5-6 at the Charlotte Convention Center, will be a particular highlight this year. Started by Bishop Jugis in 2005, the Congress serves as a “family reunion” that now draws more than 10,000 Catholics to celebrate Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith.
Other programs include monthly prayer intentions and rosaries on days of special significance in our history, a Catholic Family Day at Carowinds in July, and a Charlotte Knights baseball game.
“The 50th anniversary celebration is not an event of only one day – Jan. 12, 2022 – but a celebration that lasts an entire year,” Bishop Jugis emphasized.
“It is a Year of Faith, a Year of Thanksgiving to God, a Year of Mission, a Year of 50 Acts of Charity, a Year of Prayer and Devotion to the Spiritual Life,” he reiterated.
“There is so much to celebrate. There are so many opportunities. It cannot all be contained in a single day.”
Bishop Jugis concluded his homily saying, “In this our 50th anniversary year, let us all glorify the Lord by our lives of faith, giving thanks to God for His faithful love.”
The Diocese of Charlotte was founded Jan. 12, 1972, when Bishop Michael Begley was ordained and installed as the first Bishop of Charlotte. The diocese was carved out of the Diocese of Raleigh, which previously encompassed the entire state – splitting North Carolina into two dioceses, each with approximately 30,000 Catholics at the time. Now with more than 515,000 Catholics, the diocese is among the fastest growing in the country.
— SueAnn Howell and Patricia Guilfoyle, Catholic News Herald. Photos by Patricia Guilfoyle.
More anniversary news
At www.faithmorepreciousthangold.com: Launched Jan. 7, this is your go-to resource for information about upcoming anniversary events, the 50 Acts of Charity campaign and the Marian Pilgrimage. It also showcases milestones in the diocese’s history, must-see treasured sites around the diocese, Marian prayers and devotions, and more.
Prayer for the 50th Anniversary
The 50th anniversary year will bear great spiritual fruit if we ask God for the graces we hope to receive. Please offer the 50th anniversary prayer daily for many graces to be poured on our diocese during this jubilee anniversary:
Heavenly Father, accept our humble prayer of praise and gratitude as we joyfully celebrate 50 years as the Diocese of Charlotte. Throughout our history the faithful of western North Carolina, under the watchful care of esteemed bishops and abbots, have been nurtured by Your providential hand. Confident that You invite Your children to implore Your constant blessings, we pray that You continue to pour forth Your heavenly grace upon us. With filial affection and devotion, we further ask that You look kindly upon the prayers we seek through the intercession of our venerable patroness, the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, who with motherly attention tends to the needs and concerns of the Church. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, forever and ever.
Amen.
About the prayer card
The Diocese of Charlotte 50th anniversary prayer card features an image of “The Immaculate Conception” by Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. Painted between 1655 and 1600, this oil on canvas is one of many images of the Immaculate Conception painted by Murillo. Seville, the cosmopolitan capital of southern Spain where the artist spent his life, was the epicenter of devotion to the Immaculate Conception at that time. The image is in the Algur H. Meadows Collection at the Meadows Museum, located on the campus of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.
Monthly Prayer Intentions
Please consider adding these monthly intentions when you pray:
- January: For peace. May the merciful Father bring an end to all discord between peoples of good will and grant His peace among all members of our local church.
- February: For religious vocations. May God grant an increase to all religious orders who serve in the Diocese of Charlotte and grant zeal to all who are being called to a life of religious consecration.
- March: For families. May God pour out an abundance of grace to every family in the diocese, that they may be domestic churches and dwellings of loving sacrifice.
- April: For the homeless. May Christ, who had nowhere to lay His head, act in and through all the faithful in the diocese to provide for the needs of their brothers and sisters who lack housing.
- May: For Mary’s intercession. May Mary, the patroness of our diocese, always look favorably upon our church and pray unceasingly for every member of Christ’s faithful.
- June: For vocations to the priesthood. May the Lord give courage and strength to those who are being called to the ministerial priesthood, and may those who are called respond generously and faithfully.
