Knights’ initiative raises awareness on sanctity of life
Escorted by a member of the Knights of Columbus Knights on Bikes, a white-gloved man, wearing a biker vest, solemnly lead the opening procession at a prayer service. In his hands was a small object, a silver rose.
When the procession reached the front of the church, the rose was then displayed on a table in front of the altar.
Each year, since 1960, from early March through mid-December, eight Silver Roses are stewarded by Knights of Columbus councils along routes in Canada, the United States and Mexico. Every stop the Silver Rose makes throughout the pilgrimage is a rosary-centered occasion for Knights, parishioners and community members to pray for respect for life, for the spiritual renewal of each nation, and for the advancement of the message of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Silver Rose Program demonstrates the unity between Knights of Columbus in Canada, the United States and Mexico, and reaffirms their dedication to the sanctity of human life.
The Silver Rose was put on public display during four different prayer services at Parishes in the Diocese of Venice, first on Aug. 17, 2022, at Ave Maria in Ave Maria, next Aug. 18 at St. Elizabeth Seton in Naples, then Aug. 21 at Incarnation in Sarasota, and lastly Aug. 22 at St. Catherine in Sebring, before continuing its sacred journey beyond the Diocese.
During the prayer services, the faithful joined in praying the Glorious Mysteries of the Rosary (the Resurrection, the Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, and the Coronation of Mary as Queen), and an Act of Consecration, as well as hearing select readings, including the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the Gospel of Luke (1:26-38).
Afterward, many came forward to have a closer look at the Silver Rose, which is only 6-inches tall, and take photos. Still others remained behind to continue to pray. “Beautiful,” said Theresa Carney following the Incarnation prayer service. “The story, the symbolism and journey are truly remarkable.”
The visit to St. Catherine coincided with the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which Father Jose Gonzalez, Pastor of St. Catherine, said brought an enhanced meaning for the visit of the Silver Rose.
Father Gonzalez noted that while we do not know what plan God has for us in our lives, the Gospel reading, with the Angel Gabriel appearing before Mary and her resounding ‘Yes!’ to serve the Lord, should inspire us to open our hearts and hear the words of God as they are a calling for us to act.
Father thanked the Knights, who represented several different area Parishes, for bringing everyone together to pray for the protection of human life from conception to natural death. “God has chosen us and invited us to bring the Gospel of Life to our families and our communities.”
Before each prayer service, an escorting Knight shared the history of the Silver Rose, which dates to 1960. It was in Mexico where Columbian Squires, a youth organization of the Knights, wanted to give something back to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the Americas. It was decided that a rose would travel from Knights Council to Knights Council on a path from Canada to the Old Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Monterrey, Mexico.
Our Lady of Guadalupe has a long history in Mexico dating to 1531 when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Indian peasant, St. Juan Diego, near the present-day Mexico City. To help convince the local Ordinary of the message of Our Lady, St. Juan Diego was able to present his garments which contained live roses in winter and an emblazoned image of Our Lady on the fabric, in what is known as the “Miracle of the Roses.” The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe is Dec. 12, the day each of the Silver Roses concludes its nine-month journey.
More than two dozen Popes have officially honored Our Lady of Guadalupe. St. John Paul II visited her Sanctuary four times: on his first apostolic trip outside Rome as Pope in 1979, and again in 1990, 1999 and 2002. During the 1999 visit, the Holy Father entrusted the cause of life to Our Lady’s loving protection and placed under her motherly care the innocent lives of children, especially those who are in danger of not being born.
While six of the eight travelling Silver Roses will arrive at the Old Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the others will conclude their journey at key locations in the U.S. which honor Our Lady. One of these will complete its journey at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., while the other will end at the Our Lady of Guadalupe Friary in Griswold, Connecticut.
The Silver Rose which visited the Diocese of Venice previously, made stops in Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. In Florida since late July, stops were made in the Diocese of St. Augustine, the Diocese of Orlando, the Diocese of Palm Beach, and the Archdiocese of Miami. From the Diocese of Venice, the Silver Rose will visit the Diocese of St. Petersburg and the Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee, before moving on to Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and finally Mexico.
Yet, in little more than two years of hard work and dedication, Jax, an eighth-grade student at Incarnation Catholic School in Sarasota, earned the right to represent the USA at an international competition after taking the top prize at the July 2022 U.S. National Baton Twirling Championships in Stockton, California.
It was a family house cleaning that put Jax on the road to success in the early days of the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. “I came across the baton and didn’t even know what it was, but then I would do tricks that most beginners wouldn’t be able to do… After my first lesson, I just fell in love with it. I would practice every day, right after school.”
