Livestream brings 7,000 students together for the first time for Catholic Schools Week Mass
CHARLOTTE — Thousands of Catholic students across the Diocese of Charlotte tuned in Monday from their classrooms to attend a special Mass with Bishop Peter Jugis, streamed live from St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte. The school system-wide livestream was a first for the diocese.
Fifth-graders from St. Patrick School next door to the cathedral were among the few attending the Mass in person. Wearing face coverings and sitting socially distanced in the pews, they represented their 7,000 peers at the diocese’s 19 schools watching on the diocese’s YouTube channel from their classrooms – made possible thanks to technology all of the schools have employed to seamlessly offer both in-person and remote learning throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“You are part of an historic event. This is the first time this has ever happened in the history of our diocese,” Bishop Jugis told students. “We are coming together as one huge Catholic Schools family in the Diocese of Charlotte, all united as one in this Mass.”
In his homily, the bishop remarked on the significance of the livestreamed Mass – telling them that it’s about more than just fancy technology.
“At this Mass we are accomplishing something amazing: to bring together all of the Catholic schools of the diocese, virtually of course, for the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
The Mass keeps us united as one – even though we may be physically many miles apart.”
Each year National Catholic Schools Week celebrates the importance of a Catholic education, he noted.
“The great mission of a Catholic school education, my dear young people, is to lead you to meet Jesus Christ, the Savior, and to develop a lasting relationship with Jesus throughout your years of Catholic school education,” he said. “Because our faith is not something of the past, dead and gone. Our faith is a friendship with the Lord that is lived today. We know that we can meet and know the Savior today and have a living relationship with Him.”
“How do we do that? By being serious about your prayer (life), either when you are alone or in a group with others, and especially at Mass or even praying the holy rosary. Be serious about prayer, coming into Jesus’ presence,” he explained.
Learning about the Catholic faith and reading the Bible are additional ways students may come to know Jesus better, he encouraged students.
“For instance, in your religion class, be serious about that in order to develop that friendship with Jesus, growing deeper and deeper and deeper.
“After all, Jesus is the most important person ever to have lived, and ever will have lived in the history of the human race. Jesus is not dead but is alive, and (He) is the risen Savior (who) is close to you now.”
He also reminded the Catholic school community of the importance of the crucifix, where Jesus sacrificed His life for us.
“In every (Catholic) church you see a crucifix. The cross where Jesus offered His life for love of you, for your salvation,” he said. “Now, being Catholic schools, I am sure you see a crucifix hanging on the walls somewhere in your school – and maybe even right now in your classroom.
“I wonder how many of you also have a crucifix hanging on the wall in your home or maybe even on the wall in your bedroom, or a stand-up crucifix on your desk or dresser, to remind you just how much Jesus loves you, to remind you just how much Jesus loves you in offering His life for you?”
The bishop emphasized that it is important to take this relationship and friendship with Jesus seriously.
“Jesus says, ‘There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends,’ and ‘You are my friends,’ He says, ‘if you do what I command you.’”
“Friends of Jesus, the living Savior. Your best friend” – that’s how we should think of Jesus in our own lives, Bishop Jugis told students.
He encouraged them to imitate the love of Jesus, as witnessed by the cross, when serving others out of a love for Christ.
“The crucifix reminds us to love just as Jesus has loved us,” he said.
Concelebrating the Feb. 1 Mass for National Catholic Schools Week were school chaplains Father John Putnam of St. Mark School and Christ the King High School in Huntersville; Father Joseph Matlak of Holy Trinity Middle School in Charlotte; and Father Noah Carter of Bishop McGuinness High School in Kernersville.
Catholic Schools Superintendent Dr. Greg Monroe and other school system officials also attended the Mass.
Catholic Schools are celebrating National Catholic Schools Week from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6 with activities and special daily themes celebrating parishes, communities, students and families, the nation, vocations, as well as faculty, staff and volunteers. Just like the Mass with Bishop Jugis, festivities look a little different this year with pandemic safety protocols in place.
Concluding his homily, Bishop Jugis commended the students, “What a tremendous force for good you all are in your local communities by faithfully living and practicing your faith. I am proud of every one of you. May you always stay close to the Lord.”
