Christine Accurso, executive director of 1st Way Pregnancy Center, addresses local media May 17 after accepting a check from the Knights of Columbus for a new ultrasound unit. (J.D. Long-Garcia/CATHOLIC SUN)

Women considering an abortion will soon have a new window into the womb that could change their mind, thanks to the Knights of Columbus.

Nine months ago, five local Knights of Columbus councils began fund raising efforts in order to help 1st Way Pregnancy Center purchase a 4-D ultrasound machine.

Christine Accurso, executive director of 1st Way, explained the crucial role that ultrasound technology plays in helping a woman decide to choose life for their unborn baby.

“With the amazing detail that the new 4D ultrasound provides, it will be a window to the truth of the growing life inside the womb and allow women to be more informed as they make decisions about their lives and the life of their unborn babies,” Accurso said.

The fund raising effort was led by Grand Knight Richard Kulok of St. Mary Magdalene Council #13779 and featured Knights distributing empty baby bottles to parishioners at their parishes. The bottles were later returned filled with coins, bills and checks.

The Knights also sold raffle tickets, with parishioners paying $10 for the chance to win 80 pounds of beef. In all, the five councils raised more than $49,000 toward the $79,850 price tag on General Electric’s Voluson E8 Expert BT12 ultrasound machine.

The Knights of Columbus International Ultrasound Program then matched the local fund raising effort. Since its inception in 2009, the program has provided more than $8.5 million in matching funds toward the purchase of more than 334 ultrasound machines. In Arizona, the grants have helped place two other imaging devices in Tucson and Flagstaff.

“I’m so grateful for the Knights of Columbus and their commitment to pro-life efforts,” Accurso said, “This collaborative effort will really make inroads in the culture of life in Phoenix.”

The Knights presented a check for $39,925 to Accurso May 17 at their 106th annual state convention held at the Sheraton Crescent.

“Ultrasound technology opens a window into the womb and dramatically shows the humanity of the unborn, even to the doubting eyes of those who may not have previously shared our regard for the sanctity of unborn human life,” Said Carl Anderson, leader of the Knights of Columbus Supreme Council, his letter to Accurso.

The Knights of Columbus is the world’s largest Catholic family fraternal service organization with 1.8 million members worldwide and 15,000 in Arizona.

“I am deeply grateful to the Knights of Columbus for their strong commitment to the Gospel of Life and for the concrete ways that they put it into practice,” said Bishop Thomas J. Olmsted. “The generous donation for the High-Tech Ultrasound Machine at First Way will save many of our unborn brothers and sisters from death and assist their mothers to choose life.”

Ric Serrano, president of Serrano’s, a local restaurant chain, voiced his concerns about the Obama administration’s HHS contraceptive mandate. (J.D. Long-Garcia/CATHOLIC SUN FILE PHOTO)

A federal mandate issued by the Obama administration is the target of 44 separate lawsuits, 58 cases and 190 plaintiffs — many of them Catholic — from across the country.

The U.S. Health and Human Services measure, known as the HHS contraceptive mandate, has drawn a firestorm of criticism from a broad range of Catholic leaders nationwide who warn that it threatens to cripple or shut down Catholic institutions altogether.

The controversy erupted in August 2011, when the government announced that, as part of the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, contraception, abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization were to be considered preventive services that must be provided at no cost to recipients.

In February, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and the Obama administration proposed an exemption they said addressed religious liberty concerns. The public was invited to comment on the proposed rule through April 8.

Catholic Church leaders were unimpressed.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which opposes the mandate, rejected the religious exemption Sebelius offered. In a March 20 statement issued by Anthony Picarello, the U.S. bishops’ associate general secretary and general counsel, said that the narrow exemption proposed by Sebelius afforded no protection for Catholic “organizations that contribute most visibly to the common good through the provision of health, educational and social services.”

