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David Hempfling, an Iraq veteran who was a specialist fourth class during his time in the military, stands with his family and waves during the "Welcome Home the Heroes" parade in St. Louis Jan. 28. He is pictured with his wife, Stacey, and daughters Taylor, 11, and Brooke, 3. The ceremony drew thousands of people to welcome home the soldiers from the war in Iraq. (CNS photo/Lisa Johnston, St. Louis Review)

They were taking part in the nation's first "Welcome Home the Heroes from Iraq Day" Jan. 28 in downtown St. Louis.

Catholics from Missouri and Illinois were among the thousands who gathered for the salute or took part in the parade.

It started as an idea between two friends, Craig Schneider and Tom Appelbaum, who quickly put together an official thank-you to the men and women who served their country in Iraq. They began a Facebook group that ignited thousands of citizens to donate time, money and services for the cause.

"It's nice to be recognized. It means a lot," David Behle, a reservist who served in Iraq, told the St. Louis Review, the archdiocesan newspaper. A member of St. Joseph Parish in Cottleville, he wants to see a similar event when troops return from Afghanistan.

"It's hard to believe that private citizens came up with this idea in three weeks time and made it this huge -- a turnout like this on a January day," said Richard Cullen, quartermaster of a Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Illinois. He is a member of Holy Ghost Parish in Jerseyville, Ill.

Cullen said his parish pastor, a veteran of the Korean War, and the parish have supported the troops as have many other churches. He noted that while he was in the Army serving in Iraq and Germany he was lucky to have a Catholic chaplain serving his battalion.

"It's nice to be able to go to a service and practice your faith," he said, noting that it was a time to put aside worries. "Whether it was in a tent or under a tree, it was really nice to have that."

Also taking part in the parade were Scotty and Melissa Wood, looking sharp in their dress uniforms. They are from Clarksville, Tenn., where they serve on a base and are members of Immaculate Conception Parish there. Scotty Wood said he gets gratitude from the people he has served with but "it's always nice to come home and feel appreciated. It's reassuring."

Melissa Wood, who grew up in St. Robert Bellarmine Parish in St. Charles, said the Clarksville parish has been supportive. Especially needed is for people to reach out to the families who have a spouse serving overseas, she said, noting that as soon as her husband left that is when a malfunction would happen at their home. Sometimes, Melissa and her husband said, staying home alone and caring for three young children can be as difficult as being deployed.

Scotty Wood said that each deployment brought him closer to his faith, "even when you see horrible things."

His wife agreed about the effect of combat, noting that some people who previously didn't have any faith grew closer to God.

"And combat brings people together in a way nothing else can," she said. "When everything is chaos around you -- that's when you need something that can pull you through."

They recalled how much they enjoyed religious services in Iraq, and Scotty Wood cited the help provided by the chaplains.

Ricky Elcan, who attends St. Norbert Church in Florissant, was with a combat systems support battalion in Iraq and had 800 soldiers under his command. "I lost a few. That's why I'm here," he said, noting his appreciation for the support being given the military.

Elcan sees the need to help returning soldiers get jobs. He, too, felt a sense of peace when going to church in Iraq and a "a feeling of being connected. Listening to the word of God would re-energize me."

In a war, "you have to have faith," he said.

Joseph Woodward of High Ridge said he appreciated the St. Louis community "taking the lead for the nation at a crucial time."

People who support the military are important during a war effort, he added. When people respond to him when he is in uniform, he said, that is a reminder that "it's an honor to serve the country."

Among others giving support were Marcia Wells of Valle Mines and Andrea Politte of Pevely, who were with a group from Camp Hope, a 180-acre outdoor space that helps wounded veterans heal.

Connie McClellan drove in from Columbia, Mo., to salute the Iraq veterans. Her son, a Marine, was shot once while serving in Iraq and twice while in Afghanistan, and the last time was hit in the head. He now is a college student. She has written a book about him, "My Miracle Marine."

Through prayer and an act of kindness, Tebow also connected with Joey Norris, a 13-year-old eighth-grader from Our Lady of Mercy School in Potomac who is battling leukemia.Joey Norris, center right, demonstrates "Tebowing" with some of his eighth- grade classmates at Our Lady of Mercy School in Potomac, Md., Jan. 12. Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow's prayerful gesture has caught on around the world. Norris, who is battling cancer, tweeted a photo of himself Tebowing while Chemoing to Tebow, and the quarterback immediately responded that he would pray for him. (CNS photo/Rafael Crisostomo, Catholic Standard)

This past fall, while Joey was undergoing cancer treatment at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, his dad, Jim, asked him if he had heard about "Tebowing." It's the prayerful gesture made famous by Tebow, who after scoring a touchdown, kneels on one leg and bows his head in prayer, with his arm resting on his bended knee and his fist touching his forehead.

