The Western Kentucky Catholic

List of 2021 parish picnics available online

BY WKC STAFF Parish picnics and cooking teams are a longstanding tradition in the Diocese of Owensboro. Parishioners and non-parishioners alike gather to celebrate great food, fun games and lively fellowship during the warmest months of the year. The Diocese of Owensboro parish picnics list is available in The Western Kentucky Catholic each year, and…

2021 Fish Fry Dates in the Diocese of Owensboro

Editor’s note: Canons 1250 and 1251 state that all Fridays are days of penance in the Catholic Church. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops requests that Catholics abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent, and practice some form of penance on the other Fridays throughout the year. Due to fish being a popular Lenten Friday…

A Word From Bishop Medley: Silent Night and Joy to the World

  Joy to the world. The Lord is come. Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. Let heaven and nature sign. … Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright, Round yon virgin, mother and child, Holy Infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Diocese releases new policy for displays of priests removed from ministry

BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC Louanne Payne is the diocese’s Pastoral Assistance Coordinator, which means she answers the hotline for callers to report abuse by someone acting in the name of the Church. Payne explained that when a space is named after someone, or their picture is displayed in a prominent place,…

Technology meets history with virtual cemetery database

Burial locations can now be found online at Resurrection, Mater Dolorosa BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC For the first time ever, family members and genealogists alike will be able to digitally search for gravesite locations at Resurrection Cemetery on Highway 54 in Owensboro and Mater Dolorosa Cemetery on West 9th St. in…

A Word From Bishop Medley: Thanksgiving in a Time of Pandemic

If we played a word association game and said November, the most likely response is Thanksgiving. In Catholic circles we might also hear the replies of All Saints Day, All Souls, and prayer for the dead. Others might say pumpkin pie, harvest.

Two women receive 2020 catechetical leadership award

BY WKC STAFF This year, the Bishop John J. McRaith Catechetical Leadership Award committee struggled to select just one recipient for the annual recognition – so they were happy to award two people.

Heroes and trailblazers in Black Catholicism inspire us to be united, not divided

Office director reflects on Black Catholic History Month in 2020 BY F. VERONICA WILHITE, OFFICE OF BLACK CATHOLIC MINISTRY Each year in November we celebrate the history of Black Catholics and honor those of African descent who have and continue to contribute to the evangelization of Blacks in the Church. Many Catholics still do not recognize…

God had a ‘different plan’ for church musician now celebrating 25 years at parish

An interview with Matt Gray, music and liturgy director at Immaculate Parish BY WKC STAFF What brought you to Immaculate Parish? My mother, Bonnie Gray, was very instrumental in getting me to play music from a young age. (I started playing keyboard at five years old, self-taught). She also sang in choirs my entire childhood…

Overcoming pandemic’s ‘hurdle’ to become the best priests possible

Prayer, community help seminarians persevere BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC Many aspects of day-to-day life have changed for the eight men currently studying and discerning the priesthood in the Diocese of Owensboro, thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

A Word From Bishop Medley: Living the Christian life radically

Apart from Mary, Mother of God, perhaps no other saint venerated by the Church is as well recognized as Francis of Assisi whose feast day is celebrated on October 4.  In fact, given a tradition of blessing animals on this feast, you may find numerous Protestant churches adopting this practice as a celebration of all…

Catholic school faculty, staff and students ‘ecstatic’ to be back

With semester in full swing, safety is top priority for in-person classes BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC Perhaps the experiment didn’t go as planned, but for Joan Butterworth, the science teacher at St. Paul School in Grayson County, not finding microscopic life forms in her students’ petri dishes was a great sign.

Like a friend you’d known your whole life

Gasper River remembers ‘wonderful witness’ of camper Logan Davis BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC Logan Davis’s faith journey received a life-changing boost after experiencing Eucharistic Adoration at Gasper River Catholic Youth Camp and Retreat Center, when he was but a middle schooler.