By narrowly defining religious institutions, the bishops said, the regulation ran the risk of marginalizing religious activity that takes place outside the confines of a church. Catholic Charities in the Diocese of Joliet, involved in adoptions, the American Family Association, Our Sunday Visitor and similar organizations with strong religious values and practices do not fall under the exemption provided by the Obama administration.

The Eternal Word Television Network filed suit against the mandate in Feb. 9, 2012, but its lawsuit was dismissed last month. In comments regarding the religious accommodation provided by the Obama administration, EWTN stated its strong objections.

“Although it claims to provide exemption, this rule literally reduces religious exemption to churches thereby forcing EWTN and anyone else with valid objections to comply,” the comment read. “In essence, this rule only permits churches, but no one else, to have religious beliefs contrary to the government’s.”

Last month, despite tens of thousands of comments opposing the religious accommodation, Sebelius confirmed that the mandate would be finalized Aug. 1. On that date, every employee who doesn’t work directly for a church or a diocese will be included in the contraceptive benefit package, Sebelius said.

Archbishop William E. Lori of Baltimore, chairman of the USCCB’s Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty, hopes that the lawsuits against the contraceptive mandate will succeed.

“Their goal is nothing less than securing the freedom of the Church to continue to obey the Lord’s command — and, in turn, to serve the common good — by providing charitable ministries in health care, education and service to the poor, all without compromising Catholic beliefs,” Archbishop Lori said April 9.

Local businessman reacts

The mandate similarly has many business owners disgruntled since it requires companies with more than 50 employees to comply or face severe penalties. While not overtly Catholic or Christian, these businesses are owned by individuals who object to financing abortion-inducing drugs, contraceptives and sterilizations.

Ric Serrano, president of Serrano’s, which operates seven East Valley Mexican food restaurants and a separate establishment named Brunchies, said his firm has 350 employees. The fines for non-compliance with the mandate, Serrano said, could ruin him.

“It’s over $500,000 a year for the penalty,” Serrano said. “That’s for all the employees that work full time or make a full time equivalency…We can’t afford it. We’re struggling as it is.”

Serrano said the eight restaurants are an LLC, owned by the family as one unit. Breaking the business apart, he said, might be one way to avoid the designation as a large employer, but that creates problems of its own.

Even if they were to cut employees’ hours down to 29 a week — thereby avoiding the designation as full-time at 30 hours — Serrano’s would still be considered a large employer, subject to the mandate.

That’s because the government takes the overall hours worked at the business, divided by 30, to arrive at fulltime equivalent employees.

“We are trying to be as positive as we can but I will tell you that things like this fly in the face of trying to be a job provider,” Serrano said. “We just pray that something changes so that… we’re able to exist beyond the implementation.”

Bishops of Eastern churches arrive for the Mass of inauguration of Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican March 19. 2013. (CNS photo/Chris Warde-Jones)

Many Catholics are unaware of the various Eastern Catholic communities within the Church. Pope Francis would not be one of them.

Bishop Gerald N. Dino of the Byzantine Holy Protection Eparchy of Phoenix said the election of Pope Francis bodes well for  Catholics who celebrate Eastern rites.

“He’s very familiar with the Byzantine rite,” Bishop Dino said. “It means that we have a leader who understands a minority group within the Church and respects those minorities.”

As a teenagaer growing up in Argentina, Jorge Bergoglio, the future pontiff, attended a high school run by the Salesian Fathers. It was there that he came under the influence of a Ukrainian Catholic priest, Fr. Stefan Czmil.

Fr. Andriy Chirovsky, pastor of St. Michael Ukrainian Catholic Church in Tucson, said that Pope Francis would rise early each morning, hours before his classmates, to serve at the Divine Liturgy — the Mass — celebrated by Fr. Czmil.

“He developed a great love of and understanding of Eastern Christian spirituality and liturgy,” Fr. Chirovsky said. Fr. Czmil spent 12 years in Argentina before returning to Italy.

