MAY 2022
MARY, UNTIER OF KNOTS Also in this issue: A MEMORIAL TO A DIFFERENT KIND OF WAR I’D LIKE TO SAY: STOP WEAPONIZING THE EUCHARIST FIVE WAYS TO CELEBRATE YOUR BODY SHARING THE SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS WITH THE WORLD • FranciscanMedia.org
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SAINT OF THE DAY
MAY 2022
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LUIS PORTUGAL/ISTOCK; KUTREDRIG/ISTOCK; COURTESY NATIONAL BLACK CATHOLIC CONGRESS; CREATIVE COMMONS 3.0/WOLFGANG SAUBER
IN HIS 2018 APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION “Rejoice and Be Glad,” Pope Francis writes: “Holiness does not make you less human, since it is an encounter between your weakness and the power of God’s grace. For in the words of León Bloy, when all is said and done, ‘The only great tragedy in life is not to become a saint.’” Join Franciscan Media in our daily celebration of these holy men and women of God!
OUR LADY OF FATIMA May 13
ST. RITA OF CASCIA May 22
Like the apparition of Our Lady of Lourdes, this appearance was given not to Church officials, but to three poor children working in a field. Through them, Mary requested that the Church spread devotion to the rosary to all the faithful.
St. Rita of Cascia was a wife, widow, and mother before becoming an Augustinian nun. She seems to have done most of her ministry within the convent yet counseled many laypeople who came to the monastery. Rita was known for her austerity, charity, and prayerfulness.
ST. ISIDORE THE FARMER May 15
VENERABLE PIERRE TOUSSAINT May 28
A married man known for his love of prayer, Isidore the Farmer worked on the estate of a wealthy landowner and thus attained the title of farmer. He was known for his love of the poor and the proper treatment of animals.
Born in Haiti and brought to New York City as a slave, Pierre Toussaint lived an exemplary Catholic life both before and after gaining his freedom. Married and then widowed, Pierre continued his charitable works well into his elder years.
THREE WAYS TO ENGAGE WITH THE SAINTS ALEXA
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F EAT U R E S 18
A Memorial to a Different Kind of War
A Catholic artist’s sculpture will serve as a permanent memorial to those who suffered and died during the pandemic and the health-care workers who responded with courage and compassion. By Janice Lane Palko
COVER STORY
23
Mary, Untier of Knots
When life gets tangled, who better to go to than our mother? Story by Maureen O’Brien Artwork by Carol Cole
28
I’d Like to Say: Stop Weaponizing the Eucharist
We may find common ground on pro-life issues when we expand our view to include other pressing social problems. By Mark P. Shea
34
Five Ways to Celebrate Your Body
When you stop and think about it, you really are a miracle. It’s time to start acting like it. By Shannon K. Evans
ON THE COVER: Mixed media painted paper titled Mary, Untier of Knots, by Carol Cole
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VOLUME 129 ISSUE 10 MAY 2022
DEPARTMENTS
12
14
44
46
SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS
POINTS OF VIEW
CULTURE
12 Ask a Franciscan
7
38 Media Reviews
Can He Marry in the Catholic Church? By Pat McCloskey, OFM
14 Followers of St. Francis Sister Mary Gemma Harris, TOR By Patricia Mish
16 Franciscan World OFS: Evolving over the Centuries By Pat McCloskey, OFM
16 St. Anthony Stories ‘Three Cheers to St. Anthony!’
Editorial Doubt: Engine or Enemy of Faith? By Pat McCloskey, OFM
E-Learning: Ancestry Academy By Susan Hines-Brigger
42 At Home on Earth
TV: “Flood in the Desert” on American Experience By Christopher Heffron
A Matter of Life and Death By Kyle Kramer
44 Faith & Family
40 Film Reviews
Redeem Your Coupons By Susan Hines-Brigger
Father Stu The Adam Project Drive My Car By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
46 Let Us Pray A Canticle to Mary By Carol Ann Morrow
COMING IN THE JUNE/JULY ISSUE: •
An article on Sister Anita Baird, who wants to ensure that every person’s vote matters, especially those in the minority
•
An interview with James Martin, SJ, on how parents of LGBTQ children can accompany them with love and respect
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 4 5 6 8 45 48
Contributors Dear Reader Your Voice Church in the News Friar Pete and Repeat Reflection
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 3
CONTRIBUTORS
May 2022
CAROL COLE, illustrator, cover and Mary, Untier of Knots, page 23 As a convert to Christianity, Carol Cole finds Catholicism to be a bottomless treasure chest. Her technique, seen on the cover and in the article on page 23, “takes abstract works and adheres them back together into something recognizable: a face, a bird, a moment in time,” says Cole. “My process was born out of a group process as a teacher. I continue to enjoy engaging others in working together to create amazing artworks for home and office.” For more about Cole’s artwork, visit her website: CarolColeCatholicArtist.com. JANICE LANE PALKO, writer, A Memorial to a Different Kind of War, page 18 For over 20 years, Janice Lane Palko has worked as an editor, columnist, freelance writer, teacher, lecturer, and novelist. Her writing has appeared in a number of publications such as Reader’s Digest, Guideposts for Teens, Woman’s World, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, as well as this magazine. Janice lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with her husband. She is a mother of three, grandmother to three granddaughters, and has a lovable dog, Mickey.
