ST. BENILDE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

1901 Division Street • Metairie, Louisiana 70001

Church Office: (504) 834-4980 • Church Fax: (504) 831-5810 • Church Email: stbenildechurch@cox.net

www.stbenilde.org

CLERGY Rev. Robert T. Cooper, Pastor Rev. H.L. Brignac, Sacramental Asst. Deacon Biaggio DiGiovanni Deacon Stephen Gordon Deacon Clifford Wright

BAPTISMS First and Third Sundays of the month at 12 Noon. Please call the Parish

Office for more information.

MATRIMONY Please contact a priest/deacon 8 months prior to your wedding.

FUNERALS Arrangements may be made at the Parish Office.

Sunday, October 29, 2017 Thirtieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

ORDINARY FAMILIES

EXTRAORDINARY FAITH

DEVOTIONS Holy Hour in Church

Monday, 6:00-7:00 p.m.

Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Following 7 a.m. Mass on Tuesday

NEWCOMERS Call the Parish Office to receive a New

Parishioner Registration Packet.

ST. VINCENT DE PAUL SOCIETY

St. Benilde Conference (504) 233-3246

ST. BENILDE SCHOOL Valerie Perez, Interim Principal

1801 Division Street • Metairie, LA (504) 833-9894

MASS TIMES Saturday Vigil … 4 p.m.

Sunday … 9:00, 11:00 a.m. & 6 p.m. Monday—Friday … 7:00 a.m.

Monday and Thursday … 5:30 p.m. First Saturday … 8:45 a.m.

HOLY DAYS OF OBLIGATION See Inside the Bulletin for Schedule

CONFESSION TIMES Saturday … 3:00—3:45 p.m. Sunday … 5:00—5:45 p.m. Monday … 6:00—6:45 p.m.

and by appointment at the Parish Office

DIVINE MERCY ADORATION CHAPEL Eucharistic Adoration from 7:00 p.m. Sunday

till 4:00 p.m. Saturday

Parish Motto—Building the Kingdom of God

Ministers of the Liturgy October 28 & 29, 2017

Saturday - 4 P.M. Intention: Jeffrey Michael Lambert, Dale Forshag,

Merle & Charles Dittmer, Patrick C. McKinney,

Dorothy Van Hoven, Jennie Spitale, Jeffrey Baudin,

George Spaulding, Rose Marie Greco Federico,

Patricia Fichter, Mary Bordelon, Hubert LaBorde,

Salvador Joseph Cardinale, Flora Maria Be,

Judith Theisges, Joseph Segari, Marisa Saborio,

Melissa Mendel Zimmerman,

St. Benilde Parishioners, Aubrey St. Romain

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion:

C. Casente, A. Delaup

Cantor: Trish Foti Organist: Jared Croal

Sunday - 9 A.M. Intention: Edward F. McCabe

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion:

C. & R. Ayers, K. Klaptch, R. Theriot

Song Leaders: Traditional Choir

Sunday - 11 A.M. Intention: Miriam Whitman, Paul J. Hymel, Jr.,

O’Sullivan & Zito Families, Mary & Jules Haydel,

Todd Hillburn, Daigle Families (L), Dolores Fallon,

Joseph Donald Bernard, James E. Fitzmorris Jr. (L),

Dianne Z. Harrison, Kelvin Ducote, Jeffrey Baudin,

Mary & Melvin Ducote, Paul G. Powers, Jr., Floyd Sutton,

Joyce Fontenelle, Poor Souls, Thanks to St. Benilde

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion:

J. Ackermann, J. Wright, K. & M. Sorensen

Song Leaders: Contemporary Choir

Sunday - 6 P.M. Intention: Parishioners

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion:

B. Henry, D. Powers

Cantor: Lauren Gisclair Pianist: Beth Kettenring

Weekday Masses Monday 7:00 a.m. Pierre Thibodeaux

5:30 p.m. Brenda Frey (L)

Tuesday 7:00 a.m. Paul Fleming III

5:30 p.m. Debbie Gill

Wednesday 7:00 a.m. Ducote Family

8:15 a.m. Barbara Twickler

6:00 p.m. See Next Column

Thursday 7:00 a.m. Hilton F. Daigle, Jr.