That’s where Fr. Chirovsky, the Tucson pastor, studied and where he too came under the influence of Fr. Czmil, whose cause is now up for beatification.

“I was a seminarian there and Fr. Czmil was one of my spiritual directors and my confessor,” Fr. Chirovsky said. “The pope and I share the same mentor. We were both influenced by this good, gentle, holy priest.”

As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis was the ordinary for all Catholics who celebrate the Eastern rite. At the Mass of his enthronement in March, it did not go unnoticed that the Gospel was proclaimed in Greek, rather than Latin. And at the tomb of St. Peter, just prior to the inaugural Mass, Pope Francis invited a small group to join him in prayer. Among them were Iraq’s Chaldean Patriarch, Louis Sako, as well as the leaders of other Eastern Churches.

The Catholic Church has not canonized many Catholics in the Eastern Church through the years. Now, with a pontiff deeply influenced by the Byzantine and Ukrainian liturgies and spirituality, many think that could change.

“I have great hopes for Fr. Czmil’s canonization,” Fr. Chirovsky said. “If anybody knows his holiness, it will be Pope Francis.”

Bishop Dino acknowledged that the cost of advancing a cause for beatification and canonization can be an obstacle.

“The cost of trying to advance a person to canonization is so great and our churches are not that wealthy,” Bishop Dino said. “We don’t have that many wealthy people, so it’s difficult.”

Still, he and others hold out hope that some of those martyred for the faith will receive recognition from the universal Church. Many Catholics do not realize that Eastern Churches suffered horrific persecution by the Soviet communists—a persecution, he added, that is recent and largely unknown.

“All of our bishops were killed except for our patriarch who basically stayed alive by divine providence and because he was the most stubborn man who ever lived,” Fr. Chirovsky said. You’d have to be a strong-willed person, Fr. Chirovsky said, to endure 19 years in Soviet Siberian concentration camps.

The Soviets systematically persecuted the Ukrainian Catholics and outlawed their Church for decades.

“If you were identified as Ukrainian Catholic you were either arrested and sent to prison or sent to concentration camp to punish you for counter-revolutionary activity,” Fr. Chirovsky said. “Or they would send you to a psychiatric hospital because you claimed to belong to a Church that didn’t exist.”

The Ukrainian Catholic Church of Tucson prays for the victims of the continuing persecution of Christians in the Middle East, Fr. Chirovsky said. Pope Francis was elected March 13, the five-year anniversary of the discovery of the body of Archbishop Paulos Rahho, kidnapped and killed by jihadists in Mosul in 2008. There’s generally a five-year waiting period before the cause for beatification can be opened. Could the timing of the Pope’s election be a divine signal that canonization for the many Chaldean Catholic martyrs — at least 1,000 since 2003 — is in order?

Msgr. Felix Shabi, corbishop of the Chaldean Catholic Vicariate of Arizona, said the synod of Chaldean bishops meeting in Baghdad this June, might discuss it. In the meantime, he said, Chaldeans are just trying to survive amidst a withering persecution.

“The martyrs are already with Jesus but we still have people who are dying every day in Baghdad and Mosul,” Msgr. Shabi said.

Dr. Kermit Barron Gosnell is pictured in an undated mug shot from the Philadelphia Police Department. Gosnell was found guilty of three counts of murder in Philadelphia and  and other offenses related to illegal, late-term abortions May 13.(CNS Kerphoto/handout Philadelphia Police Department)

A Philadelphia jury May 13 found abortionist Kermit Gosnell guilty of murder in the deaths of three babies born alive during abortions and acquitted him of a fourth similar charge. He also was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death by a drug overdose of a patient who had an abortion.

Gosnell, 72, was accused of snipping the spines of babies born alive during illegal late-term abortions. Pennsylvania law prohibits abortions after 24 weeks of gestation.