The thing that most attracted Jax to the sport was the extreme difficulty of learning how to manipulate the baton to complete harder and harder tricks which drove him to push himself to try harder whenever something did not work immediately.
The City Council approved a proposed proclamation condemning a June 25 incident during which anti-Semitic flyers were distributed to lawns and driveways of residential homes in the City of Venice. Shortly after the that disturbing event, Venice Mayor Ron Feinsod received an e-mail in the form of anti-Semitism hate mail.
The Mass included faculty, who processed in before the opening hymn dressed in their doctoral robes and seated up front while the students sat behind. Concelebrating were priests who serve the spiritual needs of the students on campus and in Ave Maria Parish.
“We need to search for announcement of the Angel Gabriel in our own life; those things that come from the Lord and bring about change,” Bishop Dewane said. “It might not be the Angel Gabriel, but it might be as when Jesus is on the shore and calls to the Disciples, ‘Come follow Me!’ (Matt. 19:21) As students at Ave Maria University, I want you to listen closely this year, how many times Christ says ‘Come follow Me!’”
“It is you who has to project those very things you search for in your life,” Bishop Dewane said. “It is no surprise that God brought you here to have an encounter with the Lord… Accept the guidance of the Lord. Go with Him on the journey and be richer for it along the way… Hear that call of ‘Come follow Me!’ and live a true answer to Christ here at Ave Maria University.”
The Cardinal Mooney Catholic High School Football Team was both humbled and honored to have had Coach Urban Meyer give an inspirational talk before their Preseason Classic Game against Seffner Christian in Sarasota on Aug. 19, 2022. Meyer’s is a three-time national championship college football coach, twice as head coach of University of Florida and once with Ohio State University.
Fourth graders at St. Mary Academy in Sarasota had fun with their latest STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts and Math) challenge on Aug. 19, 2022. Their task was to build 3-hoop gliders, alternating the location of the hoops on each glider, and then let them fly. Each glider flew to determine which design performed the best and traveled the farthest. This was a lesson which challenged the students to think creatively and build a glider from paper and then see the results of their hard work.
Bishop Verot Catholic High School senior Wyatt Whalen received his State Championship Ring on Aug. 19, 2022, in Fort Myers. Whalen took the Class 2A shot put title with a throw of 16.32 m (53 feet 6 ½ inches) during the Florida High School Athletic Association Track & Field State Championship May 11 -12, 2022, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Whalen also took third in the discus with a toss of 46.36 m (152 feet 1 inch).
Eleventh grade students at Donahue Catholic Academy of Ave Maria Parish in Ave Maria spent time on Aug. 18, 2022, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Retreat Center in Venice as part of a retreat. The students prayed together, had some fun and learned about how they need to hear the call of the Lord in their lives. Ave Maria Parish Pastor Father David Vidal celebrated Mass for the teens.
At St. Andrew Catholic School in Cape Coral, students are working hard to improve their coding skills during a robotics class on Aug. 22, 2022. This specialized skill is being learned as part of a broader STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts and Math) curriculum. This curriculum, called, “The Gifts of Christ: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Affability, Fortitude, Humility, and Prudence,” is growing out of a robotics program which broadens the opportunities for each student. The coding skills learned at St. Andrew enabled the students to perform various fun tasks with a Sphero Bolt Robot.
It was the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, but the occupants of the vehicles were not going to Mass, they were waiting for food as part of a local distribution effort to help the needy in the area.
“I have three children and my grocery bill is nearly $200,” said Shannon Byrd of Naples. “I work. My husband works and it isn’t enough. Buying the basic food for my family is just too much.”
The reason for the increases varies: Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine; the market still recovering from the global pandemic; a recent avian flu wiping out chicken and egg production; gasoline prices; and the increasing costs at every level for farmers, production and grocers for labor and processing. The impact is real.
Maria Verde of Immokalee waited patiently at Guadalupe Social Services of Catholic Charities Diocese of Venice, Inc., in Immokalee on Aug. 15, so that she could get a bag of food for her family. She has two toddlers and one child in elementary school.
Many Diocesan Parishes support a variety of food pantries and food banks within the region. Please check with your local Parish on how you can help this effort.
These scenes are repeated each day at the 15 Diocese of Venice Catholic schools which began instruction for the 2022-2023 Academic Year on Aug. 8, 2022, with the full complement of 5,837 students engaged in schoolwork by Aug. 10.
The first Friday at St. John Neumann Catholic High School in Naples was a House Retreat Day, where new students are assigned to one of four Houses which serve as their center of social and school spirit activities throughout the coming year. Each of the four teams competes for points to earn different rewards or prizes throughout the year, with a trophy for the winners at the end.
