SERVING THE CATHOLIC COMMUNITY IN CENTRAL KENTUCKY FOR 133 YEARS
BB THE RECORD
VOL. 134, NO. 9
CIRCULATION 63,875
LOUISVILLE, KY
MARCH 8, 2012
50 CENTS
Archbishop writes
about Rome visit
PAGE 5
Archbishop Joseph E.
Kurtz relates inspiring
episodes from his recent
visit to Rome for the
Consistory.
El Arzobispo Kurtz narra
episodios inspiradores de
su reciente visita a Roma
para el Consistorio.
Tornado relief
funds are sought
PAGE 3
Tn the aftermath of last
week’s destructive
tornadoes in Indiana and
Kentucky, as shown
above, the Archdiocese of
Louisville's Catholic
Charities will be
coordinating a relief
response.
How Haiti
is being helped
PAGE 8
Students from Catholic
schools in the Archdiocese
of Louisville learned last
week how Haiti is being
helped by Catholic Relief
Services.
Caritas aids
Syrian refugees
PAGE 4
Refugees from Syria, such
as the children above, are
fleeing to Lebanon where
Caritas is helping them
find shelter.
Priest assists
basketball team
PAGE ||
Father Dale Cieslik has
served at the chaplain for
the Bellarmine University
men’s basketball team for
the past seven years.
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Archdiocese holds vocations conference
Participants urged to create a
‘culture of vocations’ to reverse
the trend of declining numbers
By MARNIE McALLISTER,
Record Assistant Editor
The Catholic Church in the United
States is “in for tough times” if vocations
to the priesthood and religious life don’t
increase significantly in the coming years,
a speaker told priests, lay people and reli-
gious men and women who gathered at the
Cathedral of the Assumption Saturday.
“We need to raise an alarm,” said Sam
Alzheimer, the speaker at the Archdiocese
of Louisville’s first Vocation Conference.
“We have to put absolute trust in the
Holy Spirit. Jesus is the vocation director,”
he told his listeners. “But we need to do
our part.”
About 60 people attended the conference,
designed to help people of the archdiocese
to understand the state of vocations here
and to help them promote vocations in
their parishes. Organizers plan to make it
Record Photo by Marnie McAllister
Sam Alzheimer, who founded Vianney Voca-
tions, spoke at the Archdiocese of Louisville's
first Vocation Conference on March 3.
an annual event for pastors, lay people,
parish staff, campus ministers, religious
communities and others interested in
encouraging vocations.
Alzheimer is the founder of Vianney
Vocations, a company that helps religious
orders and dioceses — including the Arch-
diocese of Louisville — foster vocations.
He presented a variety of statisics du-
ring the conference that demonstrated the
decline of vocations among religious orders
and the priesthood in the last four decades.
“Catholic men are becoming less likely
to become priests statistically,” he said.
That means “each priest isn’t just serving
more people, but parishes are getting even
larger,” he added.
Alzheimer estimates that the Archdio-
cese of Louisville needs to ordain at least
eight men to the priesthood each year in
order to maintain its current numbers.
At present, the Archdiocese of Louisville
has 121 active priests. Eighty-three of
those are diocesan priests, and 38 are from
religious orders. That represents a 45-per-
cent decrease in the last 20 years, said
Alzheimer. In 1990, he said, the archdio-
cese had 155 diocesan priests and 73 from
religious orders.
“Keep in mind,” he said, “you have 111
parishes in the archdiocese. When a bishop
has only 10 more priests than he has
parishes ... you become spread very thin.”
See CONFERENCE, Page 6)
Annual event honors leadership efforts
African American
leadership awards
banquet celebrates
silver anniversary
By JESSICA ABLE
Record Staff Writer
More than 600 individuals
attending the 25th annual Afri-
can American Catholic Leader-
ship Awards Banquet March 3
heard Archbishop Wilton D.
Gregory call them to proclaim
the message of Christ to the
entire world.
The banquet, sponsored by
the Archdiocese of Louisville’s
Office of Multicultural Minis-
try, was held at the Louisville
Marriott Downtown. In its
quarter-century history, the
annual banquet has been used
to recognize African American
Catholic leadership efforts
throughout the archdiocese.
All proceeds from the event go
toward a scholarship fund that
assists African American
Catholic youth with high school
Record Photo by Jessica Able
Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton D. Gregory held up a statue titled “Comfort Me, Oh My Lord” given to him by the
Office of Multicultural Ministry. Nationally-renowned sculptor Ed Hamilton, right, created the piece and presented it
to Archbishop Gregory at the 25th Annual African American Catholic Leadership Awards Banquet held March 3.
and college educational costs.
Archbishop Gregory, who is
Archbishop of Atlanta and a
former president of the United
States Conference of Catholic
Bishops, told the banquet at-
tendees that the greatest chal-
lenge for the church today —
especially the African American
Catholic community — is pro-
claiming Christ.
“All Catholics, as Pope John
Paul suggested, need to be jarred
into a _ realization that
the past dynamic of having the
faith passed on to a new generation
See AWARDS, Page 6)
Death penalty opponents see some progress
Hearing before the
Senate Judiciary
Committee on replacing
death penalty is a first
By GLENN RUTHERFORD
Record Editor
For the first time in its his-
tory, the judiciary committee
of the Kentucky Senate has
held a hearing on a bill that
would replace the death penalty
with a sentence of life without
the possibility of parole.
The hearing occurred March
1 and specifically concerned
Senate Bill 63, sponsored by
Senator Gerald Neal. The com-
mittee listened to the testimo-
ny of several witnesses, and no
vote was taken. But the signifi-
cance of the moment — the fact
that the committee even heard
Record File Photos
Among those attending the historic senate judiciary committee hearing in
Frankfort, Ky., March 1 were Sharon Schuhmann, coordinator of pro-life
ministries for the Archdiocese of Louisville, and Father Patrick Delahanty,
executive director of the Catholic Conference of Kentucky.
testimony on the proposal —
was important to those who
continue to work to end capital
punishment in the state.
“This represents progress,”
said Father Patrick Delahanty,
executive director of the
Catholic Conference of Ken-
tucky, the public policy arm
of the state’s bishops. Father
Delahanty is also a leader of the
Kentucky Coalition to Abolish
the Death Penalty, and he said
the opening of dialogue with
representatives of state govern-
ment was a giant step forward.
“This really is the first time
there has been an open presen-
tation about abolishing the
death penalty put before the
judiciary committee,” he noted.
“This was historic, and it was
significant that almost every
senator (on the committee) was
present for a hearing on a bill
that they knew ahead of time
they wouldn't be voting on.”
The more those opposed to
the death penalty can discuss
its shortcomings with political
leaders, the priest noted, the
more chance for progress on
the issue.
“The more we can present
information about how broken
it is, how the system is not
really adequate to make sure
[See DEATH, Page 6]