A few weeks earlier in the six-week trial, after the prosecution had rested its case, Judge Jeffrey Minehart of the Common Pleas Court, dismissed three other murder charges against Gosnell, saying they lacked evidence.

The same jury was to convene May 21 to consider Gosnell’s sentence. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty.

Gosnell was arrested in 2011 and charged with seven counts of infanticide and one count of murder in the case of a woman from Virginia who died during an abortion.

Several patients and former employees testified about squalid conditions at the clinic, described by some as “a house of horrors.”

Several former workers in the clinic, including Gosnell’s wife, Pearl, a cosmetologist by training, earlier pleaded guilty to charges including third-degree murder, racketeering and performing illegal, late-term abortions.

Prosecutors said one of the babies Gosnell killed was at nearly 30 weeks of gestation and was so big that Gosnell joked it could “walk to the bus,” reported The Associated Press.

The involuntary manslaughter charge came in the death of Karnamaya Mongar, 41, of Woodbridge, Va., who was given repeated doses of powerful drugs to induce labor and sedate her.

The jury also found Gosnell guilty of infanticide, racketeering and more than 200 violations of Pennsylvania laws, for performing abortions past 24 weeks or failing to counsel women seeking abortions 24 hours before providing the procedure.

He still faces federal drug charges over abuse of prescriptions for OxyContin and for letting staff members make out prescriptions to patients who paid cash.

The case against Gosnell took shape after a team of health inspectors and investigators looking into drug trade raided Gosnell’s clinic, known as the Women’s Medical Society, in February 2010.

A grand jury report that followed reported on filth throughout, including blood on the floor, cat feces on the stairs and surgical rooms that resembled a “bad gas station restroom.” The investigators gathered the remains of 45 fetuses stored in bags, milk jugs, juice cartons and cat food containers.

Gosnell’s license was suspended and he was arrested in January 2011, was originally charged with seven counts of first-degree murder in connection with late-term abortions.

For longtime pro-life activist Anita Usher, the trial put a spotlight on the cruelties of abortion as well as the contradiction in the law.

“When you see these babies that have been freshly born and their necks being snipped, you have to back that up and say, ‘Why is it wrong to snip their necks on the outside of that mother’s womb as opposed to snipping their necks while they’re still inside their mother’s womb?’” Usher said. “I think for the first time people have been forced to see the truth that it’s wrong on either side.”

John Jakubczyk, an attorney and past president of Arizona Right to Life, pointed out the mainstream media “had to be shamed into” coverage of the trial.

“These people were just totally ignoring what was happening,” Jakubczyk said.

Beyond that, he welcomed the opportunity for the world to see that “the trial represents the abortion industry at its finest with regard for women, profits, and the whole standard of care for the poor versus those who have money and those who are white…it shows a total disregard for the rule of law.”

Former employees of the embattled abortionist said that Gosnell’s white patients received better care under more hygienic conditions. Records indicate that hundreds of abortions were performed after the 24-week limit imposed by Pennsylvania state law.

“It is also interesting that the Gosnell situation represents the efforts by groups like Planned Parenthood to stop local, county and state officials from inspecting facilities and from providing laws that would protect women’s health,” Jakubczyk said.

In Arizona, the Mother’s Health and Safety Act, which prohibits abortion after 20 weeks, is opposed by Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The law, passed in 2012 and upheld by a federal judge, is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Jakubczyk said the Gosnell case reflects a “continuation of government corruption” and a willingness to turn a blind eye toward the abortion industry. Although clinics are supposed to be inspected by government agencies, Gosnell’s facility went two decades without inspection.

In Arizona, Jakubczyk said, former Arizona abortion providers John Biskund and Brian Finkel were similarly “protected by the media and by government corruption.”

Biskund, convicted of manslaughter for the 1998 death of a patient following a botched abortion performed at 37 weeks, was sentenced to five years in prison. Finkel was convicted of sexual assault charges in connection with his Phoenix abortion practice and sentenced to nearly 35 years in prison.

