Seton notes. Official Publication of Mother Seton Council #5381, Knights of Columbus September 2018 Volume 56, Number 3.

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1 Official Publication of Mother Seton Council #5381, Knights of Columbus September 2018 Volume 56, Number 3 Chaplain s Corner Reverend Jack Kennealy Chaplain s Corner will return shortly Approved Council Budget Budget was approved by a unanimous vote at the Council Meeting on August 7, 2018 Income Budget Paid Membership $4,400 Total Fundraisers $17,650 Total Events $100 Total Other Income $350 Total Income $22, Expenses Budget Total Assessments $2,925 Total Administrative Expense $7,085 Total Church Activities $5,175 Total Community Activities $815 Total Council Activities $3,200 Total Family Activities $475 Total Youth Activities $1,450 Total Charity Expense $1,000 Total Advertising Expense $375 Total Expenses $22,500 INSIDE THIS EDITION Chaplain s Report /Annual Budget..1 Program Reports..3,4 Sick & Distressed... 5 Supreme Council News.6-7 Papal Prayer Intention (Sept) 8 State Council News.9 / Calendar..12 1

2 Grand Knight Report Ferdinand A. Ibebuchi FEDEX FIELD 2018 SEASON SCHEDULE DATES OPPONENT EVENT TIME Sunday, September 1 College : Maryland vs. Texas 12 Noon Tuesday, September 11 Soccer Match - Brazil vs. El Salvador 8PM Sunday, September 16 vs. Indianapolis Colts 1:00PM Sunday, September 23 vs. Green Bay Packers 8:30PM Sunday, October 14 vs. Carolina Panthers 1:00PM Sunday, October 21 vs. Dallas Cowboys 4:25PM Sunday, November 4 vs. Atlanta Falcons 1:00PM Thursday, November 18 vs. Houston Texans 8:30PM Sunday, December 9 vs. New York Giants 1:00PM Sunday, December 30 vs. Philadelphia Eagles 1:00PM District Deputy Report Mike Akpan, PGK mpakpan.gmail.com 2

3 Officers Chaplain Reverend Jack Kennealy Associate Chaplain Reverend Milton E. Jordan Assistant to the Chaplain Deacon Al Davis Grand Knight Ferdinand Ibebuchi Deputy Grand Knight Jean-Marie Tcheffo Chancellor Crepin M. Mahop Warden Ephraim Eke Recorder Emmanuel Thad Ereme Treasurer Joseph Corson, FDD, PGK Advocate Robert Worthington, FDD, PFN, PGK Guard Inside Henry Mbah Guard Outside Joseph Ngu Ernest Nkiangu Trustees Emmanuel Ajayi, PGK (1Yr) Dominic Forka, PGK (2Yr) Aneurin M Carthy, PGK (3 Yr) amacarthee@gmail.com Financial Secretary Donahue Aitcheson, PGK aitcheson@hotmail.com Family Activities Sylvester Ikpi, PGK, PFN or sylvester.ikpi@gmail.com Family of the Month Our family of the month for July 2018 is the family of Aneurin and Leonora M Carthy. Aneurin is the immediate past grand knight of the Council. He is active in other parish ministries as a lector and an usher. The M Carthys have been foster parents for five years and currently have 3 children in their care. We thank Aneurin for his service as grand knight last year and the M Carthy family for all you do for the community, council, and church. 3 Faith Director Charles Briscoe ,charlesbriscoe4@gmail.com The Saints and Feasts we commemorate in the month of September are: Gregory the Great (3), Nativity of the BVM (8), John Chrysostom (13), Exaltation of the Cross (14), Our Lady of Sorrows (15), Andrew Kim (20), Matthew (21) Vincent DePaul (27), Archangels Michael, Gabriel & Raphael (29). Fraternal Benefits Corner Stephen Clites stephen.clites@kofc.org Please contact the benefits agent to discuss your needs. The consultation is free.

