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Gulf Pine Catholic
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July 28, 2017
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Youth ministry, fire department chaplaincy give deacon
opportunity to live interesting life of service
BY DEACON JOHN JENNINGS
Holy Spirit Parish, Vancleave, and Christ the King
Mission, Latimer
About six weeks after Susie and I were married,
Father Paddy Mockler, who was at St. Alphonsus at the
time, asked us to dinner. Well, the old saying that there
is no such thing as a free meal is certainly true! We left
dinner that night as youth ministers and have been
involved in youth ministry for the past 37 years. We
have been privileged to work with hundreds of young
people over the years; from our own CYO groups in
every parish we have belonged to, as well as working
with the Diocese’s Youth Office allowing us to get to
know youth from across the entire diocese. We have
traveled many miles with groups of young people. We
have been to our mission in Saltillo many times, six
national youth conventions, March for Life trips, Notre
Dame Vision six times and many, many local diocesan
youth celebrations. Currently we serve on the adult
team for the diocesan SEARCH team. About ten years
ago, Bragg Moore asked us to consider joining the
SEARCH team for a one-year commitment. We have
been a part of the SEARCH community ever since. The
Gospel of Matthew tells us of the Father who “Although
you have hidden these things from the wise and the
learned you have revealed them to the childlike”. It is
through the eyes of the youth that our faith has been
revealed to us. They have challenged us to delve deeper
into our study of the faith by their questions and to
practice the faith that we preach.
The youth can spot a phony immedi-
ately; you must be real and genuine.
They have grounded us and humbled
us. This ministry has allowed us to
involve and raise our children thus
our ministry became a family affair.
We are blessed with three daughters,
three grandchildren and hundreds of
spiritual children that have become a
part of the fabric of our lives. Our
kitchen is decorated with pictures of many of the chil-
dren who have allowed us into their lives.
Another ministry in which I am proud to serve is
being a chaplain for the Biloxi Fire Department. I have
been a member of the fire department since March of
1990 and currently serve as the Deputy Chief of
Training. Soon after I was ordained a deacon, I made a
request to Bishop Rodi asking to be “officially”
appointed as the Fire Department Chaplain.
Some of the roles and responsibilities of the Fire
Chaplain is to attend special events, perform invocation
at Department and City events, when requested assist in
the funeral or memorial service of fire fighters, both
active and retired, assist family members in the prepa-
ration of the arrangements, assist in crisis situations,
and provide spiritual counseling to fire personnel and
their families.
One of my main responsibilities as the Deputy
Chief of Training is to train our new recruits and pre-
pare them to work “shift work” and begin a life of ser-
vice as a firefighter. These two “tats” I wear work well
together. One of the first things I tell the new recruits is
that I can teach you how to operate, use, and/or drive
every apparatus, tool, and piece of equipment that the
department owns. What I cannot teach you is the prop-
er way to deal with everything you will see, touch,
smell, and experience over your career. There is no
textbook for this! It basically boils down to one word
… “stress”! First responders have to deal with much
more stress than the average person.
This is where the need of an “in-house” chaplain
comes in. I have training in Critical Incident Stress
Management and of all the duties of being a chaplain,
helping our people recognize and deal with stress is one
of the most important. I am in a unique position to
understand the “stresses” that firefighters must deal
with as I have to deal with them as well, for I am one
of them. During my first year of formation one of our
instructors, who was also a deacon, told me something
that has stuck with me all these years. He told me “You
are called to lead an interesting life of service. In your
professional life as a firefighter you are responsible for
putting fires out. As a deacon, you are responsible for
helping fires to grow!” He could not have been more
correct. It is an interesting life of service that I am very
proud to live. Please pray for me and those I am privi-
leged to serve. As a very dear friend of mine used to say
… “I need the prayers and you need the practice!”
Jennings
Land O̕ Lakes statement on Catholic higher education turns 50
BY CAROL ZIMMERMANN
Catholic News Service
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Not all Catholics are
familiar with the Land O’ Lakes statement, a document
on Catholic higher education with a cool sounding
name, but this landmark text needs no explanation for
Catholic college and university leaders.
The document’s official name is
“Statement on the
Nature of the Contemporary Catholic University,”
but
its catchier title did not give it widespread acceptance.
Ever since it was signed July 23, 1967, the text has
been both revered and criticized.
Even conferences about the document on its 50th
anniversary have different takes. Promotional material
for an upcoming symposium co-sponsored by St. Louis
University and the Association of Catholic Colleges
and Universities says the statement has not gone uncon-
tested, adding: “Some consider it a revolutionary road
map for Catholic education in the modern world; others
have declared a half-century of devastation. Others
designate it a mixed legacy.”
This past January, the Cardinal Newman Society
and the Institute of Catholic Culture sponsored a con-
Holy Cross Father Theodore Hesburgh, second
from left, joins hands with with the Rev. Martin
Luther King Jr., the Rev. Edgar Chandler and Msgr.
Robert J. Hagarty of Chicago, far right, in this 1964
file photo. Father Hesburgh, then president of the
University of Notre Dame, convened the group that
produced the 1967 Land O’ Lakes statement.
CNS
photo/courtesy University of Notre Dame
ference on the text that was described as a discussion of
“the crisis in Catholic education under attack from the
secularist agenda set forth 50 years ago by the disas-
trous Land O’ Lakes Statement.”
The document, which is still promoting such strong
discussion, was put together by a group of two dozen
Catholic college educators at a retreat center in Land O’
Lakes, Wisconsin -- hence the statement’s name.
The group -- invited by Holy Cross Father Theodore
Hesburgh, then-president of the University of Notre
Dame and Jesuit Father Paul Reinert, then-president of
St. Louis University and what was the Jesuit Secondary
Education Association -- met to examine the role of
Catholic colleges and universities in the modern world
and, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, to sub-
mit a paper to the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic
Education.
The group’s members were primarily priests, includ-
ing superiors from colleges’ sponsoring religious com-
munities, Catholic scholars and a bishop, all of whom
belonged to the North American region of the
International Federation of Catholic Universities.
Their statement said in part that Catholic universi-
ties must have institutional autonomy and academic
freedom along with their commitment to Catholic faith
and life. It raised eyebrows at the time, and now, for its
wording about university autonomy that some say has
contributed to the secularization of many U.S. Catholic
universities.
SEE LAND O LAKES, PAGE 14