CO
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MARÍA RUIZ SCAPERLANDA, writer, Faith and Family sidebar: “The Purest Love,” page 45 An award-winning journalist, María Ruiz Scaperlanda is the author of countless articles and six books, the latest of which is The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run: Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma (Our Sunday Visitor). She also wrote an article about Father Rother for our September 2017 issue. In June 2016, she was awarded the St. Francis de Sales Award, the highest honor from the Catholic Media Association, for her contributions to Catholic journalism.
MARK P. SHEA, writer, I’d Like to Say: Stop Weaponizing the Eucharist, page 28 In addition to blogging and writing, Mark P. Shea has also done podcasting, radio and TV work, and even some acting. He is the author of numerous articles and books, including The Work of Mercy: Being the Hands and Heart of Christ (Franciscan Media). His website, MarkPShea.com, features commentary on a wide range of topics. He and his wife, Janet, live in Washington State along with their sons and grandkids.
BOB VOJTKO, illustrator, Friar Pete and Repeat, page 45 For years, Bob Vojtko’s cartoons have appeared in St. Anthony Messenger, but in 2021 his artwork became a regular feature when he introduced Friar Pete as the next incarnation of the Pete and Repeat character. Vojtko became interested in art at about 5 years old when he was watching his dad paint a comic book character on a basement wall in their house. In addition to Friar Pete, Vojtko creates singlepanel cartoons for magazines such as Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping.
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PATRICIA MISH, writer, Finding Harmony in the Franciscan Spirit, page 14 Patricia Mish is managing editor of FAITH Grand Rapids, the magazine of the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan. She has been a reporter, editor, and proofreader at daily newspapers in Michigan and Catholic publications, including St. Anthony Messenger. She is the mother of three sons and enjoys running, Chicago Cubs games, reading, camping, and discovering local bakeries.
DEAR READER by Susan Hines-Brigger
PUBLISHER Daniel Kroger, OFM PRESIDENT Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger FRANCISCAN EDITOR Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR Daniel Imwalle CONTRIBUTING EDITOR Sandy Howison EDITORIAL ASSISTANT Sharon Lape PRINTER EP Graphics ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (USPS PUBLICATION #007956) Volume 129, Number 10 Member of the Catholic Media Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright 2022. All rights reserved. ONLINE: StAnthonyMessenger.org • FranciscanMedia.org
THIS PAGE: ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUBJECT UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED; PAT MISH/HOLLY DOLCI; OPPOSITE PAGE: BRAZZO/ISTOCK
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TYING AND UNTYING LIFE’S KNOTS WHEN MY SON, Alex, was a Boy Scout, one of the skills that he had to master was tying various types of knots—square knot, clove hitch, sheet bend. Each one had its own purpose and design. The goal was to make sure each one was sturdy and tight. The benefit, according to the Scouts, is that the practice promotes discipline and focus, and teaches useful skills that can be used immediately. And while those knots can be very beneficial, the same does not go for all knots. Sometimes we want them to work the opposite way and come undone. As a mom, I have spent plenty of time getting knots out of shoes, hair, and the dog, thanks to the kids. I have also dealt with less tactile knots, like ones in my kids’ nervous or excited stomachs. There were some knots, though, that I could not and still cannot untie. In her article on page 23, author Maureen O’Brien writes about some of life’s more challenging knots that she has found herself facing recently, such as the stress of COVID-19 and other knots that are out of our hands. It was in the midst of her struggles that this author discovered Mary, Untier of Knots, and received her help in loosening the grip of those personal struggles. This month, as we celebrate Mother Mary, let us embrace and express gratitude for the many ways in which our mother helps us untie our troubles when we most need her.
Executive Editor
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 5
POINTS OF VIEW YOUR VOICE
AT PEACE WITH PRAYER I was surprised to learn from Theresa Doyle-Nelson’s sidebar in the March Faith and Family column (“The Power of Prayer”) of the Three Hail Marys Devotion. My late husband, Edward, suggested that we say this beautiful prayer each day at noon whenever we were apart. Sadly, he was taken from me at age 45. However, to this day, now 53 years later, I still recite my three Hail Marys daily, and I am at peace. Nelda Hammers, Lewiston, New York
LOOKING INTO THE HEART I read with interest Shannon K. Evans’ article on racism in the February issue (“Helping Children Face Racism”). For a White person to walk in the shoes of a Black person is impossible. We simply cannot live the Black experience. Nor can we excuse or condone in any way WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Richard Marciani, Monroe Township, New Jersey
INSPIRED BY STAINED GLASS WINDOWS I enjoyed reading Jay Joyce’s article in the February issue, “Faith Stories in Glass.” I lingered over the photos of the stained glass windows at St. Monica’s War Memorial Cathedral in Cairns, Australia. They are so powerful. I went to the cathedral’s website to learn more. My favorite stained glass windows are located at St. Peter the Apostle in Provincetown, Massachusetts. In January 2005, the church burned down during a blizzard. The new structure is the most beautiful church I’ve ever visited. The images in the windows range from the historic—a depiction of the Mayflower—to the contemporary—the blessing of the fleet, which shows Jesus preaching at the seashore. Margaret Dunn, St. James, New York
FEEDBACK FROM OUR ONLINE READERS On “Broken Vessels: Lent as a Doorway to Conversion,” by Richard B. Patterson, PhD (March 2022) This was a very good article. I am 67, and I recognize many times when life presented opportunities for conversion. Your examples affirmed my decisions to follow God. Thanks.—Anthony Young On “Five Steps toward Better Communication,” by Colleen Arnold, MD (March 2022) I enjoyed this article very much. It helped me to remind myself to listen, wait, and then answer if I need to. It is something I already know, but the article was a good one to read. Thank you.—Pat Schwettman
St. Anthony Messenger • Letters • 28 W. Liberty St. • Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 MagazineEditors@FranciscanMedia.org
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VICE AND VIRTUE/ISTOCK
Mike Bell, Manchester, Maine
the atrocities performed throughout history. Still, I found it troubling when she writes, “Being color-blind is simply not an option.” After reading that sentence, two quotes came to mind. The first quote comes from Scripture—specifically, in 1 Samuel 16:7, where it is written: “God does not see as a mortal, who sees the appearance. The Lord looks into the heart.” And the second quote is from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he says, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” For me, being color-blind is the only option. I prefer to “look into the heart.”