4 Community Director Emmanuel Sony Ajayi FedEx Field activities continued with preseason games. Sept 16 is the first home game. Please see season schedule listed in this newsletter. 49 th Annual State Car Raffle tickets are now available. Ticket sales lag behind previous years. Drawing is on Oct the Columbus Day Ball. Our annual pilgrimage to Emmitsburg for the Sea Services Mass will be Sunday October 7. Usher volunteers are needed for the Mass at 2pm. Prayer to Mother Seton Lord God, You blessed Elizabeth Seton with gifts of grace As wife and mother, educator and foundress, So that she might spend her life in service to your people. Through her example and prayers May we learn to express our love for you In love for our fellow men and women. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, Who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, for ever and ever. Amen. Life Director Emmanuel Amanyeiwe or d_amans@yahoo.com Forty Days for Life Sept 25 Nov 4 Visit the prolife memorial, just before entry to the adoration chapel on the right. Membership Corner Director Sylvester Ikpi, PGK sylvester.ikpi@gmail.com The fraternal year starts with new opportunities. Our goal is 16 new members and 6 insurance members. Our goal is Star Council and meeting these goals are steps along the way. For information on State degree schedules go to: Make It Personal and Ask Membership Checker : GOAL : 16 NEW : 0 NET : 16 4

5 Sick and Recovering Brothers Christopher Agboli, PGK Kevin Butler, PGK Al Craig, PGK Nicholas Kniska, HLM Pablo Rocha Relatives/Friends Ann Degraff Susan Oak (wife of Rodney Oak, PGK,PCP) Mary Soh ( mother of Jean-Marie Tcheffo) Lord, look upon me with eyes of mercy, may your healing hand rest upon me, may your life-giving powers flow into every cell of my body and into the depths of my soul, cleansing, purifying, restoring me to wholeness and strength for service in your Kingdom. Amen If you know a Brother Knight or a family member who is sick, recovering or recently deceased, please contact us so that we may pray for them. Your help is needed to manage this list (Editor: aitcheson@hotmail.com.) Father of goodness and love; hear our prayers for the sick members of our community and for all who are in need. Amid mental and physical suffering, may they find consolation in your healing presence. Show your mercy as you close wounds, cure illness, make broken bodies whole and free downcast spirits. May these special people find lasting health and deliverance, and so join us in thanking you for all your gifts. We ask this through the Lord Jesus who healed those who believed. Amen. Update: Al Craig at time of this writing was at Doctor s Community Hospital in Lanham. Please continue to pray for Al and wish for a speedy recovery. 5

6 THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE by Nicholas J. Healy Jr. Supreme Council News TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER, ST. JOHN PAUL II S ENCYCLICAL ON THE CHURCH S MORAL TEACHING IS MORE TIMELY THAN EVER After having Jesus scourged, Pontius Pilate presents him wearing a crown of thorns: Behold, the man! (Jn 19:5). Not long before, as Pilate questioned him, Jesus said he came into the world to bear witness to the truth to which Pilate responded, What is truth? (cf. Jn 18:37-38). Ecce Homo by Antonio Ciseri, 1871 / Galleria d'arte Moderna, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy Following his exile from the Soviet Union for the crime of publishing The Gulag Archipelago in 1973, Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn gave a simple, yet profound reply to a reporter. When asked what he stood for, he said, Those who have lived in the most terrible conditions understand that between good and evil there is an irreconcilable contradiction. By this and his strong critique of Soviet communism, however, Solzhenitsyn did not imply that Western democracy was faultless. In a 1978 commencement address at Harvard University, he argued that Western culture had in recent decades rejected the moral heritage of Christian centuries with their great reserves of mercy and sacrifice, embracing instead the notion that an individual could be granted boundless freedom simply for the satisfaction of his instincts or whims. Solzhenitsyn s words complement those of his contemporary, St. John Paul II, and have only gained relevance in the context of relativism today. For both men, the great drama of our time is a crisis of truth that leads to a confusion between good and evil. All around us, observed John Paul II in his encyclical letter Veritatis Splendor (The Splendor of Truth), we encounter contempt for human life after conception and before birth; the ongoing violation of basic rights of the person Indeed, something more serious has happened: man is no longer convinced that only in the truth can he find salvation. The saving power of the truth is contested, and freedom alone, uprooted from any objectivity, is left to decide by itself what is good and what is evil (84). This letter on the foundations of the Church s moral teaching, issued Aug. 6, 1993, is perhaps the most important text of John Paul II s magisterium. In the past 25 years, Veritatis Splendor has lost none of its brilliance and importance for the Church s witness in contemporary culture. While much could be said about such a rich text, we can briefly focus on four of its key insights. FREEDOM AND TRUTH We are all familiar with how the modern world values freedom as the highest good. But what sort of freedom? There is an unmistakable tendency in our culture to conceive freedom simply as the ability to choose between alternatives or to do whatever one wants. According to this view, human freedom is the source of values and meaning. Consider, for example, the words of the U.S. Supreme Court in the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision: At the heart of liberty is the right to define one s own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life. In Veritatis Splendor, John Paul II begins by pointing out that, through sin, Man s capacity to know the truth is also darkened, and giving himself over to relativism and skepticism (cf. Jn 18:38), he goes off in search of an illusory freedom apart from truth itself (1). 6

