St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
7719 River Rd, Townsend, TN 37882
(865) 448-6070
stfrancistownsend.org
Our Leadership Team: Rev. J.B. Shelton, Pastor
Benjamin Messing, Lay Pastoral Associate
Linda Sanchez, Office Manager
Yvonne Peychal, Director of Liturgical Music
Mary Garner, Director of Religious Education
Kathleen Halligan, Bookkeeper (865-982-3672)
Elizabeth Anderson, Hospitality Coordinator
Martha Frink, Pro-Life Coordinator
Suzy Smith, Social Media Coordinator
Cam King, Council of Catholic Women
Jason Smith, Society of St. Vincent de Paul
Michael Garner, Risk Management Advisor
Joanne Aylward, Webmaster
John Peychal, Physical Facilities Supervisor
Dante Bruno, Assistant Facilities Supervisor
June 14, 2015, Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Please Pray for Our Vocations:
Sister Francesca Silver, FSE
Abbé Christian Juneau
Holy Mass:
Saturday at 4pm
Sunday at 9am
Monday-Friday at 8:30am
Solemn Benediction:
First Fridays at 6pm
Confessions:
Saturday at 3:30pm
Sunday at 8:30am
Extraordinary Form (EF) Liturgy:
Sung Mass Sunday at 11am
Confessions Sunday at 10:30am
New Parishioners:
Please ask an usher for a registration form, and
then place the completed form in the collection
basket at Mass.
DIOCESE OF KNOXVILLE, TN
Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church
Prayer Requests: Sick and recovering parishioners —
Ivan & Maryann Ashworth, Sarah Hebert, Bill Strong,
Hank Caruso, Donna Shafer, Sue Nichols, Jay F. DeCaire,
Tom Cruice, Joe Rizzo, Ann Sorvillo, Stella Sorvillo,
Margaret Aswad, and Juanita Sanchez,
Please pray for friends and family members:
Ronald Vick, Charlotte Graham, Brenda Gant, Lynne
Nestor, John Marschall, Luke Simons, Raymond & Rita
Polak+, Robert Sorvillo, John Berry, and Trisha Woods.
Please send Father Shelton monthly updates on
sick relatives and friends. .
Mass Intentions: (“+” denotes deceased)
Monday Frank A. & Marie Theresa Azzarello+
Tuesday Society of St Vincent de Paul
Wednesday Poor Souls in Purgatory
Thursday Council of Catholic Women
Friday Poor Souls in Purgatory
Saturday 4pm - Pro Populo
Sunday 9am - Patrick Aswad+ 11am – Repose of the Soul of Pierre Juneau
Please Note Change in Contact Person: To schedule
a Mass intention (at least two weeks in advance),
please contact Cam King at [email protected] or
865-448-1551. The usual donation is $10.00 in this
diocese.
Monthly Social: Due to the 54th anniversary celebration of
the blessing of St. Francis of Assisi on June 18th and the
potluck to follow, there will not be a monthly social on the
first weekend of June for the 4pm and 9am masses. Thank
you, Anniversary Committee
Divine Worship Committee: Dear Parishioners and
Visitors, on behalf of the Music Ministry, I would like to
thank all of you who participated in the Pizza Hut Fundraiser
last week. We raised $145.50 plus a donation of $20 to put
towards the purchase of a new sound system.
Also, please keep in mind our 54th anniversary
celebration of the blessing of the church on Thursday June
18th. There is a sign-up sheet in Shea Hall for the potluck
supper which will start at 6 PM. Thank you, Yvonne
St. Vincent de Paul Society (865-312-0141): The SVDP food
pantry is in need of donations. We would appreciate snack
pack jello and pudding, microwaveable meals and laundry
detergent. Due to member vacation schedule, the SVDP
meeting for June 17th has been cancelled. Next meeting:
Wednesday, July 1 at 6 pm in the Parish Resource Center. All
are welcome.
Hospitality Committee: The Hospitality Committee
delivered the 31st "Welcome Basket" to Jack Troupe on
Thursday, May 28th, 2015. We also welcomed Jack to the
Catholic Church on Saturday, June 6th. Please stop in the
Shea Hall and read all about Jack.
Council of Catholic Women: The quarterly meeting of St.
Francis CCW will be held on Saturday, June 20 at 10:00 AM
at Elvira's in Wears Valley with a breakfast brunch on the
patio followed by our business meeting. Beverages will be
furnished by the officers. Among the topics to be discussed
include: a possible change in the bylaws which require a
vote; suggested Parish projects for CCW; notice for an
August retreat in Maggie Valley; and approval of our new
Leadership Chairperson.
If you would like to carpool to Elvira's from St. Francis,
please call Cam King at (865) 448-1551 to make
arrangements.
All are welcome to attend, and since our meetings
are on a quarterly basis, we especially look forward to seeing
you there! Come join us!
Our Lady of Good Counsel pray for us.
The Council of Catholic Women (CCW) at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Townsend, invites you to meet for any/all of
five Centering Prayer and Lectio Divina Sessions on
Wednesdays 6/24, 7/1, 7/8, 7/15 and 7/22 from 6:30-7:45
PM. Twenty minutes of silent centering prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle will be followed by the
time honored practice of Lectio Divina (sacred reading)
focusing prayerfully on the Gospel reading of the upcoming
Sunday. We hope you can join us for any/all of these times
of prayer and reflection to enrich our spiritual journeys.