CNS PHOTO: THE CHOSEN
A DIFFERENT ANGLE ON SCENE FROM THE CHOSEN I’m writing in regard to Daniel Imwalle’s review of the series The Chosen in the March issue of St. Anthony Messenger. Like millions of others from across the faith spectrum, my family and I enjoy this series. It is a show that even touches the heart and soul of my son. The review in the March issue was spot-on, but I was curious about one element: The reviewer mentions the scene in the third episode of season two, when Jesus walks past some of the disciples (who are bickering) and, not wanting to get drawn into their squabbles, passes them by and goes to bed. We saw that scene quite differently. Jesus had spent most of the episode healing people, and when he enters the scene, he is battered, bruised, and bloody from that, not exhausted by their infighting, as the review suggests. In any case, it is a great show, though viewers might have different perspectives of scenes.
POINTS OF VIEW EDITORIAL by Pat McCloskey, OFM
DOUBT: ENGINE OR ENEMY OF FAITH?
VICE AND VIRTUE/ISTOCK
CNS PHOTO: THE CHOSEN
DOUBT IS THE ENEMY OF FAITH, RIGHT? Not necessarily. Hard-core atheists doubt that God exists. These individuals have made such doubt the cornerstone of how they understand the universe and themselves. In effect, they ask, “Who am I without this doubt?” The Bible warns in several places against arrogant doubt. St. Paul writes that the very elderly Abraham “did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief ” (Rom 4:20). The Letter of James compares a doubter to “a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind” (1:6). Perhaps Thomas Edison’s humble, scientific doubt can help us here. After experimenting with many different metals, he discovered that his incandescent lightbulb needed a tungsten filament. Edison’s early failures proved not that no such metal existed—only that he had not yet found it. Doubt enabled Edison to persevere as an inventor. In addition to the biblical examples cited above, the Bible sometimes describes a humble doubt, one that can lead to a wider and deeper faith. St. Paul tells the Corinthian Christians, “We are full of doubts, but we never despair” (2 Cor 4:8). A father who asked Jesus to expel a demon from his son exclaimed, “I do believe, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24). Faith and humble doubt can coexist in the same person. Although the faith is very real, humble doubt drives it to the next level by accounting for some painful life experience. According to St. Augustine of Hippo, the doubt of Thomas the Apostle is more valuable to us than the faith of all the other apostles (Office of Readings for July 3).
PRAYER AND DOUBT In 2020, when he preached at the funeral Mass for Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk, Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr recalled that when his predecessor received bad medical news, he reacted in the same way
that he had throughout his ministry as archbishop. “He said, ‘The Lord is in this somewhere.’” That’s what he and countless others have taken to prayer for centuries. A faith that absolutely dismisses the possibility of doubt is simply not honest, unable to grow as God intends it to. When Francis of Assisi prayed in caves or Teresa of Avila dealt with rejection, sometimes by their own followers and at other times by Church authorities, wasn’t doubt a part of their honest prayer? Did the rejection arise because they were on the wrong path or because other people felt very threatened by such a path? Although we might prefer prayers that are always serene, honest prayer rarely is.
DID MARY SOMETIMES DOUBT? Although many Christians may be shocked at the suggestion that Mary, the mother of Jesus, ever doubted, St. Luke twice says that Mary “remembered these things and pondered on them in her heart” (2:19 and 2:51). This first mention follows the visit of the shepherds immediately after Jesus’ birth. The second reference occurs after Jesus is presented in Jerusalem’s Temple, where Simeon prophesies a great future for Jesus and a sword that will pierce Mary’s heart. The word ponder means “to weigh.” Do people need to weigh something about which they are absolutely certain? Does that describe Mary’s faith at every point of her life? Isn’t it more likely that at the foot of Jesus’ cross, Mary said to herself in her own way, The Lord is in this somewhere? Children understandably tend to take an either/or approach to life: faith or doubt? Adults who regularly choose a both/and approach can incorporate all of life’s experiences into a growing faith. Doubt can either drive faith or kill it. The choice is ours. StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 7
CHURCH IN THE NEWS
by Susan Hines-Brigger
AFTER NINE YEARS, POPE REFORMS CURIA
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good of the whole Church and, because of their family life, their knowledge of social realities, and their faith that leads them to discover God’s paths in the world, they can make valid contributions, especially when it comes to the promotion of the family and respect for the values of life and creation, the Gospel as leaven for temporal realities, and the discernment of the signs of the times.” He also said that, regarding personnel of the offices, leadership, “as far as possible, shall come from the different regions of the world so that the Roman Curia may reflect the universality of the Church.” They can be clergy, religious, or laypeople “who are distinguished by appropriate experience, knowledge confirmed by suitable qualifications, virtue, and prudence. They should be chosen according to objective and transparent criteria and have an adequate number of years of experience in pastoral activities,” he stated. As part of the new organization, the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors is now “within the dicastery,” and “its task is to provide the Roman pontiff with advice and consultancy and to propose the most appropriate initiatives for the protection of minors and vulnerable people.” In a statement released March 19, Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, president of the commission and a member of the Council of Cardinals that drafted the constitution, said: “For the first time, Pope Francis has made safeguarding and the protection of minors a fundamental part of the structure of the Church’s central government. “Linking the commission more closely with the work of the new Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith represents a significant move forward in upgrading the place and mandate of the commission, which can only lead to a stronger culture of safeguarding throughout the Curia and the entire Church,” he said.