— SueAnn Howell, senior reporter
Watch the Mass
View the archived Feb. 1 Catholic Schools Week Mass with Bishop Jugis online.
‘We are not asking government and elected officials to do our job of preaching the gospel. Rather, we are asking them to do theirs,’ Msgr. Winslow preaches at March for Life Mass in D.C.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — We have the privileged position this morning to represent thousands across North Carolina, and more broadly across the nation, who would otherwise be here at the 2021 March for Life. We also have the honored distinction this morning of being the one group who didn’t cancel coming to Washington, D.C., to celebrate Mass at the basilica, our national shrine. We certainly understand the difficult situation COVID-19 presents. Nonetheless, we thought it was important to have some representation here this year.
Years ago, back in the early 1990s, some priests you see here in the sanctuary and I were students across the street at the seminary. I remember the first time I ever attended a March for Life. It was January 1994. I was amazed to discover so many people came to Washington on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. As seminarians we walked together down Constitution Avenue to the U.S. Supreme Court. As I am sure you know from your past experience, the mingling and converging crowds make it difficult to stay with your group. Before I knew it, I found myself walking with a young family. We introduced ourselves and continued to talk. Over the course of the march, the family and I began to form a friendship that would develop and grow even stronger over the course of many years. Eventually they shared with me that their presence at the march was personally motivated. That is to say, the issue of abortion had a direct impact on their family. In time, I came to discover that many people who come to this march are motivated not by some remote connection to the issue. Rather, they have felt the effects of abortion and feel compelled to let people know what they realized – specifically, abortion is a lie. It is a very seductive deception to think that one can undo an unhoped-for pregnancy. When couples and women find themselves facing an unhoped-for pregnancy, there is a strong desire to believe there is a way to undo what has been done, that it’s not too late. The simple truth is, no one can roll back the hands of time, no matter how much we may want to. Their message, born of experience, is also the message of the Church: once life has begun, that fact cannot be ignored.
Each year at the March for Life, among those giving witness to this message are throngs of Catholic faithful. As the voice of Christ proclaiming the gospel to the contemporary world, the Church speaks with clarity, mercy, hope and, for those who have fallen prey to the lie, she offers an opportunity to begin again. We are here to expose the half-truth that abortion truly is. Yes. Abortion will make the pregnancy go away. That part is true. But, no. Abortion cannot un-impregnate. It cannot undo what has been done. Rather, it extinguishes a life. As we fulfill our mission of proclaiming the truth, so often referred to as the Gospel of Life, our message is a counterpoint to the hidden message of death. Contemporary culture has woven together truth and lies; personal freedom and the moral power to choose is woven together with the unjust taking of a life as if one legitimates other.
We understand that it is the Church’s responsibility to speak up. To be clear, our political efforts are not an attempt to use the power of civil governance to compel citizens to live according to Catholic doctrine. We don’t seek to change the laws in order to coerce people to do what we think is right. What we are attempting to say in the political sphere is that there are certain issues that belong to the responsibility of any just state. Preeminent among them is to physically protect the innocent and the vulnerable. This is a minimum responsibility of state and society. We are not asking government and elected officials to do our job of preaching the gospel. Rather, we are asking them to do theirs. For this reason, the pro-life movement brings together people from all different creeds that come here on the anniversary of the ill-considered Supreme Court decision narrowly passed. We are saying to the electorate and their representatives: Do your job. Fulfill the minimum responsibility of the state.
As for the Church, we will continue to fulfill ours. We will preach the truth with love, mercy and hope while invoking the power of grace and conversion regardless of the political whims of the day, in season and out of season.
Back in the early years of seminary, I remember an occasion when Mother Teresa visited this basilica. She sat right here. I would like to recall her words today. She would say to her sisters, ‘Ours is not to be successful, our responsibility is to be faithful.’ This wise counsel applies to all of us. We must never lose sight that in the end, God wins. In His way, all wrongs will be made right. But in the meantime, how everything will play out is not for us to know. We surrender our efforts into His hands. Whether it’s the pro-life effort or any other right and good cause, our role is fidelity.
— Adapted from the homily given by Msgr. Patrick J. Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the Diocese of Charlotte, during a Jan. 29 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., during the 2021 March for Life. Photo provided by Matthew Ferrante