Christine Accurso, executive director of 1st Way Pregnancy Clinic, said that when women feel supported in their pregnancy, they are less likely to abort their babies. Beyond that, she said, she’s noticed something else as she counsels clients.

“They don’t know the truth about abortion,” Accurso said. When they find out about some of the side effects and complications involved with abortion, Accurso said, they begin to consider giving birth.

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Catholic News Service contributed to this story.

Deacon Ken Kilinowski recently published a book title “Anthem of Hope.” (Joyce Coronel/CATHOLIC SUN)

Deacon Ken Kulinowski was born in Buffalo, N.Y., just 22 days after the Nazis invaded Poland. The grandson of Polish-speaking immigrants, Kulinowski attended a Polish national school. At his Catholic high school, he was a good student but a bit shy. He still remembers the priest who challenged him.

“Kulinowski,” the priest said, “you have the smarts to be a leader, but you’ve got to come out of yourself. Do you want to be a leader or do you want to be one of the followers?”

He accepted the challenge and his first assignment was to deliver a speech the next day in class. Ever since then, Kulinowski has not shied away from the microphone. He was ordained to the diaconate one year after Blessed John Paul II was elevated to the papacy.

“I am exceedingly proud of my heritage and I am exceedingly proud of Pope John Paul II,” Kulinowski said. “He became one of the greatest popes in history. He was called to bring down communism, and he did so along with Ronald Reagan, Lech Walesa and a fictional character in my book.”

“Anthem to Hope,” a novel that took Kulinowski three years to write, chronicles the story of a young Jewish boy in Krakow who is rescued by a Catholic woman and sheltered during WWII.  Thirty-four members of his family perish in concentration camps. The book delivers a message of courage and faith and lauds the efforts of Pius XII to save Jews from the deadly grip of the Nazis.

Kulinowski said that ever since his childhood he’s always been drawn to the story of the Jewish people. For years, he couldn’t understand the fixation. In 2003, while helping an elderly couple trace their family’s roots, he discovered cemetery records that revealed he in fact had a Jewish great-grandmother several generations back.  Writing “Anthem to Hope,” he said, helped him to become a better Polish American.

As a deacon, he’s trained more than 4,000 people to be lectors and he still enjoys that role at St. Andrew the Apostle Parish in Chandler. Kulinowski said the role of a lector is dynamic.

“It’s meant to capture the heart of the person who’s hearing it,” Kulinowski said. “It makes a big difference when the first and the second reader have done a good job. It helps to complement the Gospel and even more importantly, it helps to complement the homily.”

Previously, Kulinowski served 14 years at St. Anne Parish in Gilbert where a Byzantine priest learned of his rich singing voice. The next thing he knew, Kulinowski was chanting at the Byzantine Divine Liturgy on Sunday mornings in addition to his work at St. Anne.

He’s already begun work on his second book, “A Walk with the Christ,” to be published by Tau in the near future.

Quotable: 

“One day this woman came into the sacristy and said, ‘I’ve been away from the Church for 20 years and something drew me back…you said something that touched my heart. I promise that I will not be away from the Church again.’ It was awesome. When you hear somebody say that, it puts a little fear in you, because you’ve got to continue to put that message across the very best way that you can.”

What do you love about being Catholic? 

I believe firmly in the institution of the Church but I believe also  that the Church is the bride of Christ. I always look to the cross and to Jesus for what is inspiring my faith because that’s where it’s at. What He did for me in this past season of Lent and Holy week, I buy into that 100 percent. He did this for me personally. That’s what sustains me

Year of Faith: 

Kulinowski will donate $5 to the Phoenix Diocese’s Charity and Development Appeal for each book sold through Immaculate Heart Radio or The Catholic Sun. To order a signed, postage-paid copy of “Anthem to Hope,” visit: www.anthemtohope.com Mention “Sun” in memo section of check.