- July: For parishes. May God bless and enrich each and every parish in the diocese with His choicest graces and special protection, that they may be a visible expression of Christ’s body at work in the world.
- August: For the sick and suffering. May God give comfort to the afflicted and suffering souls of the diocese and to those who are needy, that they may find in the generosity of faithful souls a remedy for their ailments.
- September: For caregivers. May God grant all who care for the sick, needy, elderly and imprisoned an outpouring of His love and mercy, that they may be strengthened in their apostolate and remain steadfast in living the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
- October: For parents. May God, through the intercession of Sts. Anne and Joachim, give strength and virtue to parents, that they may be true witnesses of faith and charity to their children.
- November: For the faithful departed. May the Lord give eternal rest for all the faithful departed of the Diocese of Charlotte who lived and served faithfully united to the Church of God.
- December: For children and youth. May Christ, who came among us as a child, strengthen the hearts and minds of our children, that they may faithfully receive the word of God by their ears and eyes, and profess their faith by their mouths.
‘We are standing up for the innocent’
‘We are standing up for the innocent’CHARLOTTE — More than 300 people from across the Diocese of Charlotte marched on uptown Charlotte Jan. 14 to demonstrate public witness to the sanctity of all human life.
The annual March for Life Charlotte recalls the anniversary of the 1973 Supreme Court decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v Bolton legalizing abortion. The march and a special Mass for the Unborn, offered earlier in the day at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Charlotte, are meant as a time of prayer to call attention to the more than 63 million lives lost to abortion and the need to change people's hearts.
Students from Charlotte Catholic and Christ the King high schools were among the marchers. They joined clergy and religious, Knights of Columbus, and laity from many parishes, as well as members of several local Lutheran churches, in marching the mile from the Diocesan Pastoral Center to Independence Square – carrying pro-life signs and banners and praying as they went.
The 2022 Charlotte march – held during a time when the nation's abortion laws and restrictions have come under intense scrutiny – was larger than in past years. Participants were smiling, cheering, hopeful and determined as they kicked off the march following a blessing from Bishop Peter Jugis.
The bishop thanked the marchers, telling them, "We are here as advocates for the right to life of the unborn child. We are here as witnesses to the sanctity of life of the innocent child in the womb, and we are standing up for the innocent – the defenseless little ones who cannot defend themselves."
He prayed that God would bless the March for Life. "May all that we say and do along the way be for Your honor and glory. We trust in the protection of your angels during this march, and we ask for the prayers of all the saints – especially St. Joseph, and for the Blessed Virgin Mother, who is patroness of our diocese, Mother of God and our mother."
This year's march attracted attention from a small group of pro-abortion protestors, three of whom walked a short distance in front of the pro-life marchers until reaching Independence Square. As the March for Life program got under way, about a dozen pro-abortion protesters, armed with megaphones, heckled the marchers from across the street. A line of Charlotte Mecklenburg police officers kept the groups separated so that the event remained peaceful.
Father Ernest Nebangongjoh, parochial vicar at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, was one of the keynote speakers of the March for Life program. His talk garnered enthusiastic cheers and applause from the crowd.
“Human life is sacred and the intentional killing of an innocent child is a grave evil, an evil that no reason or circumstance can ever justify,” he said. “But if we are sincere to ourselves, we must also admit that just knowing that something is a grave evil does not mean we will never find ourselves in a position where we are tempted to still want to do it. It is a fact that some of the women who have considered having an abortion are Christians, some of whom have even participated in marches like this."
“What does this mean?” Father Nebangongjoh asked. “It means that circumstances can still push people to want to do what they know is evil. This being the case, our approach must go beyond just condemning the evil, to actually taking time to listen to those who find themselves in such situations in order to understand what they are going through.
“We must approach them with compassion and love, offering them always the mercy and forgiveness of God,” he emphasized.
