Gulf Pine Catholic

6 Gulf Pine Catholic • September 13, 2024 228-539-9800 www.RiemannFamily.com Gulfport Pass Christian West Jackson County Biloxi Long Beach Hancock County Bishop Kihneman From page 3 When we say “Amen,” it is us saying, “I want to become one with you, Lord Jesus Christ. I want to be one with you who died on the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father. I want to have the grace of heaven in me.” When we say, “Amen,” we are not saying it could be. We are not saying it may be. We are saying we believe it is the Body and Blood of Christ! It changes everything. That is why I am a priest. That is why I am a bishop. It is about love. It is about my relationship with Him and love for the Eucharist, a love that extends to you, a love that is not meant to stay on the Altar, but a love we carry with us to share with our family, our friends, our neighbors, and the world. I love you so much. I want you to share in the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ that the apostles shared in, and, for the last 2,100 years, we have shared together as a Church. SEE BISHOP’S SPANISH COLUMN, PAGE 4 The Eucharist can recommit the faithful to care of creation, say bishops BY GINA CHRISTIAN OSV News ( OSV News ) -- A “true Eucharistic experience” can recommit the faithful to the care of God’s creation, said two U.S. Catholic bishops in a joint mes- sage for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation . On Aug. 30, Archbishop Borys Gudziak of the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chairman of the USCCB’s Committee on International Justice and Peace, released a reflection on the centrality of the Eucharist in redeeming humankind and the creation with which it has been divinely entrusted. The annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation , which takes place Sept. 1, was first proclaimed by the late Ecumenical Patriarch Dimitrios I in 1989, coincid- ing with the start of the Orthodox liturgical year. In 2015, Pope Francis instituted the observance in the Catholic Church, saying that it provided a “fitting opportunity” for Catholics “to reaffirm their personal vocation to be stewards of creation, to thank God for the wonderful handiwork which He has entrusted to our care, and to implore His help for the protection of creation as well as His pardon for the sins committed against the world in which we live.” In June, the pope announced the theme for this year’s day of prayer would be “Hope and Act with Creation.” The World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation also marks the start of the “Season of Creation,” which concludes with the Oct. 4 feast of St. Francis of Assisi, whose “Canticle of the Sun” inspired the title and text of Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home.” The five-week celebration of a “Season of Creation” had first been proposed in 2007 at the Third European Ecumenical Assembly, with the World Council of Churches moving the following year to endorse the time of prayer and action for environmental stewardship. Following Pope Francis’ designation of the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation , Catholics throughout the world have increasingly participated in the extended “Season of Creation” observance. In the U.S.,”the message of hope and care for creation resonates deeply with the Catholic community,” which “continues to experience the joy” of the 10th National Eucharistic Congress held in Indianapolis in July, said Archbishop Gudziak and Bishop Zaidan in their message. Drawing on the insights of both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI, the two bishops shared their thoughts on “hope in the Lord in a scientific age” where “an almost spiritual hope in techno-scientific progress” can cause a drift from a reliance on “amazing grace to amazing gadgets.” The bishops noted that in his 2007 encyclical “Spe Salvi” ( “In hope we were saved” ), Pope Benedict XVI identified a profound shift in thought during the early 17th century that replaced hope in Christ with “faith in progress.” Pope Francis underscored the dangers of this shift in “Laudato Si’,” which, as the bishops noted, high- lights a “technocratic paradigm whereby the unchecked power of technology drives the progres- sive devastation of the planet. “The damaged fruit of our technocratic endeav- ors, a spoiled planet, is a problem that algorithms, machines and technologies can never solve,” said Archbishop Gudziak and Bishop Zaidan. “If we are to be saved in hope, that hope must be in God.” SEE USCCB CARE CREATION MESSAGE, PAGE 7 Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the St. Louis-based Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Los Angeles and Baltimore Archbishop William E. Lori are pictured in a 2017 file photo. OSV News photo/Bob Roller