CNS PHOTOS: TOP RIGHT: MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS; LOWER LEFT: JOSÉ CABEZAS/REUTERS
DURING A PRESS CONFERENCE at the Vatican on March 21, Church leaders and experts presented “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”)—Pope Francis’ apostolic constitution on the Roman Curia—a project he began shortly after his election in 2013, reported Vatican News. The document was promulgated by Pope Francis two days earlier. It will go into effect on June 5, the feast of Pentecost. “This new apostolic constitution,” the pope wrote, “proposes to better harmonize the present exercise of the Curia’s service with the path of evangelization that the Church, especially in this season, is living.” He described the reform as part of the “missionary conversion” of the Church, a renewal movement aimed at making it reflect more “the image of Christ’s own mission of love.” He further connected it to the ongoing process of promoting “synodality,” a sense of the shared responsibility of all baptized Catholics for the life and mission of the Church. As a result of the constitution, some congregations and pontifical councils will be merged, and the status of others will be raised, such as the charitable office of the papal almoner. The pope said he hoped the constitution would help ensure that the offices of the Vatican will fulfill their mission in helping to promote the Church as a community of missionary disciples sharing the Gospel and caring for all those in need. Part of that effort, he wrote, requires including more laypeople in Curia leadership positions. He added that the reform of the Curia also needed to “provide for the involvement of lay men and women, including in roles of governance and responsibility.” Their participation, he wrote, “is indispensable, because they cooperate for the
CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints (second from right), speaks at a March 21 news conference to present Pope Francis’ document “Praedicate Evangelium” (“Preach the Gospel”), for the reform of the Roman Curia.
CNS PHOTOS: TOP RIGHT: MARKO DJURICA/REUTERS; LOWER LEFT: JOSÉ CABEZAS/REUTERS
CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING
POPE CONSECRATES HUMANITY, UKRAINE, RUSSIA TO MARY ON MARCH 25, in the midst of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Pope Francis and bishops around the world consecrated themselves and all humanity to the Immaculate Heart of Mary, specifically citing the two warring countries, reported Vatican News. Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner, led the act of consecration at the same time at the Shrine of Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal. When Mary appeared to three shepherd children at Fatima in 1917 with a message encouraging prayer and repentance, she also asked for the consecration of Russia to Mary’s immaculate heart. Prior to the event, which took place during a Lenten penance service in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis sent a letter to dioceses around the globe requesting that bishops join him in the prayer. He said, “This Act of Consecration is meant to be a gesture of the universal Church, which in this dramatic moment lifts up to God, through his Mother and ours, the cry of pain of all those who suffer and implore an end to the violence, and to entrust the future of our human family to the Queen of Peace.” He said the decision to make the act of consecration came partly in response to the “numerous requests by the People of God.” The pope lamented the atrocities that the war is inflicting upon Ukraine’s “sorely tried people” and said that it is a threat to world peace. He then invited all bishops, priests, religious, and Catholic faithful to “assemble in their places of prayer on March 25, so that God’s holy people may raise a heartfelt and choral plea to Mary our Mother.” Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, Pope Francis has repeatedly spoken out against the war and offered the Vatican’s assistance to help achieve peace. In late February, Pope Francis visited the Russian ambassador to the Holy See “to express his concern for the war,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.
An overhead view from a drone shows the site of a destroyed shopping center after it was hit during a Russian military strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 21, 2022. Pope Francis has called the war a “senseless massacre” and “sacrilegious” attack on human life.
On March 16, the pope spoke with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill via teleconference, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). Bruni said the meeting “was motivated by the desire to show, as shepherds of their people, a road to peace, to pray for peace so that there may be a cease-fire.” Both the pope and the patriarch agreed that “the Church must not use the language of politics, but the language of Jesus,” Bruni said. The pope also spoke twice to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Andrii Yurash, Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, tweeted that the March 22 conversation between the pope and Zelenskyy was “very promising.” Yurash reported that the pope was “praying and doing everything possible” to help end the war. He also noted that Pope Francis was again invited to visit the country.
