Digital Marian Helper Winter_2016-2017

The Congress was opened by the new episcopal coordinator of NACOM, the Most Rev. Edward B. Scharfenberger, bishop of the Diocese of Albany, New York (see page 8). The bishop had accepted Fr. Kaz’s invitation to get involved in the North American Congresses because, he said, Divine Mercy is at the heart of the Church’s mission to the world today. “That’s what the New Evangelization is all about,” he explained, “telling our experience of how good God has been to us, in spite of our weaknesses and our sins — in fact, because of them. The more we need God’s help, the more mercy God has available for us. “The call of Divine Mercy is a call to look to ourselves and say, ‘What am I doing to allow the Lord into my life?’” continued the bishop. “Public virtue only comes when people live lives of private virtue. Only when our own hearts are changed does the whole society change itself, like the leaven in the dough, as Jesus said (see Mt 13:33).” And that leaven was certainly worked in at the Congress. At the end of Mass each day, the Congress prayed St. John Paul II’s 2002 Solemn Act of Entrustment of the World to Divine Mercy. Confession was available, and many attendees spent time praying before the Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle. The Congress paused each day for prayer at the 3 o’clock Hour of Great Mercy. Occurring toward the end of the extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, the Congress answered Pope Francis’ call to prepare the faithful to transmit God’s mercy to the whole world. For the first time ever, the Marians Fr. Michael Gaitley, Fr. Chris Alar, and Fr. Donald Calloway all spoke at the same event. Father Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, handed on rich Divine Mercy theology, and Fr. Kaz recounted the history of the world, national, and regional Congresses. Cardinal Stanislaus Dziwisz, former private secretary to St. John Paul II, sent the noted Divine Mercy theologian Fr. Jan Machniak as a personal representa- tive to the Congress. Most Rev. Eugenio Lira, general secretary of the Mexican Bishops’ Conference, gave a well-received talk in Spanish. Other speakers included Doug Keck, EWTN president and chief operating officer; Kitty Cleveland, an internationally recognized singer/songwriter; and Marie Romagnano, RN, founder of Healthcare Professionals for Divine Mercy, an apostolate of the Marian Fathers. Pope Francis’ message for the Church in the Americas on the occasion of the Jubilee Year of Mercy was shown, as well as video presentations by Fr. Patrice Chocholski, general secretary for the World Apostolic Congress on Mercy, and Dr. Bryan Thatcher, founder of the Eucharistic Apostles of The Divine Mercy, an apostolate of the Marian Fathers. A concert of powerful spiritual music was provided Friday night by the Mandolin Choir from Sacred Heart Church in Conroe, Texas, and the Catholic African-American Mass Choir (CAAM) led by Dr. Andre La Cour and other direc- tors. The Galveston-Houston Archdiocese’s St. Mary’s Seminary provided their Schola for the music at the cardinal’s Mass. Valerie Romero, a member of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Uvalde, Texas, called the Mass celebrated by Cardinal DiNardo “amazing; very inspir- ing.” She came looking for “a stronger faith, not just for me but for everybody here, and that we take it back and we share it with our families, friends, and loved ones, and that we’re able to inspire them just as much as we have been inspired today.” Visit MercyCongress.org for our full coverage of the Congress. — Chris Sparks MH The fourth World Apostolic Congress on Mercy (WACOM IV) is coming right up! Centered on the theme “Communion in Mercy, Mission for Mercy (Called by Mercy, Sent for Mercy),” WACOM IV will be held in Manila in the Philippines from Jan. 16-20, 2017. Organizers anticipate the presence and participation of all the bishops of the Philip- pines, as well as a number of members of the broader Asian hierarchy. The Marian Fathers have had a hand in the organiza- tion of the Congresses from the beginning, working as close collaborators with WACOM President Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn and WACOM General Secre- tary Fr. Patrice Chocholski. Speaking of the mission of WACOM at the last Congress in Colombia in 2014, Fr. Patrice said, “WACOM wants to be an answer to the universal call to the Divine Mercy John Paul II gave on August 17-18, 2002. It was a universal call to the uni- versal Church and also to the world, and so we feel the duty to answer this call with the whole Church.” Previous World Apos- tolic Congresses were held in Rome (2008), Krakow, Poland (2011), and Bogota, Colombia (2014). Visit wacom2017.org for more information. Next stop: the world C 7H?7D > ;BF;H ǙšǙ W INTER 2016-17 ǙšǙcWh_Wd$eh] 27