Joey, an avid football fan, had earlier drafted Tebow to be the quarterback on his fantasy football team.

After seeing photos of his favorite player praying, the youngster said, "I want to do that." And there, in his room at Children's Hospital, Joey knelt down near his chemo pole, and his dad took a picture of him. Later, as the two were walking to their car, wondering what to call Joey's gesture, his dad suggested, "Tebowing while Chemoing."

Joey immediately tweeted that photo to Tebow, explaining that "I'm Tebowing while Chemoing!" The youth added that he was a cancer survivor who was trusting the quarterback with his fantasy team.

Within two hours, Tebow tweeted a response back to Joey, noting that the boy's tweet was "my favorite one of the day," and he told him, "Praying for you and God bless you, big man!"

Jim Norris said in an interview with the Catholic Standard, Washington archdiocesan newspaper, that Joey had been "on the fourth day of a brutal five-day chemo regimen" when Tebow tweeted him back.

"By the end of the week, it wipes you out, you don't feel well. He hadn't been to school all week," Jim Norris said. "When Tim tweeted him back, all of a sudden, his eyes lit up. He had the strength to get through that week and couldn't wait for the weekend."

Some weeks later, the Tim Tebow Foundation invited Joey and Jim Norris to attend the Broncos' Jan. 1 home game vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. Joey proudly wore his No. 15 Tim Tebow jersey, and before the game at Mile High Stadium, Tebow finished his warm-up tosses and sprinted over to the sideline to meet Joey.

"He gave me a great big hug, and he gave me a game ball they were throwing around in pre-game," Joey told the Catholic Standard. The quarterback also gave him a copy of his autobiography, "Through My Eyes," and a student Bible.

That game, however, lacked a storybook ending, as Denver lost 7-3, and Tebow had statistically his worst game of the season.

Joey said that after the defeat, "you could see the disappointment in his eyes," and yet Tebow still managed to smile and offer encouragement to his two young guests, talking to them for about 15 minutes and autographing Joey's jersey, the book and the Bible he had given him.

Win or lose, Tebow "is just the nicest person, all around," he said. His dad agreed, saying, "He's the real deal. He's a caring, loving person who just happens to play football."

Tebow's season had its ups and downs, with exciting touchdown passes and runs, but also throws that missed their mark; thrilling victories and disappointing losses.

Joey, who has had his own struggles and triumphs in recent years during his four-year cancer battle, can relate. "He's such an inspiration to anybody going through anything," he said of Tebow.

The quarterback's struggles and end-of-game heroics offer a lesson about endurance, Joey said, adding that even when bad things happen during your day, you can turn it around by the end of the day.

Read the letter that Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki sent to pastors, deacons and parish directors Jan. 31 to be used as a pulpit announcement or bulletin insert.

According to Catholic News Service, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Jan. 20 “that nonprofit groups that don’t provide contraceptive coverage based upon religious beliefs will get an additional year ‘to adapt to this new rule.’”

Archbishop Listecki is communicating the “seriousness of this decision” to the people using a letter that its recipients can use as a pulpit announcement or bulletin insert to make parishioners “aware of the decision and the reasons for the Church’s opposition to the mandate.”

He explained in the letter, written in conjunction with the U.S. bishops and bishops of Wisconsin, that the mandate has a direct and negative impact upon the U.S. church and “strikes at the fundamental right to religious liberty for all citizens of any faith.”

The archbishop wrote that the administration’s ruling forcing almost all employers to offer employees health coverage that includes sterilization, abortion-inducing drugs and contraception denies Catholics religious liberty, the “nation’s first and foremost fundamental freedom.”

“We cannot – we will not – comply with this unjust law,” the archbishop said in the letter, outlining two options for Catholics.

“As a result, unless the rule is overturned, Catholics must be prepared to either violate our consciences or to drop health coverage for our employees (and suffer the penalties for doing so),” he said in the letter.

The archbishop said he hopes Catholics will stand up and protect the church’s sacred rights and duties as past generations have by committing “to prayer and fasting that wisdom and justice may prevail, and religious liberty may be restored,” but also by educating themselves on the ruling and contacting Congress “in support of legislation that would reverse the administration’s decision.”

“We cannot stand idle and allow the infringement of government in the practice o four faith,” he said.

The general format of the consistory has been maintained, but the ceremony has been modified and will include the use of prayers borrowed from ancient Roman liturgies. Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan will even address the College of Cardinals on the subject of new evangelization.

And, of course, red will be the color of the day as the new cardinals are reminded that they are called to give their lives to God and the church, even to the point of shedding their blood.

Tradition and innovation, solemnity and festivity, high honor and a call to sacrifice are key parts of the creation of new cardinals.

The hushed moment when a churchman kneels before the pope and receives his red hat as a cardinal contrasts sharply with the mood in the Apostolic Palace that same evening when the public –– literally anyone who wants to come –– is invited in to congratulate the new cardinals.

Pope Benedict will create 21 new cardinals in the morning during an "ordinary public consistory" in St. Peter's Basilica. For reasons of health, the 22nd cardinal-designate, German Jesuit Father Karl Josef Becker, 83, will not attend the ceremony and will be made a cardinal "privately at some other time," said Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman.

The evening of the consistory, the Bronze Doors will open and the public will be allowed to swarm up the Scala Regia –– the royal stairway –– and into the Apostolic Palace to meet and greet the new cardinals.

A consistory is a gathering of cardinals with the pope. According to canon law, an ordinary consistory is called for consultation or for the celebration "of especially solemn acts," such as the creation of new cardinals or a vote approving the canonization of candidates for sainthood.

And, in fact, the consistory Feb. 18 will include both. Immediately after the new cardinals are created, all the "princes of the church" are scheduled to vote on several new saints –– including Blessed Marianne Cope of Molokai and Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha –– Msgr. Guido Marini, master of papal liturgical ceremonies, told Catholic News Service Feb. 1.

Normally, the public consistory for new saints is attended by cardinals living in Rome, but the creation of new cardinals is an opportunity for all of them to exercise their role as advisers to the pope.

This will be the fourth time Pope Benedict has created new cardinals and will bring his total to 84 cardinals, of whom 79 are still alive; 63 of his appointees in the College of Cardinals will be under the age of 80 and eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope.

Like the consistories he held in 2007 and in 2010, the February ceremony will be preceded by a daylong meeting of the pope with the College of Cardinals and the cardinals-designate. The Vatican said the theme will be "Proclaiming the Gospel today, between 'missio ad gentes' and new evangelization" with Cardinal-designate Dolan of New York opening the meeting.

The three-cornered, red biretta the pope will place on the new cardinals' heads is traditional, but the ceremony for the 2012 consistory has been changed.

In early January, the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, reported, "The rite used up to now has been revised and simplified with the approval of the Holy Father," in part to avoid any impression that becoming a cardinal is a sacrament like ordination.

But two ordinations will precede the consistory. Three of the new cardinals named by Pope Benedict are priests, not bishops.

Church law says new cardinals must have been ordained at least to the priesthood and should be ordained bishops before entering the College of Cardinals. However, in recent decades, many of the elderly priests named to the college as a sign of esteem and gratitude for their service to the church have requested, and received, an exemption from episcopal ordination.

Maltese Augustinian Father Prosper Grech, an 86-year-old biblical theologian and one of the co-founders of Rome's Augustinian Patristical Institute, was scheduled to be ordained a bishop Feb. 8 in Malta. Belgian Father Julien Ries, 91, an expert on the history of religions, told CNS he would be ordained a bishop Feb. 11 in Belgium. On the other hand, in keeping with the Jesuit promise not to strive for any dignity in the church, Father Becker, a retired professor at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, said he would become a cardinal without becoming a bishop.

Another small change made to the consistory this year involves timing. The prelates will receive their cardinals' rings from Pope Benedict during the consistory, rather than at the Mass they will concelebrate with the pope Feb. 19. And, as customary, during the consistory they also will receive their assignments of a "titular church" in Rome, making them formally members of the Rome diocesan clergy, which is what the church's first cardinals were.

Once the new cardinals are created, the College of Cardinals will have a record-high number of members. The total number of princes of the church will reach 213, surpassing the total of 203 reached with the consistory in 2010. As recently as 2001, the total number of cardinals dipped to 139 just before Pope John Paul II named a record 44 cardinals at once.