Parish: St. Andrew the Apostle in Chandler

Faith in a nutshell: 

I love the Eucharist because the Eucharist is the embodiment of everything. It’s the Body of Christ and we are the body of Christ. When I hear people who say it’s only a symbol, it turns my stomach. We go right back to the Scriptures, there it is, this is My Body, this is My Blood. It didn’t get there by accident.

Photo courtesy 1st Way Crisis Pregnancy Center.

Two local pregnancy centers were recognized by the Texas-based Gladney Foundation for their work in promoting adoption.

Kelly Sarotte, executive director of the Aid to Women Center, and Christine Accurso, executive director of 1st Way Pregnancy Center, were each presented with the Hope Award at a luncheon April 19.

Janice Poddell, community education coordinator for the Gladney Foundation, said the work done by the pregnancy centers to promote adoption is “extremely important.”

Poddell said that the foundation has provided training about adoption to staff and volunteers at both centers.

“We know that they are talking about adoption to all of their clients and we see that through referrals,” Poddell said.

Both Accurso and Sarotte said pregnant women who visit the local clinics are counseled about placing their child for adoption.

“It’s always a loving option,” Sarotte said. Receiving the award, she said, was a “huge honor.”

Ryan Hanning, board member for the Aid to Women Center, said all the Catholic pregnancy centers in the diocese, including Life Choices Clinic, seek to work together closely to protect life.

“It was an honor to receive an award that so clearly illustrates the truth and beauty behind the pro-life movement, and the work of our local Catholic pregnancy centers,” Hanning said. “Adoption is a heroic, life-affirming choice that gifts a child with life, and makes a family complete.”

Fr. John Muir, seen here distributing ashes Feb. 13 at All Saints Catholic Newman Center in Tempe, will begin serving as parochial administrator of St. Rose Philippine Duchesne in Anthem on May 9. (J.D. Long-Garcia/CATHOLIC SUN)

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the additional pastoral appointments announced May 8.

Fr. David Sanfilippo, vicar for priests for the Diocese of Phoenix, has announced the reassignment of local clergy. Most reassignments are effective July 1, but a couple took place immediately.

Joyce Coronel is a regular contributor to The Catholic Sun and author of “A Martyr’s Crown.” Opinions expressed are the writers’ and not necessarily the views of The Catholic Sun or the Diocese of Phoenix.

Women need access to safe abortions, they insisted. Keeping abortion legal was the caring, smart thing to do.

Then reality came crashing down around us. Women still die from abortions. And of course, babies always do. Except when they don’t.

Enter Kermit Gosnell, on trial for the murder of four babies as well as the death of one of his patients. We still don’t know how many babies were killed at the filthy clinic that went uninspected for two decades.

But none of those details — not the blood-spattered walls, not the unsterilized surgical instruments, not the corpses of tiny babies kept in cat food containers — are of interest to reporters and their editors these days, unless of course they belong to the Catholic or pro-life press.

President Obama refused to comment on the Gosnell debacle, beyond echoing former president Bill Clinton’s infamous declaration that abortion ought to remain “safe, legal and rare.” No one in the mainstream media points out that the current leader of the free world is the same man who, as an Illinois state senator, voted against legislation that would have required medical personnel to render aid to babies born alive after an abortion.

As the jury deliberates the grisly charges against Kermit Gosnell, there is no denying that babies do sometimes survive the best efforts of those intent on killing them. Gosnell could be sentenced to death for his role in four murders, even though a federal judge recently dropped three other murder charges against him, citing lack of evidence.

Basically, the defense’s position is that Gosnell couldn’t have killed the babies, because, well, he already had with an injection of Digoxin.

My, but we’ve come a long way since those early days of the abortion rights movement. My teenage friends and I protested, picketed and prayed in front of abortion clinics around the Valley all through high school. We thought that if we could just convince people that abortion kills babies, we’d win the fight. Sadly, we were mistaken.