The first week flew by at Bishop Verot Catholic High School in Fort Myers, where 854 students, the most in its long history, roamed the halls. The week concluded with the annual Freshman Retreat from Aug. 12-13. Students learned about Bishop Verot and the traditions and expectations being a Verot Viking. The retreat is led by seniors who will serve as mentors to the underclassmen as they go forward in high school. Highlights of the weekend included doing service work in the community at the Humane Society and Food Bank among other locations. They students also took part in a traditional candlelight prayer vigil in the courtyard.
Enrollment numbers are also way up at St. Catherine Catholic School in Sebring where the students quickly dove into their studies in reading, writing, mathematics, science, technology, Spanish and much more, but all grounded in the Faith.
These are just a few of the examples of what took place during the first week of school in the Diocese of Venice and doesn’t even come close to covering the full scope of the exciting things that are taking place each day. Stay tuned as we follow our students throughout the school year
The Parish hosts Catholic Charities in the Juan Diego Center and supports the good works provided by the staff and volunteers, many of whom are their own parishioners.
“We know this is a really wonderful program and opportunity for these kids,” Bellows said. “Our parishioners are so generous in supporting it every year.”
Boarding a bus, the campers and their chaperones spent the early part of the day travelling to the Space Center, being immersed in the history of exploration of outer space and getting a glimpse into the future. The group even had the opportunity to talk with NASA Astronaut Steven Smith who has travelled to outer space four times.
Joyce Scott, who for 17 years has led Our Mother’s House of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice, Inc., has retired. A reception in her honor was held on July 15, 2022. During her time at Our Mother’s House, the program has seen three major expansions. The mission of Our Mother’s House is to offer single mothers and their preschool-age children transitional housing in a safe and secure environment to achieve increased self-sufficiency through education, vocational training, and personal growth.
Father Dennis C. Klemme, who helped establish the Diocese of Venice Marriage Tribunal, and was a longtime priest in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, and died Aug. 9, 2022, at the age of 90. Father Klemme was born in West Alice, Wisconsin, studied at St. Francis Minor and St. Francis Major Seminaries in Milwaukee. Father was ordained to the priesthood on May 25, 1957. Father Klemme served in Parishes in the Archdiocese for several years before further studies as a Canon Lawyer at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Father was assigned to the Archdiocese Matrimonial Tribunal and Chaplain at the Carmelite Monastery in Pewaukee. In early 1985, Father Klemme was loaned to the newly established Diocese of Venice to use his experience to set up a Marriage Tribunal, gaining many friends. He returned to the Archdiocese in 1988 and was appointed as Judicial Vicar, a position he served in until retirement in 1999. In his later years, he continued to assist at Parishes and minister to the Carmelite Monastery. A Mass of Christian Burial was held Aug. 18, 2022, at the Basilica and National Shrine of Mary Help of Christians in Hubertus.
Every day, Catholic Charities, Diocese of Venice, Inc., serves its most vulnerable population by feeding, housing, empowering, and helping all in need. Time is running out for you to give a gift that makes a difference. Your acts of kindness have the power to transform lives and leave a positive impact in our community. The Catholic Charities Summertime and the Giving is Easy Appeal is asking for your support. The giving is easy! Your gift will make a positive impact on our less fortunate brothers and sisters! Please visit 
“Love you!” “Miss you already!” “One more hug!” “Have a great day!” “Have fun!”
These scenes were repeated at each Diocesan Catholic school. The high schools had less tears and more fun as those students settled into their year. At each Diocesan Catholic high school – Bishop Verot in Fort Myers Cardinal Mooney in Sarasota and St. John Neumann in Naples – there were special “Senior Sunrise” welcomes for the graduating class of 2023.
Father Belmonte said the 2022-2023 Academic Year began with enrollment of 5,837, a more than 14% increase over the previous year. In fact, Father Belmonte said each Diocesan school has a wait list in at least one grade level, and many are seeing enrollment reaching levels not seen in more than a decade. With those enrollment numbers, many new faces, and many new families are now part of the greater Diocesan Catholic school family.
That excitement includes the inclusion of the STREAM (Science, Technology, Religion, Engineering, Arts and Math) model into all classrooms while incorporating the Diocesan curriculum called, “The Gifts of Christ: Truth, Beauty, Goodness, Affability, Fortitude, Humility, and Prudence.” This is all part of an incorporated Diocesan robotics program which broadens the opportunities for each student.
This approach, fully supported through the generosity of Bishop Frank J. Dewane, places students ahead of the curve in primary fields while continuing to promote core Catholic virtues by helping students to develop cognitive thought processes and gain skills such as leadership, communication, complex problem solving, teamwork and creativity.
