We welcome all of you to St Mary Catholic Church in Yazoo City, which is one of the hidden gems of our diocese. I was pastor here at St Mary from October 2010 to February 2013, just a little more than two years. It was my first assignment as pastor. I really enjoyed my time in Yazoo City, an area that is a gateway to the Mississippi Delta and certainly a part of Delta culture. Today, we got to see some history of Yahoo City, with our tour of the historic cemetery and historic St Mary Church.
This week in some of our daily Masses, some of the saints we celebrated included the siblings Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, beloved friends of Jesus, who just got their own feast day last year; Joachim and Anne, Jesus’ maternal grandparents; and St Ignatius of Loyola from 16th century Spain, the founder of the Jesuits. We also hear today in the Gospel the summary of the life of Jesus’ cousin, St John the Baptist. The history of our faith as told to us in Bible stories and the lives of the saints is important to us. Our Catholic history in the Diocese of Jackson and in our parishes is important to us as well. The history of the Catholic Church is an interesting history, of a church that burned down twice, which ties us to the legend of the witch of Yazoo City which you heard about in our tour of the cemetery today. At one point, Yazoo City had two Catholic Churches and two Catholic schools from kindergarten to high school. It was an important center of Catholicism in Mississippi with a great history and great traditions. Today, it is a much smaller Catholic community. Communities and churches all over the Delta are shrinking and closing. It is a part of our history right now that is perhaps a bit difficult to see.
Thank you all for coming out here with us today. I hope you enjoyed your visit to Yazoo City. I have a lot of great friends here and a lot of great memories. It is a place that is very important to me. It is important for us to know our history and to reach out to other Catholic in our Diocese, to let them know that we are in solidarity and community with them.
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