"As a prolife movement, our mission is to uphold life in all circumstances," he continued. "It is a daunting task, one that needs a collective effort. It is a mission that if we have to be faithful to it, we must strive to bring on board all of God’s children and all people of good will. All human beings desire to live. So, all human beings must put their efforts together to fight against anything that poses a threat to human life and its inherent dignity. It is not a fight in which one group is struggling to win over another group, or to consolidate power and control. It is not a fight between “us” and “them” whoever the “them” may be. It is a fight to destroy evil in our society in all its forms."
‘Our approach must go beyond just condemning the evil to actually taking time to listen to those who find themselves in such situations in order to understand what they are going through.’ — Father Ernest Nebangongjoh
In his closing remarks, Father Nebangongjoh shared a passage of sacred scripture and a prayer.
“When Jesus came on earth He said: ‘The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have in abundance’ (John 10:10). It is Jesus who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. It is to Him that the prolife movement owes its loyalty.
“Let Him bless all the efforts of the prolife movement. Let Him bless and protect all of us, born and unborn. Let Him bless all the citizens of this great nation and all who live in it. And when our days on earth are ended may it please Him to grant us eternal life in His kingdom, where we shall live and reign with Him forever and ever. Amen.”
Read Father Ernest Nebangongjoh's full talk for the March for Life
Dr. Matt Harrison, a Catholic physician who pioneered the abortion pill reversal procedure, also addressed those gathered. He shared how his vocation as a pro-life doctor evolved over decades, precipitating from the tragic loss of his newborn sister, Phyllis, when he was only 8 years old.
“When my mother become pregnant with her sixth child, we were all excited to meet our new sister, but when the time came for her birth, she had died from the umbilical cord wrapping around her,” Harrison recalled.
“We were devastated. It was November of 1973, and I distinctly remember as an 8-year-old that the same nurses and doctors that were in that little chapel crying at Phyllis’s funeral, might be helping abort other babies who had just as much a right to life. That’s when I started wondering what I could do to protect life, at the age of 8. I felt the call,” Harrison said.
He became more interested in science and studied it in school. Along his educational path, Harrison took a job doing research in childhood leukemia at Johns Hopkins, he also took a year on staff with Young Life, learning how to support troubled youth and pregnant teen moms,
“All this time I still felt the call to protect life and fight abortion,” he said. “I then made a commitment to go back to science, so I took a job at Duke in molecular genetics.”
Harrison went back to school and got a master’s degree in protein receptor biology. He moved to the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond and started working in a lab studying brain receptors. And, after three rejections from medical schools over the years, he finally was accepted.
Harrison says he knew within the first week of his residency that he would not be able to prescribe birth control, or refer women for abortions or sterilizations. And, fortunately for him, his director was sympathetic.
After graduating as chief resident, he joined a pro-life practice in Concord, N.C., where he started delivering free prenatal care and delivery services for abortion vulnerable women.
In 2006, a young woman came into Harrison’s office wanting to reverse her abortion after regretting taking the abortion pill. “I truly think, that if I had gone straight to medical school out of college, I wouldn’t have been equipped to solve this problem that took an understanding of crisis teen pregnancies, protein receptor biology, and a prolife perspective on medicine,” Harrison said.
He shared that since that first baby was born in 2007, the network for abortion pill reversal has spread to more than 1,100 providers in 65 countries. More than 3,000 healthy babies have been born after their mother took the abortion pill, he said – to which the March for Life crowd cheered enthusiastically.
Harrison said God “took a person that was called and motivated, and then qualified me with training and education, that at the time, I didn’t even know I would need.” He encouraged those gathered to love their neighbor.
“You can see Christ in these moms and you can be Christ to them… You are here today because you are called – called to end abortion by loving your neighbor."
Also in attendance at the March for Life Charlotte were women and men from the Silent No More awareness campaign, which encourages post-abortive women and men to seek help and healing. Andrea Hines, a long-time prolife advocate, stood up to speak about regretting the abortion she had in college and how she felt she had "come back alive" later in life after discovering the Catholic faith and going to confession.
"My dead bones received flesh and I came alive again. Thank you, God! Thank you, Jesus! Thank you for Your Church!"
— SueAnn Howell and Patricia Guilfoyle. Photos by Patricia Guilfoyle.