7 The pope then explains that the modern idea of freedom is self-defeating because we are not the source of our own existence. Rather, our being is received as a gift, and our freedom always exists in relationship to the truth. Only the freedom which submits to the Truth, he concludes, leads the human person to his true good. The good of the person is to be in the Truth and to do the Truth (84). NATURAL LAW AND MORAL REASONING Following St. Thomas Aquinas, John Paul II defines the natural law as the eternal law, implanted in beings endowed with reason, and inclining them towards their right action and end (44). Grounded in the natural law, the Church s moral teaching is not simply an extrinsic obligation or set of rules. The desire for God is implanted in the human heart; the natural law is an expression of this desire and thus an interior guide to true happiness. Of particular importance in John Paul II s presentation of the natural law is the significance of the human body. Veritatis Splendor corrects the tendency to view the body as inert, premoral stuff awaiting the intervention of human freedom. The human body, sexually differentiated as male or female, has an inherent meaning and dignity that reflects the wisdom of the Creator. In the words of John Paul II, we discover in the body the anticipatory signs, the expression and the promise of the gift of self (48). The body, already in its physical structure, is an expression of the person, who is created in love and for love. THE MEANING OF CONSCIENCE One of the errors that had made some inroads in Catholic moral theology was a creative understanding of conscience as a source of moral values. According to this view, the moral law represents an abstract ideal that cannot address the particular circumstances of human life. By taking account of concrete experience, conscience could authorize certain exceptions to the commandments and thus permit one to do in practice what is qualified as intrinsically evil by the moral law. In response to this mistaken understanding, John Paul II recalls the true meaning of conscience as an interior witness. Moral conscience, he writes, does not close man within an insurmountable and impenetrable solitude, but opens him to the call, to the voice of God. In this, and not in anything else, lies the entire mystery and the dignity of the moral conscience: in being the place, the sacred place where God speaks to man (58). Conscience is not an independent capacity to decide what is good and what is evil, but a principle of obedience to the objective moral law. CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE MORAL LIFE For John Paul II, faith is not a matter of merely accepting certain propositions or doctrines as true. More profoundly, Christian faith involves holding fast to the very person of Jesus, partaking of his life and his destiny, sharing in his free and loving obedience to the will of the Father (19). A faith that did not involve the whole of one s life and deeds would not be adequate to the mystery of the Incarnation. By assuming human nature and offering the totality of his life as gift to the Father and to the Church, Christ discloses the original and unbreakable unity of faith and the moral life: If you love me, keep my commandments (Jn 14:15). The moral life is therefore an essential part of the Church s task of bearing witness to the mystery of God s love revealed in Christ. John Paul II writes, In a particular way, it is in the Crucified Christ that the Church finds the answer to the question troubling so many people today: How can obedience to universal and unchanging moral norms respect the uniqueness and individuality of the person, and not represent a threat to his freedom and dignity? The Crucified Christ reveals the authentic meaning of freedom; he lives it fully in the total gift of himself and calls his disciples to share in his freedom (85). The four points sketched above all converge on a central idea: God s love has become incarnate in Jesus Christ. In the sacraments of the Church, we are given a share in God s own incarnate love. The moral life is thus a response to this gift a reflection of the beauty of the truth of God. *** NICHOLAS J. HEALY JR. is associate professor of philosophy and culture at the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. He is a member of Father Rosensteel Council 2169 in Silver Spring, MD Reprinted from : 8/1/2018 7