FORMER EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT CHARGED IN JESUITS’ MURDERS
Former El Salvador President Alfredo Cristiani
PROSECUTORS IN EL SALVADOR have brought charges against former President Alfredo Cristiani and 12 others—most of whom were former soldiers—for their involvement in the 1989 slayings of six Jesuits, their housekeeper, and the housekeeper’s teenage daughter at their residence on the campus of the Jesuit-run José Simeón Cañas Central American University. According to the Associated Press, the charges apparently include murder, terrorism, and conspiracy. Cristiani, who served as president from 1989 to 1994, has denied any involvement in the murders. This past January, the country’s supreme court ordered a reopening of the case into the slayings, ruling favorably on a petition from the attorney general. StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 9
CHURCH IN THE NEWS
CONTINUED
HOLY SEPULCHRE RESTORATION BRINGS HOPE FOR COOPERATION
Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, custos of the Holy Land (left), Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, and Armenian Patriarch Nourhan Manougian remove a stone to start the project to restore the floor of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
THE SECOND PHASE of restoration and conservation work on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem began in March, with the Franciscan custos of the Holy Land saying he hoped the work would serve as an example of cooperation, reported CNS. At a joint inaugural stone-lifting ceremony, Father
Francesco Patton, OFM, said: “There is always great significance beyond the material [aspect]. We are looking at something worse than the pandemic now, with a war between two Christian countries, so our cooperation here acquires greater significance, and I hope we can show how important cooperation is.” Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem echoed that message. “We hope the whole world will be able to see and understand that this has been done in understanding and mutual cooperation and love,” he said. The two-year restoration project will take place in stages while allowing for religious celebrations, pilgrimages, and visits by tourists. In addition to the restoration—and, when necessary, replacement of pavement stones—the project will include any work needed to maintain the safety and stability of the Edicule, which is revered as the tomb of Jesus, along with the updating of electrical, water, mechanical, and special fire prevention systems. The first phase, which took place from 2016 to 2017, involved the restoration of the Edicule. That project was directed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and conducted by an interdisciplinary team from the National Technical University of Athens.
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lines derived from abortions, something to which Sister Deirdre has deep and sincere religious opposition.” The lawsuit says that Sister Deirdre waited nearly six months for the city to consider her “amply documented request for a religious exemption from the vaccine mandate.” It also said that she has practiced medicine without need of vaccination and without objection from the hospitals and clinics for which she provides volunteer medical services for people in need. “The only stated basis for the denial is the legally nonexistent grounds that her religious exemption would pose an ‘undue hardship’” to the city’s health department, the society said. Some Catholics object to the use of COVID-19 vaccines because the animal-phase testing for some vaccines used stem cells from fetuses aborted 50 years ago. In December 2020, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared all of the vaccines to be morally licit, and the Vatican recently updated its rules to require all of its employees to be vaccinated against the virus or prove they have recently recovered from the disease. Both Pope Francis and Pope Benedict XVI have received the vaccines.
CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: COURTESY ST. BERNADETTE USA/PIERRE VINCENT; RIGHT: COURTESY APPLE TV+
IN A FEDERAL LAWSUIT filed March 9, a religious sister sued the District of Columbia after she was denied a religious exemption from its COVID-19 vaccination mandate for health-care workers, reported CNS. Sister Deirdre Byrne, who is a member of the Sisters of the Little Workers of the Sacred Heart, is boardcertified as a surgeon and in family practice. She provides free medical services in the nation’s capital. The mandate, she believes, violates her rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment of the US Constitution. On March 15, Catholic News Agency reported that Sister Deirdre received a letter from DC Health and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, which stated that she can resume her work as a physician and surgeon until 2023. Attorneys for the sister said the lawsuit is not going away, however. Attorneys for the Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia. Society attorney Christopher Ferrara said, “All three COVID-19 vaccines approved in the United States have been tested, developed, or produced with cell
CNS PHOTO: SARAH SILBIGER/REUTERS
NUN SUES DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA OVER VACCINATION MANDATE
CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: COURTESY ST. BERNADETTE USA/PIERRE VINCENT; RIGHT: COURTESY APPLE TV+
CNS PHOTO: SARAH SILBIGER/REUTERS
CHURCH IN THE NEWS
NEWS BRIEFS
The relics of St. Bernadette, seen in this undated photo, began a months-long tour of the United States on April 7.
In the film CODA, actress Emilia Jones plays the role of Ruby Rossi, the daughter of two parents who are deaf.
BEGINNING IN APRIL AND ENDING AUGUST 4, the relics of St. Bernadette, the Marian visionary of Lourdes, France, will travel throughout the United States for the first time. The tour, which began in South Florida on April 7, will visit 23 other dioceses, including 34 churches, cathedrals, and shrines. The full schedule of the tour can be found at StBernadetteUSA.org. The Vatican has granted a plenary indulgence for those visiting the relics.
FATHER JAMES E. GOODE, OFM, who was known as the “dean of Black Catholic preachers” for his evangelizing work among Black Catholics, died on March 4. He was 81. In 1989, Father Goode founded the National Day of Prayer for the African-American Family. The day of prayer is celebrated on the first Sunday of Black History Month, which is observed in February.
STARTING APRIL 1, people can begin uploading designs for the official logo for Holy Year 2025 with the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” Participants with a unique piece of art to offer can upload their designs at iubilaeum2025.va/ en/logo.html. The deadline for entries is May 20.
IN MARCH, THE VATICAN ANNOUNCED that it would begin granting three-day paternity leave for lay employees. Under the new policy, all male employees are now “entitled to three days of paid leave on the occasion of the birth of a child.” The measure also applies for new adoptive and foster fathers. Previously, the Vatican offered only maternity leave, which is six months long with 50 percent pay. Both the Vatican’s and Italy’s paternity policies are relatively low compared with other European countries. Italy increased its paid paternity leave from seven days to 10 days, the minimum number of days adopted by the European Union. Comparatively, in France, new fathers are granted 28 days of paternity leave, while in Spain paid paternal leave is 16 weeks.