Gosnell’s trial is proof that when abortion is legal, the strong rule the weak. Killing newborn babies is really only one step further down the path, as the testimony against Gosnell went on the record in chilling detail.

Witnesses told of Gosnell’s procedure for killing his patients’ babies: snipping the spinal cord at the base of the infant’s neck. There was testimony about a baby born in a toilet trying to swim away from death, babies who grunted and screamed and squirmed but were killed anyway. Gosnell reportedly joked that one baby, 19 inches long and weighing 6 pounds, was “big enough to walk him to the bus stop.”

As horrifying as all this sounds, there is reason for hope. The younger generation is not buying abortion. Why? At least part of the answer is simple: technology.

A 20-something woman I know — not an overtly religious person — is expecting a baby and still not wearing maternity clothes. I recently asked her 5-year-old if she was ready to be a big sister.

“I already am,” she told me, somewhat indignantly. She’d seen the ultrasound images of her little brother, and pictures don’t lie.

When women have the support they need to continue pregnancies, when the men in their lives refuse to abandon them, when this nation returns to God and as pro-lifers continue their prayerful, peaceful presence outside the clinics, we will end the killing of babies in this country. Until then, monstrosities like those that occurred in Philadelphia will continue while abortion apologists wring their hands and blame pro-lifers for the mess. They just don’t get it.

God have mercy on us. I pray those who peddle death to the unsuspecting will see the light before it’s too late.

Jack Sack, Catholic Community Foundation’s interim president and CEO.

The Catholic Community Foundation has announced that longtime board member John Sack is now the organization’s interim president and CEO. The announcement came in the weeks after Donna Marino stepped down from the position last month to accept a new job in the Valley.

Sack, a cradle Catholic and member of St. Theresa Parish, has been involved with the foundation for many years.  A retired banker who spent decades working for what is now known as Wells Fargo Bank, Sack also taught at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business.

In earlier years, Sack was on the St. Theresa parish council and served as president of the Home and School Association. He said he made a Cursillo in 1978 and wound up being involved with Mount Claret Retreat Center’s board of directors for about 15 years, mostly serving as treasurer.

On the Catholic Community Foundation board for a dozen years, Sack has served as treasurer and chairman of the board there as well. “Our motto says it all,” he said of the mission of the foundation. “We are ‘to carry on the work of Christ by fostering philanthropy.’”

Through his work, Sack said he came to understand “the power of the foundation for doing good not only in the Catholic community, but also in the broader community.”

The Catholic Community Foundation awards grants each year to charities such as St. Vincent de Paul and Ozanam Manor, Paz de Cristo, Life Choices Women’s Clinics and the HOPE program at Christ the King Parish. Many underprivileged and deserving students receive scholarships through the foundation’s program and through its Christian Service Awards.

Sack and his wife both belong to the Order of Malta, a Catholic organization that traces its roots to 1050 AD and is devoted to serving the poor and sick around the world and growing in spiritual perfection.

In his years on the board, Sack said he served as a mentor at Ozanam Manor, a transitional housing facility run by the St. Vincent de Paul Society, witnessing firsthand the good work that is done through the grant program.

“Mentoring over there, you have people who have been homeless, and they are able to stay for up to two years,” Sack said. The mentoring program helps residents with their personal needs so they can find a job and sustain themselves.

Sack said that at 74, he knows his role as foundation’s interim president and CEO will not be for a long period of time, but he’s hoping to make a difference while he serves.

“My job is to make sure things just continue to move along and monitor progress,” Sack said. “I’ll be looking at the organization as relative to the specific needs that they might have to make it a stronger organization from the standpoint of programming.”

Hundreds of Catholic venerated relics at Our Lady of Joy in Carefree April 15. (J.D. Long-Garcia/CATHOLIC SUN)

Fr. Carlos Martins, CC, has an unusual collection: 4,000 relics of the saints. The Companions of the Cross Father and former atheist, who lives in Toronto, travels throughout North America with his “Treasures of the Church” exhibit that features some 175 relics.