5:30 p.m. Souls in Purgatory

Friday 7:00 a.m. Pierre Thibodeaux

The Church Sanctuary Lamp burns in memory of

Miriam Whitman

Adoration Chapel

Sanctuary Lamp burns

in memory of

Stuart and Gloria Fourroux

Adoration Chapel Candles

burn in memory of

Leo DiMaggio

Altar Ladies Week of Oct. 29

J. Dunn, C. Batt, L. Segari

Linens Large - E. Lemoine

Small - J. Didier

The St. Joseph Votive Lamps

burn for a

Favor Granted

St. Benilde Catholic Church

Intentions continued:

Wednesday 6 p.m.

Pershing & Mary Delaup, Sr., Hilton F. Daigle, Jr.,

Patricia Fichter, Herbert Schmit, Francis Lamia,

Michael Bollinger, Virgilio Serrano, Pierre Thibodeaux,

Judith Theisges, Lucien Sabathe, Joseph Senko,

Brenda Frey (L) , Marie Crawford, Ray Waguespack,

Marilyn Groetsch, Jeanne Landry, Marisa Saborio,

Wade Verges, Jr., Jennie & John Manzella,

Ruth & Elvin Dantin, Sr., Jennie & Frank Sclafani

Stewardship of Treasure Weekend of October 28 & 29

Envelopes …………………………………..$2.077.00

Loose …………………………………………3,869.00

Electronic Giving ……………………………..446.00

Repairs & Maintenance ……………………...181.00

Msgr. Richaud Fund …………………………...54.00

Totaling …………………………………….$6,627.00

World Mission Sunday Collection………..$700.00

Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion

Nov. 4/5 4 PM A. & P. Delaup 9 AM M. Evola, P. Fleming, R. Meche, B. O’Hara 11 AM C. & T. Pitre, P. & R. Serio 6 PM A. Calongne, B. Henry

St. Benilde Catholic Church Volume 35 Issue 44

Parish Motto—Building the Kingdom of God

November Calendar

Nov. 1 Bible Study—7 PM—Teen Center Nov. 2 Pro-Life Committee—6:15 PM—Library CALM—7 PM—Church Surviving Divorce—7 PM—Teen Center Nov. 4 Rosary & Altar Society Mass & Meeting Legion of Mary—2:05 PM—Parish Office Nov. 5 Sophomore Confirmation Class—4 PM—School

Nov. 6 RCIA—7:30 PM—Library Nov. 7 Parish Council—7 PM—Parish Office Nov. 8 Walking Toward Eternity—7 PM—Teen Center

Nov. 9 Surviving Divorce—7 PM—Teen Center Nov. 11 Rite of Enrollment—10 AM—Church Legion of Mary—2:05 PM—Parish Office Nov. 12 Holy Name/Men’s Club Mass & Breakfast Junior Confirmation Class—4 PM—School Bldg.

Nov. 13 RCIA—7:30 PM—Library Nov. 14 Chers Amis - 7 PM—Cafeteria Nov. 15 Walking Toward Eternity—7 PM—Teen Center

Nov. 16 Surviving Divorce—7 PM—Teen Center Nov. 17 Little Flowers—4:30 PM—Library Blue Knights—4:30 PM—Teen Center Nov. 18 Legion of Mary—2:05 PM—Parish Office Nov. 18/19 Hospitality Weekend Nov. 20 Men’s Club—7:30 PM—Cafeteria RCIA—7:30 PM—Library Nov. 21 SVDP—6:30 PM—Parish Office Nov. 25 Legion of Mary—2:05 PM—Parish Office Nov. 27 RCIA—7:30 PM—Library Nov. 29 Advisory Council—7 PM—Faculty Lounge Walking Toward Eternity—7 PM—Teen Center

Nov. 30 Surviving Divorce—7 PM—Teen Center

All Saints Day

All Saints Day is a Holy Day of Obligation. Vigil

Mass will be celebrated at 5:30pm on Tuesday,

October 31. Masses on Wednesday, November 1,

will be at 7am, 8:15am (School Mass – all are

welcome to attend), and 6 pm.

The Parish Office will be closed on Wednesday,

November 1 in observance of All Saints Day. We

will reopen on Thursday, November 2 at 9 am.

ALL SOULS DAY MASS

REMEMBRANCE

On All Souls Day we honor all of our deceased loved

ones in a special way. Here at St. Benilde Church we

will be remembering your deceased loved ones both on

this day with the celebration of Holy Mass (Thursday,

November 2) and at all of the Masses throughout the

month of November.

In that spirit, we invite you to inscribe the names of

those you wish for us to remember and pray for on All

Souls Day and during the Masses throughout the month

of November on the special All Souls Remembrance

Envelopes found in the vestibule of the Church. Please

place your envelopes in the collection basket, the poor

box or bring them to the Parish Office before

November 1. The suggested donation is $5 per name

recorded on your envelope. Mass remembrance

envelopes will remain on the altar throughout the month

of November and names will be printed in the Parish

Bulletin.