A STUDY BY THE BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL the Lancet shows that an estimated 5.2 million children in 21 countries, including the United States, lost at least one parent, a custodial grandparent, or a primary caregiver to COVID-19 during the first 20 months of the pandemic. The report noted: “Our findings suggest an urgent need for pandemic responses to prioritize children affected by deaths of parents and caregivers. Effective national strategies should be tailored to children’s age and the circumstances of loss.”
ON MARCH 1, the film CODA, which stands for Children of Deaf Adults, won a number of awards from the International Catholic Film Critics, reported CNS. In the film, a teen girl, whose parents are deaf, weighs the choice between staying home to continue helping her family or leaving home to pursue opportunities. It won the best picture award, in addition to best screenplay, written by Sian Heder, and best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur. The full list of nominees and winners is available at CatholicFilmCritics.com.
THIS PAST FEBRUARY, THE VATICAN ANNOUNCED that the theme for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees is “Building the Future with Migrants and Refugees” (September 25). The Migrants and Refugees Section of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development said the theme highlights “the commitment that we are all called to share in building a future that embraces God’s plan, leaving no one behind.”
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 11
SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS
ASK A FRANCISCAN by Father Pat McCloskey, OFM
CAN HE MARRY IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH?
Convalidation means that an existing civil marriage can be recognized as a valid sacramental marriage. Again, a trained Catholic pastoral minister should be able to make these arrangements. The ceremony can be as public or as private as the couple prefers. Thanks for asking on behalf of your friend!
RULES OF GOD OR OF HUMANS?
My nephew, a Catholic, has had two civil marriages and divorces. He would now like to marry a Catholic widow. Can he? His two civil marriages were valid until the divorces went into effect. The Catholic Church, however, does not see either of those marriages as a valid sacramental one because of “lack of canonical form” (obligation for a Catholic to be married by a priest or deacon—or obtain prior Church consent for a properly licensed person to officiate at that wedding). To marry in the Catholic Church now, he will need a copy of his baptismal certificate and an official copy of each marriage certificate (not the marriage license for each). His wife-to-be will need a copy of her baptismal record, an official copy of her marriage certificate, and a copy of her husband’s death certificate. Any trained parish staff member should be able to make these arrangements. I thank my confrere, Art Espelage, OFM, JCD, for assistance on this response and the next one.
My friends say that the precepts of the Church were instituted by humans and, therefore, are not binding. Is that so? The six precepts of the Catholic Church in the United States are to: 1) participate in Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation, 2) receive holy Communion regularly and go to confession annually if one is conscious of having committed a mortal sin, 3) receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, 4) observe the Church’s marriage laws and raise one’s children as Catholics, 5) observe the Church’s days of fast and abstinence, and 6) join in the missionary spirit and apostolate of the Church. These were established in 1884 by the US bishops at the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore and reflect later official changes. Your friend’s position suggests that only laws clearly established by God need to be obeyed. Does your friend agree that traffic laws and tax laws are binding? Similarly, the Catholic Church can make laws for its members.
IS IT A SIN TO GET A TATTOO?
12 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
I have not been able to find anything about this regarding Catholics. If the tattoo had religious significance (for example, Jesus, Mary, or one of the saints), would that matter? It is not a sin. Leviticus 19:28 says: “Do not lacerate your bodies for the dead, and do not tattoo yourselves. I am the Lord.” That is not the case here. Prudence is certainly a factor here. Does the tattoo shop observe proper health regulations? The skin under a tattoo can get infected. How will the one wearing the tattoo feel about that design perhaps 50 years from now?
TOP: PEOPLE IMAGES/ISTOCK; BELOW: MIKE LEWIS/FM
An 87-year-old Catholic acquaintance of mine was married in the Catholic Church and was later divorced. His first wife later died. He has already remarried outside the Catholic Church. Can his present marriage be recognized by the Church? Yes. He will need an official copy of the documents listed in the response above. If his present wife is a Christian, she’ll need a copy of her baptismal certificate if she was baptized as a Catholic. If not, their convalidation will need either a dispensation for “disparity of cult” (marriage of a Catholic and an unbaptized person) or for “mixed religion” (marriage of a Catholic and another Christian). This assumes something not stated above: that the Church would agree that this man’s present wife was not previously in a valid sacramental marriage or was a widow before she married your acquaintance.
ISTOCK IMAGES: LEFT: HIDESY; RIGHT: HALF POINT
CAN THIS MARRIAGE BE CONVALIDATED?
CAN DRUMS BE LITURGICAL INSTRUMENTS?
I’m a drummer who has been told by many clerics and laypeople that drums cannot be used during liturgies because they are “savage” and “demonic.” Those reasons sound racist and/or demonic. Can I use my drumming abilities as part of a Catholic liturgy? The Catholic Church allows drums at its liturgies. Some Masses celebrated at Vatican II (1962–65) used drums, and many places now employ them. I’m sorry for the misinformation that you have received about this. Unfortunately, some people easily assume that their personal preferences or dislikes automatically reflect what the Catholic Church allows or does not allow.
MIRACLES: WHO ACCEPTS THEM?
Unless a person is officially recognized as a martyr, a person who has the title of “venerable” needs one miracle to be called “blessed” and a second one to be declared a “saint.” Who judges these things and by what criteria? The Catholic Church uses three commissions to verify miracles: 1) a team of medical experts, 2) a team of theologians, and 3) a team of cardinals and bishops working for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The criterion in medical healings is whether they have a natural explanation.
