August 23, 2017 // Local

Around the Diocese: August 27, 2017

Todays Catholic

Lindenwood presents Embracing Our Identity retreat

DONALDSON — On Tuesday, Sept. 12, Lindenwood Retreat and Conference Center presents “Embracing Our Identity as Sons and Daughters of God,” from 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m. EDT. This retreat, led by Lindenwood Director Christopher Thelen, offers participants age 18 and older a different perspective from a popular culture that uses the sacredness of God’s most beautiful creation, our bodies, to promote, sell or view almost everything.

Get back the sacredness of yourself as viewed through the lens that God intended. In this one-day retreat, participants will discover God’s original plan for love, how to recognize and deal with false versions of love and virtue and how to answer God’s call to love through Christian vocation and the true meaning of authentic love. Learn how to counterpunch pop culture when it twists the beauty of what was created by God in his own likeness.

The cost is $35 per person and includes lunch and refreshments. Participants are encouraged to bring a Bible and journal. For more information, call (574) 935-1780 or email [email protected]. Lindenwood Retreat and Conference Center, part of The Center at Donaldson, is sponsored by The Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ. 

Fort Wayne teacher receives award

FORT WAYNE — Dawn L. Hyndman Miller has been named the 2017 recipient of Who’s Who in America Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. This award is granted to one person per year since 1898 by Who’s Who in America.

Miller was recognized for her ongoing dedication to the profession of teaching, for her faithful devotion to student learning, formation and achievement, and for her longevity of service to the field of education, especially English education, as well as her overall contribution to the education of America’s youth.

Holding a bachelor’s degree and two master’s degrees, Miller began her teaching career at St. Vincent de Paul School, Fort Wayne, then continued to St. Joseph School, Garrett, where she was a middle school teacher. She then went to Bishop Luers High School and Ivy Tech Community College: She is currently as an English Department lecturer at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Miller and her husband, Louis, are members of St. Vincent de Paul Parish, Fort Wayne. Her service centers on her auxiliary membership in the Legion of Mary. She also completed the Organist Training Program and holds the Certificate for Liturgical Organ granted by the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, under the administration of the Notre Dame Preparation Department. She serves as a substitute organist for the diocese.

Grant will help people in need in Fort Wayne

FORT WAYNE — Some people in the Fort Wayne area will receive assistance with food and utilities thanks to a $5,000 grant from the National Council of the U.S. Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The money is part of St. Vincent de Paul’s Friends of the Poor Grant Program and will be disbursed by the society’s St. John- St. Patrick Conference (chapter). 

“The Friends of the Poor Grant will be used for food vouchers and utility assistance for those in need,” said Donna Brooke, treasurer of the St. John-St. Patrick Conference. “The St. Patrick- St. John Conference distributes $18,000 per year to friends in need, with $6,000 of that for food vouchers.”

The St. Patrick Conference was established in 1944 and the St. John Conference was founded in 1950.  The two operate as one conference and are part of the Fort Wayne District Council. The parishes are located in downtown Fort Wayne, which is considered inner-city. The conference has 10 dedicated Vincentians who help at the local food pantry and assist neighboring St. Vincent de Paul conferences in need.

This grant was one of 14 distributed through the program around the country. Grant applications are evaluated and awarded quarterly, on a regional basis, by a Vincentian review committee. Funding is provided by the general public and the society’s members, and is targeted to specific needs in each community.

PHJC Associate Community Welcomes New Member

DONALDSON – Wherever one finds Poor Handmaid of Jesus Christ sisters, Associate Community and Fiat Spiritus Community members, will be found women and men of faith and commitment willing to listen to the voice of God. Joining this group is a new associate with childhood roots in the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

Although Judy Skarbeck, her husband Ken and daughters Molly and Ellie live in Indianapolis, Judy’s childhood roots were in Plymouth, near the Motherhouse of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ Community in Donaldson, In. She was married in Ancilla Domini chapel, but her home parish is St. Michael.

Following a year of formation, Judy committed to the Associate Community of the Spiritual Family of Blessed Catherine Kasper on July 30, joining some 142-other faith filled women and men from nine different dioceses across the Midwest who are associates within this Spiritual Family.

The Spiritual Family of Catherine Kasper is comprised of the Poor Handmaid of Jesus Christ Sisters, the Associate Community and Fiat Spiritus Community members. All three are devoted to sharing the charism of Blessed Catherine Kasper, who founded the Poor Handmaid of Jesus Christ religious congregation in Germany in 1851. This charism is lived out through the core values of simplicity, community, openness to the spirit and dignity and respect for all.

Poor Handmaid of Jesus Christ Sisters, the Associate Community and Fiat Spiritus Community members join in praying for the needs of the congregation, the church and the world. Associates are committed to listening attentively to the Holy Spirit, to praying and sharing their faith with others and to acting courageously and joyfully in helping to meet the needs of our times. Each associate lives in different circumstances and contributes in varying ways, depending upon their personal commitments.

Virtue-based formation program implemented in Bishop Luers sports

FORT WAYNE — SportsLeader, a Catholic virtue-based formation program for coaches, will be implemented at Bishop Luers High School this fall.

Bishop Luers athletic coaches gathered July 13 to learn more about the program’s initiatives to build a structured, intentional and specific method and curriculum to help form leaders and teach virtue.

Lou Judd, director of SportsLeader, spoke about the implementation of the program’s four pillars: virtue, mentoring, ceremony and Catholic identity. “Coaches are among the most impactful leaders in today’s world,” Judd said. “Our hope at SportsLeader is that if we can help strengthen the faith, the virtue, the leadership of coaches, then those coaches can bring it to and transform the athletes. We firmly believe if you can transform the athletes within a school, we’ll transform the school.”

Jim Huth, principal of Bishop Luers High School, believes SportsLeader will use the school’s athletic program to bring students into a closer relationship with God. Two years ago, Huth attended a SportsLeader conference where Bishop Thomas John Poprocki of Springfield, Illinois, said, “We want them to enter through their door — the sports they love to play — but we want them to exit through our door.”

“This is a place where you are going to be formed in the image of Christ,” Huth said. “You are going to be asked to grow in your faith, to grow in your identity — even if you are not Catholic — you are going to grow in your relationship with Christ. … “We’re going to ask teams to pray, we’re going to act as a Catholic family at games and we’re going to help each other with that. The concept of our Catholic identity, ‘who we say that we are,’ to the community will be shown through the actions of our students.”