Fr. Cooper’s Corner

Reform from Within

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the launch of the Protestant Reformation. As we draw close to October 31st, the date on which Martin Luther posted Ninety-Five Theses on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, it is important for Catholics to formulate the most fitting way to mark the occasion. It is not a time for celebration. Children do not fête the day their parents separated. Christ insistently prayed on the vigil of His crucifixion that His disciples would be one, just as He and the Father are one (John 17:11, 21) and it is impossible to imagine that Jesus rejoices at the 500 year-old rupture of His family in the West, just as we cannot picture Him pleased at the schism between the eastern and western lungs of the Church in 1054 or delighted at any of the other breaches that have divided His Church over the centuries. It is more properly, for Catholics and Protestants, a day of conversion and reparation. Martin Luther’s original intention, as an Augustinian monk, was to summon the Church to repentance, and the fuel that fed the fire of the Reformation was aversion toward the widespread corruption in the Church. The Reformation was originally an attempt to rehabilitate the Church morally, before it metamorphosed to a doctrinal revolution with regard to the understanding of various sacraments, ecclesiology, the composition of the Bible, and the way people are saved. Therefore, it is not contrary to a genuine spirit of ecumenism for Christians to ask for God’s mercy for all the sins that led to this 500 year old fissure in the Church, for all the sins against unity that have been committed since, and in general for the joint scandal of division given to the world for half a millennium. Jesus said that Christian unity would help the world know that the Father sent Him and that the Father loves us like He loves Him (John 17:23). Christian disunity, therefore, obscures knowledge of Christ and divine love, revealed when two or more are gathered in Christ’s name (Matthew 18:20). It harms Christian witness and evangelization. It arms atheists and opponents of Christianity with data with which to try to attack the truth and goodness of Christianity. And so joint repentance leading to conversion is indeed fitting, and is a necessary precondition to shared docility to the means by which the Holy Spirit — in ways that believers today cannot foresee — will seek to restore unity in Christ’s family. Looking from a Catholic perspective at the conversion needed, we do well to look at the saints God filled with grace and raised up to bring the Church back to its true identity, holiness and mission during the period called the counter-reformation. There are many: Saints Ignatius of Loyola and the first Jesuits, Francis de Sales, Philip Neri, Pius V, Robert Bellarmine, Teresa of Avila, John Fisher, Thomas More and so many others who worked and prayed to repair the damage that fomented the Reformation. But I think the greatest reforming saint of all, the one who accomplished the most and set for us the most enduring paradigm for authentic ecclesial reform, is St. Charles Borromeo. As Msgr. John Cihak illustrates in a great new book, “Charles Borromeo: Selected Orations, Homilies and Writings,” St. Charles should have been part of the problem, because he arose from within the corrupt system. St. Charles’ mother was a Medici, his father a Spanish Count, his uncle would be elected Pope Pius IV in 1559 and make him a Cardinal the next month, even though he was only 21 and had only received minor orders. The following week Charles was made the equivalent of today’s Secretary of State. Rather than appointing a functional Archbishop for the huge Archdiocese of Milan, his uncle named him Administrator, so that he could