TOP: PEOPLE IMAGES/ISTOCK; BELOW: MIKE LEWIS/FM
ISTOCK IMAGES: LEFT: HIDESY; RIGHT: HALF POINT
PRAYER NEEDED FOR A ROSARY’S VALIDITY?
Is the phrase “for an increase in faith, hope, and charity” required for a rosary’s validity? A friend insists that it is, citing Our Lady of Fatima. I maintain that it is optional. This is a pious custom, but you are totally correct. The rosary was prayed for centuries before this custom arose in the 20th century. Again, people sometimes assume that their personal preference is a universal law of the Church. This is not necessarily the case. FATHER PAT WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU! EMAIL: Ask@FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 All questions sent by mail need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope. ONLINE: FranciscanMedia.org/Ask-a-Franciscan Archived Q&As are available and searchable by category: FranciscanMedia.org/St-Anthony-Messenger/Ask-Archives
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StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 13
SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS
FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS by Patricia Mish
Sister Mary Gemma made her final vows as a Franciscan sister in July 2019. At left are her parents, Todd and Mary Harris.
FINDING HARMONY IN THE FRANCISCAN SPIRIT
14 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
‘AN OLD-FASHIONED GIRL’ Sister Mary Gemma’s musical and religious roots go back to her childhood, where she grew up “an old-fashioned girl” in a small rural town in the Columbia Basin of Washington State. She loved books, paper dolls, and classic movies. “My siblings and I would learn musical numbers and perform them for our parents and extended family,” she says. “Music was an integral part of my childhood, from piano lessons to choir and community theater.” Her family life revolved around their Catholic parish. Her mom homeschooled all six children and would
BELOW: COURTESY OF SISTER MARY GEMMA/NICHOLAS BELT (2)
sense, given that Francis was known to sing and dance, even using two sticks to mimic a violin and a bow. “I imagine it was a way to express his very full and passionate heart,” says Sister Mary Gemma. Encouraged by her community, she began songwriting early in her postulancy. After playing her music at a livestreamed benefit, a production company offered her studio time. The result is Go Forward, an album of original music released on the feast of St. Francis, October 4, 2021. The album is available on platforms including Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Pandora. More information about Sister Mary Gemma’s music can be found at FranciscanSistersTOR.org/News/Music. Sister Mary Gemma says: “Music has always been an expression of my heart. It’s such a gift we have as human beings to give glory to God not only with our souls but also with our bodies. I feel most fully alive when I’m playing and singing for the Lord—even when no words are involved.”
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SISTER MARY GEMMA
SISTER MARY GEMMA HARRIS vividly remembers the day she visited Mt. Subasio above Assisi, kneeling before a bed of rock in the same cave where St. Francis often prayed. “I thought of how he must have known and loved God so deeply and met him in this place,” recalls Sister Mary Gemma of that profound moment during a trip to Italy while working as a campus minister for a study abroad program in 2016. For Sister Mary Gemma, her call to religious life as a member of the Franciscan Sisters, TOR (Third Order Regular) of the Penance of the Sorrowful Mother, is very much a love story. A childhood piety nurtured by her devout Catholic parents would grow deeper when she attended Franciscan University in Steubenville (Ohio). “I find it beautiful and mysterious how the Lord formed my heart for great love, and then slowly revealed that he is that great love,” she says. That love would draw her to religious life and find expression in a community modeled after the example of St. Francis. “St. Francis knew the tension between the life of contemplation and the urgency of preaching the Gospel for the salvation of souls. He found peace in imitating Christ, and he lived both with just as much zeal and passion.” Sister Mary Gemma brings zeal and passion to her prayer life and ministries, whether serving the poor with novices at a homeless shelter, counseling students as a campus minister, creating social media content, or cleaning and cooking in the community kitchen. More recently, her Franciscan spirit has found creative expression in music. The connection to music makes
BELOW: COURTESY OF SISTER MARY GEMMA/NICHOLAS BELT (2)
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SISTER MARY GEMMA
“Our founding sisters received a grace to renew often take them to daily Mass; summer beach trips were the contemplative dimension of the life of the early always scheduled around vacation Bible school. “My Franciscan friars and sisters,” explains Sister Mary childhood piety was formed at our little home devotional Gemma. “Concretely, that means we spend a good deal corner with its statue of Mary and a bowl of rosaof our day in both silent and communal prayer, and we ries,” she recalls. work only part-time.” She had rarely encounIn her current ministry, tered women religious. she is a “sister servant” of That changed at Franciscan novices. In that role, she University, where she met helps plan their formation the TOR sisters for the first classes and meets with them time. From the start, she one-on-one, essentially was struck by their “joy walking beside them as and authenticity.” they discern. This past year, During a discernment she and the novices have weekend her junior year, she worked in a thrift store and fell in love with the commua homeless shelter in downnity. “I could clearly see how town Steubenville. joyful and free the life could Sister Mary Gemma describes the songs on Go Forward as “love “Basically, I’m here to be be. The sisters were downan encourager—to see the to-earth and relatable, and I songs to Jesus and from Jesus.” good in each novice, witness the process of growth, and could easily see myself there with them.” not get in the way!” says Sister Mary Gemma. In turn, she has found encouragement in St. Francis, THE RHYTHM OF RELIGIOUS LIFE whose “radical love for God always inspired me. He set After graduating and working for about 16 months, aside so many of the good things of this world in order to Sister Mary Gemma entered the Franciscan Sisters, TOR love Jesus and follow him more closely,” she says. of Penance of the Sorrowful Mother, on August 14, 2011. She carries with her the memory of Mt. Subasio and Founded in 1988 in Steubenville, the congregahas felt the presence of St. Francis many times since. “I tion is described on their website as “Franciscan conhave felt Francis’ friendship, almost as if he walks ahead templative penitents committed to works of mercy of me, taking my hands and pulling me forward.” and evangelization. We strive to make known God’s Wherever that may take her next, she is prepared to merciful love through the rhythm of our life of prayer, follow with a wide-open heart. work, and ministry.”
