By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger Their journeys began from different starting points but the three Iowa women featured in this story share a common passion for accompanying refugees striving to rebuild their lives in Iowa. We share their stories to raise awareness about National Migration Week, Sept. 23-29, which culminates with the World Day of Migrants and Refugees (WDMR) on Sept. 29. Some 43.4 million refugees are among 120 million people forcibly displaced as of May 2024, USA for the UN Refugee Agency reports.

Election Day 2024 is just two months from today, a good reminder that we have a responsibility to model faithful citizenship that sets a respectful, charitable tone for democracy in the public square. This responsibility requires more than good intentions. It requires prayer, Scripture reading and reflection, studying Catholic Social Teaching and applying that teaching to the platform priorities of each major political party and the stated priorities of our candidates for political office.

While visiting a parish in his diocese recently, Bishop Gabriel Edoe Kumordji, SVD of Ghana, Africa was dismayed to find the church building without a roof. A strong wind blew it off in the coastal community of West Africa. Just a year ago, he advised the parish to plant trees to serve as a windbreak to protect the building. Trees had not been planted.

A month-long commemoration of prayer and action that begins Sept. 1 unites Christians worldwide to care for their common home. Here in the Diocese of Davenport, the Season of Creation opens with Vespers at 4 p.m. at St. Anthony Church in downtown Davenport, featuring Evening Prayer and an exploration of this year’s theme, “Hope and Act with Creation.” “The Season of Creation is a time of grace that the Church, in ecumenical dialogue, offers to humanity to renew its relationship with the Creator and with creation, through celebration, conversion and commitment,” the organizers said. They are the diocesan Social Action Office and Pope St. John XXIII Fraternity of the Secular Fran­ciscan Order. The season continues through Oct. 4, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology whose life and ministry more than 800 years ago resonates with Christians of various denominations today.

The Diocese of Davenport is sponsoring a series of in-person and virtual workshops to help parishes prepare for and better use the new OCIA.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger Vanessa Torres accepted a position as administrative assistant with the Diocese of Davenport’s Immi­gration Office unaware that the office had assisted her family two decades ago. Her mother told her about it after Torres began working for the diocese last year. In gratitude, Torres, a recent Drake University graduate, shared her family’s story as part of the diocese’s application to nominate the Immigration Office for Catholic Extension Society’s Lumen Christi Award.

By Barb Arland-Fye The Catholic Messenger BETTENDORF — Responding to Pope Francis’ encyclical “Laudato Si’’ (On Care for Our Common Home), St. John Vianney Parish has adopted a Laudato Si’ Action Plan to build on parishioners’ relationship with God, each other and all of God’s creation. St. John Vianney may be the first parish in the Diocese of Davenport to submit its multifaceted, seven-year plan to the Vatican’s Laudato Si’ Action Platform. The Davenport Diocese submitted its Laudato Si’ Action Plan on the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi in October 2022, hoping to inspire parishes and other entities to do the same. The Sisters of St. Francis of Clinton and the Congregation of the Humility of Mary in Davenport previously submitted their own Laudato Si’ Action Plans to the Vatican platform.

The members of Class IX will be called to Candidacy for Holy Orders on July 14, at St. Joseph Church in DeWitt. Please keep them and their families in your prayers.

Approved for publication! The text may be used in the liturgy on September 14, 2024, the Exaltation of the Cross. Its use is mandatory on the First Sunday of Advent, December 1, 2024.