St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church

7719 River Rd, Townsend, TN 37882

(865) 448-6070

stfrancistownsend@comcast.net

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 camcabin@comcast.net 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 Yvonne.peo@comcast.net 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)