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Archbishop's Tweets
Do you follow
Archbishop Kurtz on twitter? Here is a sampling of his tweets this month:
June 7
@ArchbishopKurtz:
What an invigorating walk around St Meinrad as we begin this year's Priest Assembly for Archlou.
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June 4
@ArchbishopKurtz:
Here is my Pentecost Homily for those to be confirmed at Epiphany
Listen
June 4
@ArchbishopKurtz
:
I loved Confirmation & First Holy Communion at Our Lady of Mercy in Hodgenville this AM - perfect for Pentecost Sunday.
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June 4
@ArchbishopKurtz:
Wow! Archdiocese of Louisville parishes reached $8 Million for Crusade for Children over the years ... this year already $292k !#2017Crusade
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June 3
@ArchbishopKurtz:
Great fun at Ferdinand Benedictine Monastery - picnic is every 5 yrs & this year honoring 150 yrs since foundation.
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June 1
@ArchbishopKurtz:
Immaculata Classical Academy 10 Graduates seek Christ's grace as they go forth into the world.- at St Martin of Tours.
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Archlou Happenings:
Be
low is a list of upcoming
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From the Desk of the Chancellor
By Dr. Brian B. Reynolds
 Late in 2016, our Archdiocese received a wonderful gift in the form of a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment. This grant is designed to support diocesan and parish pastoral leaders by enhancing organizational effectiveness and by improving leadership and financial literacy skills among these leaders. The experience of the Lilly Endowment with Church organizations indicates that mission effectiveness will be strengthened with strategic investments in these areas. Our own research among priests and lay staff indicated opportunities in four areas:
I. Need for Comprehensive Leadership Development. Both our priests and lay ministers expressed high satisfaction with their pastoral skills such as listening, collaboration, communications, and spiritual leadership. However they reported low satisfaction with parish financial management, fundraising, recruiting volunteers, stress management, and managing conflict. While recognizing areas of needed improvement, both groups noted the difficulty of participating in professional development due to lack of time, heavy workloads, and limited resources.
II. Need for Improve Organizational Financial Literacy. Priests and lay ecclesial ministers reported a lack of training and some degree of vulnerability regarding their ability to manage finances and other administrative tasks as part of their job responsibilities. We heard pastoral leaders express a type of dualism between ministerial activity and administration and finances. Many priests and lay ministers experience administrative tasks as a burden or a restraint that they see as contrary to their call to serve. By comparison, some parish business managers and diocesan leaders see the need for better organizational systems, yet find their more ministry-focused colleagues resistant to good business practices.
III. Lack of Personal Financial Literacy. As found in similar studies of the general public, our pastoral leaders struggle to save money and have accumulated significant debt. Many of our colleagues have no financial plan, and there is great confusion about matters such as taxes and investments.
IV. Concerns about Retirement Readiness. Our research found many participants are concerned about how they will be able to afford to retire. 83% of priests surveyed and 74% of the lay ministers studied were above age 50, yet half of our priests and lay ministers have less than $100,000 saved for retirement. Fears about a stable financial future are well founded.
This research formed the basis of our grant request to Lilly Endowment. The funds we received will be used...Read More
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Walking the Journey with the People of God
By Father Michael Martin
 Father Michael Martin was ordained to the priesthood on May 27 at the Cathedral of the Assumption.
Looking ahead to the Priesthood
I have been blessed all my life to have to wonderful parents, who are now both deceased, but who raised me in a good home and with a Catholic education. I attended Catholic grade school and Catholic high school, both in Indianapolis, Indiana.
So for me, I had always thought of priesthood in the back of my mind. In fact, I can still remember when I was 8-years-old, telling my Aunt that I was going to be a priest when I grow up. (It takes me a little longer than most...ha).
I am truly blessed to be a priest. For me, when I think of my priesthood: I am looking forward to being with the people and walking with them on their journey in life. Each person's life journey is different from the next, and no two days are the same.
I think for me, I am looking forward to celebrating the Holy Mass with the people, and celebrating the sacraments for the people. It is truly an honor and a blessing ministering to God's people, and I must say in return that they also minister to me. I cannot think of anything else that I would rather be doing than offering God's mercy to someone, as His instrument in the confessional or bringing someone into the Church by baptism.
As a priest, I will have the awesome responsibility to be with people in times of great joy: births, baptisms, weddings, and also in times of great sorrow: funerals, anointing of the sick. These are just a few of the ministries that I will do as a priest for God's Holy Church. I have truly been blessed that God called me to the priesthood. One thing for sure: God never gives up...There is always time to say, YES to the Lord!
Looking back on Seminary
When I entered the seminary in 2010, I went into it with a steadfast feeling that I was...
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The Greatest Mission for Parents
By Sister Constance Veit, l.s.p.
 Last month we watched Pope Francis travel to Fatima for the centenary of Our Lady's apparitions to the three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos and Jacinta and Francisco Marto. Much has been said and written about Fatima this year. I've learned a great deal about how the Fatima message encapsulates the essential elements of Christian life - prayer, sacrifice, redemptive suffering and holiness of life.
I also discovered is that the last apparition at Fatima, which took place on October 13, 1917, is the only approved apparition in the history of the Church in which the Holy Family appeared together. While the immense crowd that day witnessed the miracle of the sun, the children saw Our Lady standing with St. Joseph and the child Jesus, both of whom were blessing the world.
Lucia, the oldest of the visionaries, became a Carmelite and spent her life spreading the message of Fatima. She felt that through the vision of the Holy Family, God wished to remind us of the true purpose of the family in the world.
"In the message of Fatima, God calls us to turn our eyes to the Holy Family of Nazareth, into which he chose to be born and to grow in grace and stature, in order to present to us a model to imitate, as our footsteps tread the path of our pilgrimage to Heaven," Lucia wrote in her book entitled Calls from the Message of Fatima.
Lucia wrote that parents' greatest mission is to instill in their children the knowledge of God and his commandments. "Nothing can dispense parents from this sublime mission," she wrote, for God has entrusted it to them and they are...Read More
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The Blog Spot
This section will feature local and national blogs that will inspire, teach, and call to action. This month features
Archbishop Kurtz's Blog
. In his blog, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz writes a tribute to his friend, Bishop David Choby, the 11th bishop of Nashville.
My Friend, Bishop Choby
"You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Hebrews 5:6
Melchizedek was that mysterious priest who first appears in the 14th chapter of Genesis, when he brings out bread and wine and blesses Abram. He is again recalled in Psalm 110's description of the victorious Messiah who would be called as high priest, not because he was born into the tribe of Levi but rather as one called by God to offer sacrifices and mediate between God and the people. The author of the Book of Hebrews in the New Testament picks up this theme in exalting Jesus as the high priest forever. Each time we gather at the Holy Eucharist for the offering of the bread and wine that become the very Body and Blood of Jesus, we recall that mysterious priest of peace, Melchizedek.
The passage from Hebrews was the second reading at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop David Choby, the 11th bishop of Nashville. How fitting it was because my friend, + David Choby, was a priest through and through. Hebrews speaks of no one taking this honor of high priest on his own initiative but only after being called by God. This call to put on Christ Jesus, even in the midst of weakness, and to offer sacrifice, to serve with patience and...
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