Giving Thanks, Honors Marks 70th Celebration
The Edmundite Missions, which reaches out to the African-American poor through ministries in rural Alabama and inner-city New Orleans, gave thanks to God for 70 years of service during a Mass and Banquet in Selma on Wednesday, Nov. 28
Bishops from Michigan and Louisiana joined with the Most Rev. Oscar Lipscomb, D.D. at the anniversary service attended by over 200, including Selma City officials, Missions’ staff and Sisters, and friends.
The Most Rev. Moses Anderson, S.S.E., a Selma native and retired Auxiliary Bishop in Detroit, served as principal celebrant for the Mass at Queen of Peace Catholic Church. He was joined by over 15 Edmundite priests from around the country as concelebrants, along with Most Rev. Oscar H. Lipscomb from the Archdiocese of Mobile and the Most Rev. Shelton J. Fabre, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans. The Gospel Choir for St. Peter Claver Church in New Orleans offered praise during the Mass and at the Banquet.
The Edmundite Community honored Archbishop Lipscomb, the Most Rev. Shelton J. Fabre, D.D., Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans, and St. Peter Claver church worker Pearl Dupart with the Gaudium et Spes Award, in recognition of their efforts on behalf of the poor and the afflicted that is such an essential element of the ministry of the Missions.
The plaque was inscribed with the opening words from the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) that was promulgated by his holiness, Pope Paul VI on December 7, 1965, a product of the Second Vatican Council:
“The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.”
The event drew Selma Mayor James Perkins, whose mother was in the first graduating class of practical nurses at Good Samaritan Hospital in 1955, and City Council members George Evans, Jean Martin and Johnny Leeshore,
Rev. Richard Myhalyk, S.S.E., Executive Director of the Missions, thanked the staff, outreach workers and Sisters of several Orders who “make Christ real” to those in need. Msgr. James Robinson, SSE, a Selma native and convert to the faith, spoke of the early days of the Missions, saying he became a Catholic in “July, 1937” as soon as he met Edmundite founding priest Rev. Frank Casey. “I liked what they had to say,” said Father Robison, who was an altar boy and now is rector emeritus of the Blessed Sacrament Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Detroit.
The Edmundite Missions was founded by the Society of St. Edmund in 1937 at the request of Pope Pius IX to reach out to African American poor in the deep South. In addition to parishes in Selma and New Orleans, the Edmundites today sponsor outreach ministries in four rural Alabama counties providing food, clothing, shelter, elder care, emergency assistance and training for the poor.