Last month, Fr. Martins visited six parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix. It was his second tour of the diocese in two years and the faithful came out in droves to hear his hour-long presentation, followed by a chance to venerate the relics. (J.D. Long-García/CATHOLIC SUN)

Last month, Fr. Martins visited six parishes in the Diocese of Phoenix. It was his second tour of the diocese in two years and the faithful came out in droves to hear his hour-long presentation, followed by a chance to venerate the relics.

There was a piece of wood from the True Cross of Christ, a portion of the Blessed Virgin Mary’s veil and even a fragment of the crown of thorns worn by Jesus.

Mostly, the relics were chips of bone encased in reliquaries, displayed along with biographical information about the saint or beatified person known as a “blessed.” Many were instantly recognizable, such as that of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic and St. Thomas Aquinas. Others were lesser known individuals such as St. Longinus and St. Veronica Giuliani.

So what are relics and why do Catholics hold them in such high esteem?

Relics are physical objects that have a direct association with the saints or with Jesus Christ. They are divided into first, second and third classes.

A first-class relic is a fragment of a bone or the flesh of a saint or blessed. A second-class relic is something — or part of something — that belonged to a saint or blessed, such as an article of clothing or a book. A third-class relic is something that was touched by a saint or blessed or a devotional item such as a rosary or medal that has been touched to a first, second or another third-class relic.

At St. Timothy Parish in Mesa, the faithful listened in rapt attention as Fr. Martins described the martyrdom of St. Maria Goretti and the many healings that have taken place when people venerate the relics he displays. Some brought rosaries, medals and even pictures of their loved ones to touch to the relics.

The veneration of relics, Fr. Martins explained, has biblical roots. God likes to work through His creatures and often heals people through these experiences.

In the book of Kings, for example, the corpse of a man is touched to the bones of the prophet Elisha and the man miraculously came back to life. In Acts, a woman who suffered from a hemorrhage for years touched the hem of Jesus’ cloak and was instantly healed. Later, handkerchiefs or aprons that had been touched by Paul were applied to the sick. They too were healed.

So have there been any healings at Fr. Martin’s exhibits?

“If there aren’t any healings,” Fr. Martins said, “I consider the evening a failure.”

His website, treasuresofthechurch.com, has numerous testimonials from people who prayed in front of the relics and experienced healing. One little girl, Fr. Martins said, had a large tumor which disappeared.

If the Church requires that the cremated remains of the deceased must be laid to rest and not kept at home or scattered, how is it that the veneration of relics is permitted?

“The body is a holy and sacred thing created by God, so it needs to be treated reverently—it needs to be put in a place of rest. Every human community throughout time has understood this,” Fr. Martins said. Every human body deserves a grave unless something higher intervenes, he explained.

When it comes to relics and the bodies of the saints, they assist the faithful in the worship of God, so in that case, the right that the saints have to a burial is superseded by the right of the faithful to venerate them.

The resurrection of the body, Fr. Martins said, will be a mysterious thing and will not be prevented by the separation of its parts so as to provide relics. The Scriptures state that when Jesus rose from the dead, He passed through walls and when He ate, food stayed in Him.

“So there’s a lot of mystery,” Fr. Martins said. “The fact that a [saint’s] body is spread about is not a hindrance to the resurrection.”

The Church forbids the public veneration of relics unless they have been authenticated. Fr. Martins is one of only three people in North America authorized to authenticate relics.

This reporter presented him with a purported relic of fourth-century martyr St. Lucy. Fr. Martins pried off the back of the reliquary and beheld the unbroken threads and distinctive, red, raised wax seal of a now-deceased postulator of relics. The small chip of bone of St. Lucy had not been tampered with and Fr. Martins declared the relic genuine.