News - February 2017

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I write to share with you my current health condition and its impact on the governance of the diocese.

The Father Ryan High School wrestling team doubled their fun by adding the team championship at the Division II Individual Wrestling Tournament two weeks after winning the Division II Duals Wrestling state title.

Doctors are encouraged with the progress Bishop David Choby has made through treatments for an infection he developed during a hospital stay of more than two weeks.

On Thursday, Feb. 23, Catholic Charities of Tennessee executive director Pam Russo delivered the “devastating news” to 13 employees in Catholic Charities’ Refugee Resettlement office that they no longer had jobs.

One of the biggest challenges of Lent, for many people who are caught up in the demands of everyday life, is to set aside meaningful time during the penitent season to forge a deeper connection with Christ.

When Robert Sharp was growing up on Primrose Avenue near Christ the King Church in Nashville in the late 1950s and 1960s, he and his siblings and friends would roam throughout the surrounding neighborhoods playing. It wasn’t until he was in his 50s that he realized that his playground was the home of a once thriving, prehistoric culture.

In the 1990s, Bishop Jose Andres Corral Arredondo of Parral, Mexico, sent several of his priests to the Diocese of Nashville to help serve the growing Latino population in Middle Tennessee.

Clark Baker has spent his life at the YMCA, first as a member in his childhood – the membership was a gift from a neighbor – and later as one of its top executives.

Affirming that all human life is sacred and all people are “protagonists of their future,” more than 600 grass-roots leaders echoed the call of a U.S. bishop to disrupt practices that cause oppression and violate human dignity.

Organizers of the upcoming 40 Days for Life prayer vigil for the end of legalized abortion are looking for people willing to make a peaceful, prayerful public witness of their faith and their belief in the sanctity of life.

Holy Name Church has been a fixture in Nashville’s Catholic community for more than a century; its first campus was built in 1857, a mere 20 years after the Diocese of Nashville was established.

As the new executive director of Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Pam Russo is spending time getting to know the staff and programs of the agency that serves about 70,000 people annually in Middle Tennessee.

One day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting the U.S. refugee resettlement program and temporarily banning travel on people from select Muslim-majority countries, Murfreesboro resident Yassir Khattab, a former Iraqi refugee, received an urgent voicemail from his friend Ali Muhammed, telling him he would not be aboard a flight from Baghdad en route to Nashville as planned.

This year’s March for Life in Washington, D.C., had a different feel than past marches for the roughly 500 people from the Diocese of Nashville who attended.

Members of the Honduras-based Olancho Aid Foundation, including Bishop Joseph Bonello, recently traveled to Middle Tennessee “to say thank you for the time, talent, treasure, and presence” that people from the Diocese of Nashville have given over the last decade to the people of Olancho, Honduras.

Retired U.S. Army Col. John E. Horn learned a lot about his father, John H. Horn, from stories his grandmother would tell. He learned that his dad was fascinated about flying and dreamed of being a pilot from the time he was a very small child.

Devin DeLaughter, the new athletic director at Father Ryan High School, is looking to build on the school’s long tradition of excellence in athletics and engagement with the community.