8 Pope Francis' Prayer Intentions for September 2018 The Pope s Worldwide Prayer Network invites all to join in the Holy Father s September 2018 prayer intention: Universal Young People in Africa That young people in Africa may have access to education and work in their own countries. Daily Offering Prayer God, our Father, I offer You my day. I offer You my prayers, thoughts, words, actions, joys, and sufferings in union with the Heart of Jesus, who continues to offer Himself in the Eucharist for the salvation of the world. May the Holy Spirit, Who guided Jesus, be my guide and my strength today so that I may witness to your love. With Mary, the mother of our Lord and the Church, I pray for all Apostles of Prayer and for the prayer intentions proposed by the Holy Father this month. Amen. Editor s Pen If there is a special request for a copy of the by mail, let us know. Please send all newsletter related issues to Don Aitcheson at aitcheson@hotmail.com ( ). The deadline for article submission is the 20 th of each month. The edition will be sent on or about the 1 st of each month. Please feel free to give us feedback.. Copies are available in the pamphlet rack of Saint Matthias Church and on the website at 8

9 Maryland State Council News State Deputy Dale W. Trott Maryland State Council s Annual Columbus Day Ball "Maryland State Council s Premier Social Event of the Year Saturday, October 6, 7:30PM BWI Marriott For Information or to make a reservation please contact: Tom Firestone (240) Joe Maher (410) firestonetr@gmail.com jtmaher@comcast.net ( Shrine User Ministry The Shrine User Ministry is in need of good men to serve the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to serve as Ushers at weekend Masses, as well as Holy Days and special events. If you have an interest and wish to learn more about this wonderful Ministry and Supreme Council Program, contact PGK Patrick McAleer, Shrine User Chairman at (301) / (301) or at pmckofc@verizon.net or Patrick.mcaleer@kofc.org. 49 th Annual State Car Raffle Tickets are now on Sale. Please contact any council member or the parish office for tickets. For more details, go to 9

10 Fourth Degree Report Bishop James E. Walsh Assembly No Meets on the 2 nd Monday, 7:00 pm at Saint Pius X Council, Sarto Hall, 3611 Stewart Road; Forestville, MD (301) Next scheduled meeting is September 10 7PM (new start time) ADW Website ( Official Flag Days in the USA September 3 Labor Day 11 Patriot Day 17 Constitution Day 21 POW/MIA Recognition Day 30 Gold Star Mother s Day (Army) Bishop McNamara Chapter of Grand Knights Maryland State Council Celebrating its 56 th Year Upcoming Chapter Meetings September 19, 2018 October 17, 2018 Saint Jerome Council #5564, rd Ave. Hyattsville Calvert Council #7870, 8816 Chesapeake Rd, North Beach Chapter Meeting, 8:00pm Annual Crab Feast Come hear about all the exciting events and activities that are planned for the year. The Chapter encourages not only Grand Knights to attend, but also Deputy Grand Knights and Council Program Directors. The Chapter meets the third Wednesday of each month except for December. The location varies. 10

11 Birthdays for September Council 2 Innocent Abaso Emmanuel Ajayi, PGK Bosco Rebello 5 Ronald Taylor 12 Jomo Haldane Larry Martin II 13 Bernard Carrick Cord Stroh Robert Worthington 15 Crepin A Mahop 22 John Connor 23 Ugochukwu Madagu 24 Theophine Nwosu 26 Cosmas Nwokeafor 27 Justin Orathokai Festus Sowho 28 Ronald Murphy 30 Uchena Oneywu. Alfred Weaver Sr. Ladies Auxiliary 1 Ann DeGraff 13 Phyllis Sczuka HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!. 11

12 Knights of Columbus Mother Seton Council # Annapolis Road Lanham, MD Upcoming Council Events Calendar September 3 Labor Day September 4 Council Business Meeting 8PM September 11 Soccer - Brazil vs. El Salvador, FedEx - 8PM September 16 Redskins Home Opener vs. Colts FedEx - 1PM September 18 Council Social Meeting 8PM October 2 Council Business Meeting 8PM October 7 Annual Seas Services Mass & Pilgrimage, Seton Shrine Emmitsburg 2PM October 16 Council Social Meeting 8PM November 13 Annual Council Memorial Mass 7PM Council meetings are held 1 st and 3 rd Tuesday of every month unless otherwise posted. Council meetings are currently held in the Father Hughes Center. Note: Relaxed dress code for meetings is in effect (July September) 12