Parish Motto—Building the Kingdom of God

St. Benilde Catholic Church

profit from its wealth and keep it “in the family.” He was also named administrator of the Papal States and given several other benefices. It was a notorious case of nepotism, but God would avail Himself of the opportunity, and use young Charles’ faith and talents to lead the reform of the Church from within. His uncle entrusted to him the plans to bring the Council of Trent, summoned to respond to the Reformation, to conclusion. He did and almost singlehandedly got legal canons approved in such a way as they could restore discipline to those who were supposed to be disciples. Trent reformed the episcopacy, the priesthood and priestly formation, eliminated scores of abuses, reformed the Mass and the sacraments, and produced a Catechism to teach the faith and respond effectively to the doctrinal challenges of the Reformation. When his older brother Frederick died unexpectedly at 27 leaving him as the senior male in the family, his family tried to persuade him to leave the clerical path, marry and put the family first. Charles did a retreat and emerged from it determined to be ordained a priest and a bishop. He began to fast, reduce his sleep, use a discipline and wear a hair shirt, and finally persuaded his uncle to let him go to Milan to care for the 600,000 Christians, 3,000 priests, and tens of thousands of religious entrusted to him. His 19 years in Milan, until his death at the age of 46, show us what is involved in reform. Milan was a disaster. It had not had a resident archbishop in 80 years. Pastors routinely lived in open concubinage far from their parishes. One convent of Benedictine nuns was so depraved the sisters were aptly called prostitutes. One male religious order would try to assassinate him as he prayed. And the “corruption of the best” led to the corruption of all. Implementing the Council’s decrees, he first reformed the bishops of the region to commit themselves to doing their jobs. He reformed next the priesthood, with patience, but when priests would not repent, he would have them dismissed. He founded the first seminaries to train future clergy to be holy men. He demanded the reform of convents and monasteries or would close them. He distinguished himself during the famine of 1571, feeding 3,000 people a day, and the plague of 1576, where he himself ministered indefatigably to the bishops and challenged the priests of Milan to join him. He went on foot to the parishes of the sprawling archdiocese to meet with the people and call them to conversion and holiness. “Be what you promised you would be,” he would say to all, reminding them of their baptism, of their marital or religious vows, or the promises of their ordination. And he would encourage people to pursue a holy life instead of a long one — a wish he would soon be granted. St. Charles’ reforming work and words are not adequately known among anglophones, because very little of what he said and wrote has been translated into English. That has now changed, thanks to Msgr. Cihak’s new work. Msgr. Cihak has served for the last nine years in the Vatican’s Congregation for Bishops and as a papal Master of Ceremony. One of the perks of working for the Vatican is access to the Vatican Library, where he found a treasure trove of the moving speeches Borromeo gave during his time in Milan. Cihak worked for years to make those speeches accessible to English-speaking Catholics, eventually narrowing down the scope to Borromeo’s labors for the spiritual renewal of bishops, of priests, of laity and of our relationship to Christ in the Eucharist. St. John XXIII wrote his doctoral dissertation on St. Charles’ reform work through Provincial Councils, and it is hard not to think that that study influenced his desire to convene the Second Vatican Council. When Blessed Paul VI, a successor of St. Charles as Archbishop of Milan, was elected pope in the middle of Vatican II, he had Latin copies of Borromeo’s 12 main discourses to bishops sent to the bishops of the world as a means to inspire and guide them in the reform of the Church that the Second Vatican Council had aimed to undertake. And the words have lost none of their power. The 256 pages of “Charles Borromeo” would make for powerful reading at any time, but they are particularly inspirational and instructive during this year marking the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. St. Charles articulated and led the reform of the Church from within. And now, thanks to Msgr. Cihak, we can all better profit from his enduring guidance as we seek the reform that will reunite God’s family.

St. Benilde Catholic Church Volume 35: Issue 44

Parish Motto—Building the Kingdom of God

St. Benilde Catholic Church

Parish Motto—Building the Kingdom of God

Priest Mass

Schedule

4pm

9am

11am

6pm

Nov. 4/5 Fr. H.L. Fr. H.L. Fr. Cooper Fr. Cooper

Nov. 11/12 Fr. Cooper Fr. Cooper Fr. H.L. Fr. H.L.

Nov. 18/19 Fr. H.L. Fr. H.L. Fr. Cooper Fr. Cooper

Nov. 25/26 Fr. Cooper Fr. Cooper Fr. H.L. Fr. H.L.

Dec. 2/3 Fr. H.L. Fr. H.L. Fr. Cooper Fr. Cooper

Grocery Bag Appeal

Next weekend grocery bags will be available in the Church foyer with a list of the most needed items to help us provide Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner for the less fortunate in our parish. Please return food donations to either Church or the Parish Office. If you would like to make a monetary donation of any amount instead, it would be greatly appreciated. The money may be left in the poor box, put into the regular collection marked “St. Vincent de Paul,” or brought to the Parish Office. Thank you very much for your generosity.

Christmas Concert

For the first time ever, the Daughters of St. Paul Choir

will be in New Orleans to perform their Love Among

Us Christmas Concert! Performances on December

10 & 11 at 7 PM at Roussel Performance Hall at

Loyola University. For information, please call the

Sisters at 504-887-7631. Consider being a

sponsor! Sponsorships come with tickets, and

sponsors have the best seats! Individual ticket sales

begin November 1st.

OCTOBER 29, 2017

ST. BENILDE CATHOLIC CHURCH – ID # 113850

1901 DIVISION ST.

METAIRIE, LA 70001

504-834-4980

NANCY CAROLLO

504-834-4980

MONDAY THROUGH THURSDAYS - 9 A.M. TO 3 P.M.

FRIDAYS - 9 A.M. TO 12 NOON

SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS: