I will be speaking at St. Gabriel Catholic Church in Charlotte on Wednesday night, November 12, at 6:30 p.m. The church is at 3016 Providence Road. Details are here. My topic? My cousin the saint, and how he came to be canonized.

Update:My sincere thanks to Susan Krasniewski and Father Frank at St. Gabriel for hosting me tonight. They both did a sensational job of organizing and promoting my talk and we certainly had a wonderful turnout. It was great to meet so many people afterwards. A special thanks to the Italian-American woman who traveled to Charlotte from Shelby who bought eight books and gave me to two delicious homemade meatball sandwiches!

Friday night at St. Matthew Catholic Church in Charlotte, more than 200 people turned out for the very first Italian-American potluck gathering held especially for congregation members, and coinciding nicely with Columbus Day week. What a great night! It didn’t look like Charlotte in that crowded room; it looked like a Catanoso family reunion, with two long tables of home-cooked Italian specialties, young families with kids, plenty of older folks, and everyone having fun. I spoke for about 45 minutes, and at times the room was so quiet as I told tales of Padre Gaetano, Uncle Tony and the canonization that I could hardly believe it. Afterward, people shared their own stories of Italy and several teared up. When we finally finished, I signed books for an a full hour. Amazing.

A special thank you to Monsignor McSweeney at St. Matt’s for inviting me and Antoinette Usher for so cheerfully and efficiently planning and executing the evening. They hinted that they would like me to come back. I will happily do so.

I also had a great time at the Italian Festival in uptown Charlotte today, which was teeming with food, entertaiment, Italian souveniers and thousands of guests. Plenty of interest in My Cousin the Saint, too.

Friday evening, I have the great honor of speaking at St. Matthew Catholic Church, located on Ballantyne Commons Parkway in Charlotte. There’s a dinner at 6 p.m., and my presentation starts at 7 p.m. Also, Charlotte is hosting its annual Italian Festival at 301 S. Tryon St. downtown on Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. I’ll have a table there as well as some books. I wonder if I’ll meet any native Calabrians?

Charlotte Observer religion writer Tim Funk writes about me, my book and my upcoming visit to Charlotte in his column today. The story is here.

UNC-TV reporter and anchor Eszter Vadja contacted me at my newspaper today to invite me on her program Wednesday evening. It will be a panel discussion on the economy. Other panelists will include business profs from UNC, Duke and Wake Forest, an investment expert and a civic leader from Charlotte. Starts at 9 p.m. on your North Carolina public television channel. Should be a lively and illuminating discussion. Eszter said I could mention my book, but somehow I don’t think we’ll get around to it.

But — Tim Funk, religion writer for the Charlotte Observer, interviewed me today about My Cousin the Saint. His story will run Saturday, October 4. I have three appearances in Charlotte coming up. St. Matthew on Oct. 10, the Italian-American festival uptown on Oct. 11and St. Gabriel’s on Nov. 16.

Yonat Shimron at the News & Observer in Raleigh reports today: “In a rare joint appearance on the steps of the General Assembly, North Carolina’s two Roman Catholic bishops announced an initiative to create a unified voice on public policy issues affecting the state.

“The move represents an effort to flex a political muscle that has strengthened in recent years. For generations, Catholics represented less than 1 percent of the state’s population and North Carolina was considered by church leaders as “mission territory” ripe for evangelism. But with an influx of newcomers from Northern states as well as Mexico and Latin America, Catholics — numbering about 800,000 across the state — now want to be heard.”

Interesting fact: 30 years ago, the state’s Catholic population was about one-tenth what it is today. The vast increase is the result of Northeastern and Midwestern residents moving South (count me in that group), and of course, the state’s growing Hispanic population.

Shimron also writes: “As part of that initiative, (Raleigh diocese Bishop Michael) Burbidge (right) said the dioceses will send a questionnaire to gubernatorial candidates as well as to North Carolina’s U.S. House and Senate delegation asking their views on a host of issues. The results of that questionnaire will be posted on the Web site in October.”