Owosso’s St. Paul School takes on an international flavor thanks to three visitors

By Brandi Schueller
Special to The Catholic Times

OWOSSO — The majority of students who attend St. Paul School are from the surrounding area.

This year, however, the fourth grade has an international flavor, thanks to three new boys from South Korea.

Ben Park Won-Woong, Andy Lee Hyung-Woo and Charlie Lee Ji-Hoon, all from Ulsan, South Korea, will spend the year in the U.S. thanks to Scott and Stephanie Lahmann of Owosso. The Lahmanns spent the past year teaching English at Boston Prep, an after-school academy in Ulsan. (more…)

LANSING — What do you do when you’ve accomplished all of your goals?

That is a question the Professional Pastoral Ministers Association faces in this, its 26th year.

When the organization was founded in the Diocese of Lansing in 1986, its goals were to establish a network for lay ministers; bring recognition to and promotion of lay ministry; establish ongoing education and spiritual formation; to encourage and promote diocesan activities that would integrate clergy and lay ministers; and establish a more standardized salary compensation package for lay ministers across the diocese or creation of personnel policies and compensation practices for lay ministers in the diocese. (more…)

Declining enrollment, red ink force Adrian Dominicans to close St. Joseph Academy

ADRIAN — The Adrian Dominican sisters announced Tuesday, Feb. 7, that St. Joseph Academy, founded in 1896 by the sisters on their home grounds in northeast Adrian, and the Montessori Children’s House, founded in 1971 at the academy, will close at the end of the 2011-12 academic year.

The congregation cited declining enrollment and multiple-year deficit budgeting as the reasons to close the institution after 115 years of educating tens of thousands of children — Catholic and non-Catholic, ages pre-school through high school, and from Lenawee County and beyond. The Adrian Dominican sisters are the corporate sponsors of the academy. (more…)

Jessica Coffelt (left) joins Sr. Roselyn Nichols, S.S.M., and Dr. Angel Valdez of FUMSIL to examine an ambulance Coffelt acquired for the border region of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Courtesy photo

By Jeff Wack
The Catholic Times

PINCKNEY — St. Mary School graduate Jessica Coffelt embodies a life lived in service to others.

The 2001 St. Mary grad, while attending college, got involved with FUMSIL (the Fundación Mariana San Isidro Labrador), a nonprofit organization that operates along the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. FUMSIL is governed by the Catholic parish St. Isidore the Laborer in the province of Eli’as Pin’a and is a provider of health care, nutritional, religious and educational assistance to more than 25,000 people. (more…)

ANN ARBOR — Pro-life members of the Ann Arbor community will join together for the kick-off event of 40 Days for Life from 7-9 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20, at St. Luke Lutheran Church, 4205 Washtenaw Ave.

The opening rally will feature motivational talks by Christen Houck, president of Students for Life of Michigan; Deb Ives and women from Heartfelt Family Services; Deacon Larry Randolph of Christ the King Catholic Church in Ann Arbor and Fr. David Rosenberg of St. Andrew Catholic Church in Saline. The rally also will feature an informational fair of pro-life organizations. Light refreshments will be available. (more…)

Author: Bring your beliefs to work every day and let them keep you in balance

By Ann Seebaldt
The Catholic Times

ANN ARBOR — Integrating deeply held values into the workplace is not easy, but it is worth the effort.

That was the message delivered Friday, Feb. 3, by Margaret Benefiel at St. Francis of Assisi Parish’s fifth annual Business Breakfast Forum, “Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations.”

Benefiel offers consulting, coaching and spiritual direction for leaders and organizations as executive officer of Executive Soul, is an adjunct faculty member of Andover Newton Theological School in Boston and is the author of “Soul and Work” and “The Soul of the Leader” as well as co-editor of “Soul of Supervision.”

She speaks from personal experience. In her case, Benefiel said, she felt as though she was “losing my own soul,” which was rather disturbing for a theology school’s faculty member. (more…)

The choir from St. Mary Star of the Sea School in Jackson provided the music at the Diocese of Lansing all-schools Mass on Monday, Jan. 30, at St. Mary Cathedral in Lansing.

By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times

LANSING — Michigan soon may have its own saint in Bishop Frederic Baraga, the “snowshoe priest” who preached to Native Americans and white settlers in the state for 34 years, 1831-65.

Fr. Steven Mattson wanted the students and adults who filled St. Mary Cathedral on Monday, Jan. 30, for the annual Catholic Schools Week all-schools Mass to know that, in a week, the bishop’s sainthood cause would be heading to Rome and that 144 years before the bishop was laid to rest in St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette — Bishop Baraga was the first bishop of the Marquette Diocese.

“He wanted to come here, to America, to spread the Good News, to heed that call from God: Go to all of the world and spread the good news, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit,” said Fr. Mattson, who as superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Lansing was filling in for Bishop Earl Boyea who was in Rome for his ad limina meeting with Pope Benedict XVI. (more…)

Three bishops — Lansing’s Earl Boyea (left) plus Archbishop Allen Vigneron (center) and Michael Byrnes (right) of Detroit — joined numerous priests at St. John the Baptist Church in Ypsilanti on Saturday, Jan. 21, for Janet Smith’s consecration.

Ypsilanti parishioner becomes consecrated virgin through a special rite

By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times

YPSILANTI — Surrounded by female co-workers in the gathering area of St. John the Baptist Church, Janet Smith sounded like any other woman who has had to dress up for an occasion.

She was talking about the miraculous find of this amazing dress suit and the shoes that match, all of them off the shelf at a major department store.

But where that might have been something said by the mother of a bride or a groom at a wedding, or the mother of a recent high school or college graduate on the big day, Saturday, Jan. 21, was something entirely different for Smith. (more…)

As a Christmas fund-raiser for local charity, students at Holy Spirit School in Hamburg had nine unique gift baskets to bid on through a school-wide raffle. The pastor, Fr. John Rocus, and the winners hold their baskets. Courtesy photo

HAMBURG — To raise money for a local charity, Holy Spirit School had its fourth annual Christmas basket raffle just before the holiday break, offering the students a chance to win one of nine baskets.

The nine baskets contained some enticements the students would want to win: (more…)

By Mark Haney
The Catholic Times

LANSING — The National Football League’s Super Bowl will be played Sunday, Feb. 5, in Indianapolis, Ind.

But St. Mary School in Pinckney is having it own competition leading up the big game. This competition will feed the hungry as part of Catholic Schools Week, celebrated Sunday through Saturday, Jan. 29-Feb. 4.

As part of a commitment to community service, St. Mary students have organized a food drive  termed the “Souper Bowl.” Each student will select a football team competing in the pro football playoffs to cheer on by donating food in the name of that team. Classes will compete with each other for the most food donated. The contest will end on Feb. 5. All donations will support the parish food pantry. (more…)