People, Events, Places (PEP)

  By Susan Palmes-Dennis ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—As I write this, there’s a full week and a few days before March ends.     Incidentally, aside from commemorating the annual International Women’s Month, the last week of March also coincides with the annual observance of Holy Week starting with Palm Sunday on March 24. So it’s probably serendipitous that over the past weekend, seven women parishioners of St. James Catholic Church here trooped to the Carolinas cinema to watch the movie ‘Cabrini.’ ‘Cabrini’ tells the story of Italian immigrant Francesca Cabrini, the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.    She and other sisters arrived in New York and was greeted by the sight of impoverished children, disease, prostitution and other crimes.  Cabrini encountered disappointment, difficulties and resistance within the Catholic Church hierarchy.    Maybe the resistance came out of frustration in failing to establish the Catho...

  By Susan Palmes-Dennis ROCKINGHAM, North Carolina—It was nearly pitch black at the end of the 15th station save only for the lighted candles inside the St. James Catholic Church. The parishioners were caught up with unexplainable sentiments at that moment.   One such churchgoer was Marilou Jagonos Haynes, one of the readers of the Mary’s Way of the Cross, the second year this event was held in the church.    The 15th station is when Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. The resurrection scene was accompanied by a piano solo of the song “What Wondrous Love Is This, O My Soul, O My Soul’ as performed by pianist Debbie McRoberts.     Her voice rang true like a mother longing for the presence of her children. ‘It was lovely,’ said one lady parishioner to Terri Wyman who explained to the faithful in her opening message that the Mary’s Way Of The Cross was held for the second straight year in St. James.    Kim Brunner Stella, who was unavailable that ...