54th Anniversary of
Dedication of SFA Church June 18th; parish social @ 6pm
The Council of Catholic
Women (CCW) at St.
Francis of Assisi
Wednesdays 6/24, 7/1, 7/8,
7/15 and 7/22 from 6:30-7:45
PM
Requiem Mass for
Daniel Hmielewski June 29th @ 8:30am.
54th Anniversary of
Dedication of SFA Church June 18th; parish social @ 6pm
Parish Calendar
CCW began this project with five meetings in Lent, 2014, and
continued with four in June, four in September, three in
Advent and five in Lent, 2015. Please join us and bring a
friend!
Altar Flowers: Please Note Change in Contact Person. If you
would like to make a donation for altar flowers in
memory/honor of someone, please contact Yvonne Peychal
at [email protected] or 865-774-7991. The donation
amount is $35.00 which covers flowers for 2 weeks.
Last Week’s Mass Participation: 206 in attendance with
donations of $3,699.00 to the parish general fund.
Collection Counters: For 6/8/15, Linda Sanchez, Janet
Fallat, and Sharon Boudin
Bulletin Deadline: All submissions are made to Linda
Sanchez via email by Tuesday at noon. Submissions should
be brief, pre-edited, employ only standard capitalization and
punctuation, and should not contain any emboldened or
underlined words or phrases. All submissions are subject to
further editing for length and clarity.
Before working with minors, all parish staff and volunteers
must attend a “Protecting God’s Children” seminar, undergo
a criminal background check and agree to follow all policies
concerning the protection of minors from sexual abuse.
Anyone who has actual knowledge of or who has reasonable
cause to suspect an incident of sexual abuse should report
such information to the appropriate civil authorities first,
then to the bishop’s office, (865) 584-3307, or the diocesan
victims’ assistance coordinator, Marla Lenihan, (865) 482-
1388.
BIRTHDAYSBIRTHDAYSBIRTHDAYSBIRTHDAYS
Victor Nwadike – June 28
Our Story
The Catholics of Townsend share a history of growth and struggle. Our
parish is situated in East Tennessee’s Diocese of Knoxville, founded in
1988. Originally, the whole of Tennessee was one diocese, with our founding
Bishop Richard Miles sent to Nashville in 1838 to lead a state-wide diocese
with only a few hundred Catholics, no churches, no schools, no clergy except
for himself, and only his saddle bags for a chancery! His ability to make
success out of adversity became the hallmark of Tennessee Catholicism.
We also share Tennessee’s shaky history with Catholicism. When
Father Theodore Baden (First priest ordained in the United States, who
would later purchase the land on which the University of Notre Dame was
built) delivered a sermon at the state house in the then-capital of Tennessee,
Knoxville, in 1808, he was warmly received. However, by mid-century, the
infamously anti-Catholic Know Nothing Party took control of the state, to be
followed in influence in later decades by the equally hostile Ku Klux Klan and
similar groups. But the Church survives here, thanks to God, to courageous
laymen, religious and clerics, and to the ever-present help of kind
neighbors. Let us look now at the history of Catholic pastoral care in
Townsend, a history with distinct eras.
The first era began in 1904 when Catholic brothers John and James Shea,
both managers with Colonel Townsend’s Little River Lumber Co., sought to
establish a Catholic school for the many Irish and Italian Catholics employed
by the company. The next year, Knoxville native Father Emmanuel Callahan,
the last American horseback missionary, whose adventures in the 33 counties
under hi care were followed by Catholics across the United States through
published accounts in Catholic periodicals, oversaw the establishment of this
Catholic school on Townsend’s Happy Top Hill, and began saying Mass
monthly in the John Shea home. The Catholic community thrived in
Townsend until the lumber industry gave way to the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park a few years later, with the resulting loss of Catholic laborers in
the area. It is worth noting that the Catholic community of Townsend
produced a future vocation to the priesthood during this first era: John and
Harriet Shea’s son, Msgr. John Harold Shea, was born in Townsend on June
26th, 1904. Msgr. Shea’s younger brother, Francis, born in Knoxville soon
thereafter, would become bishop of Evansville, Indiana.
The second era began in 1960, when Father John P. Baltz of Our Lady of
Fatima Church in Alcoa, whose parish included both Townsend and Gatlinburg
within its boundaries, asked the only Catholic in Townsend, Dorothy
Thompson, to identify a building that could be used as a church during the
annual tourist season for the growing number of Catholic tourists. An
abandoned and much neglected Methodist church was found and rented for
one dollar per year. It was given the name “Saint Francis of Assisi Mission”
after the 13th century Italian deacon and mystic. Sacred vessels and
vestments were sought from other dioceses, and Bishop William Adrian of
Nashville personally crafted the original altar, later dismantled during
renovations in the 1980’s. A Catholic hospital in Dayton, Ohio donated the
tabernacle and altar cross, which have been preserved. Closer to home, Holy
Ghost Church in Knoxville began taking up an annual collection for our
Townsend mission. Just before the first Mass, scheduled for June 18th, 1961,
the Ku Klux Klan planned to burn down the building, but Methodist minister
Rev. Perry Tanksley preached a sermon against this intolerance, which saved
the church. Notably, over fifty non-Catholics from Townsend attended the
first Mass. A few years later, the Catholics of Townsend were able to
purchase the church and land, thanks to a bequest from Mr. W. E. Shultz of
Memphis.
(The Third and final era will be added next week)
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