Sister Mary Gemma served in campus ministry from 2016 to 2019. She walks with two Franciscan University students who were part of the university’s study abroad program. The campus is near the famous Kartause in Gaming, Austria.
Sister Mary Gemma and two Franciscan University students spend time with children during a mission trip to Romania in 2019.
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 15
SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS
FRANCISCAN WORLD by Pat McCloskey, OFM
OFS: EVOLVING OVER THE CENTURIES
MARY STRONACH, OFS
THE SECULAR FRANCISCAN ORDER (abbreviated OFS for its title in Latin) was known for centuries as the Third Order Secular of St. Francis of Assisi. Its original 1221 Rule was updated by Popes Nicholas IV (1289), Leo XIII (1883), and Paul VI (1978). In the past its local fraternities were established by friars and linked to a province. Since 1978, it has been recognized as a fully independent Franciscan order, living out the Gospel according to its members’ life commitments, talents, and needs of the Church and world.
MARY STRONACH, OFS, was elected last November as vice minister general of the Secular Franciscan Order. She had previously served as an international councilor for the United States. A retired foreign language teacher, she and her husband, Robert, belong to St. Joseph Fraternity in Utica, New York. The other elected members of the OFS presidency come from South Korea, Togo, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Italy, Peru, and Argentina. A Secular Franciscan from Guatemala represents Franciscan youth on the OFS presidency. Pope Leo XIII (1810–1903) strongly supported the Secular Franciscan Order.
“Live a lively, mutual communion.” —Pope Francis to 2021 general chapter
ST. ANTHONY STORIES My wife and I traveled to the state of Washington recently to visit our son and his fiancée and meet her parents for the first time. We stayed in an Airbnb about two miles from their home. Consequently, we walked to their home a few times. On the first trip, it was cool in the morning, and I was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with my glasses in the front pocket. I removed my sweatshirt, and, without noticing it, my glasses fell to the ground. Subsequently, we walked about two miles back and forth, trying to locate them with the help of St. Anthony’s intervention. On our third and final attempt, we found my glasses undamaged on the side of the road. We had searched for three days, and without St. Anthony’s help, I’m sure my glasses would still be where they had fallen. Three cheers to St. Anthony for his help! —Mark Brown, Logansport, Indiana
16 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
LEFT: ILBUSCA/ISTOCK; RIGHT: COURTESY ROBERT STRONACH
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A Memorial to a Different Kind of War
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SCULPTUREBYTPS.COM
By Janice Lane Palko
18 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SCULPTUREBYTPS.COM
A Catholic artist’s sculpture will serve as a permanent memorial to those who suffered and died during the pandemic and the health-care workers who responded with courage and compassion. GENERATIONS FROM NOW, when people walk past St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital, they will see a striking visual reminder of a pandemic that ravaged communities here and the world over. “The COVID-19 pandemic was a worldwide event, affecting everyone and every aspect of our lives, even how we interacted with each other—and we wanted to remember that,” says Paul Homick Jr., president of Mercy Health Foundation Mahoning Valley (Ohio). On March 11, 2021, the first anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Youngstown, Ohio, Mercy Health–Youngstown and the foundation unveiled plans for a permanent memorial to honor both the victims of the pandemic and the medical professionals who cared for them. The centerpiece of the memorial will be When I Was Sick, a bronze sculpture by Timothy Schmalz, a worldrenowned Catholic artist. It depicts Jesus lying down, knees bent, arms draped across his face, reflecting the anguish experienced by so many during the pandemic. “Schmalz’s statue is so incredibly moving” and captures what organizers hoped to convey with the memorial, Homick says. Mercy Health–Youngstown is part of the Bon Secours Mercy Health integrated health system of Catholic hospitals. The memorial will be located on the campus of Mercy Health–St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital at its entrance on the corner of Park and Belmont Avenues, a highly trafficked and visible location.
across the board. Everyone jumped in and went above and beyond to care for patients, spending extra hours on the job, some living in trailers, all the while putting their own health at risk,” says Homick. “The community was also very generous with donations and providing food.” As the pandemic eased and the hospital staff were afforded a chance to pause and reflect on what they’d experienced, the idea of a memorial emerged. “It really wasn’t one person’s idea,” says Homick. “One of our physicians proposed it, while at the same time we began to receive moving letters from those affected by the pandemic [about] the care they or their family members received at the hospital. It was then that we knew we needed to remember this moment in history.” Meanwhile, another movement was afoot—to bring the sculpture When I Was Sick to Youngstown. Schmalz, a Canadian, has been dubbed a “modern-day Michelangelo.” Several of his sculptures based on chapter 25 of the Gospel of Matthew and the corporal works of mercy had already been or were in the process of being installed in the Youngstown area near the hospital. Homeless Jesus is to be installed at St. Columba Cathedral, When I Was Naked is displayed at St. John’s Episcopal Church, and When I Was Hungry and Thirsty is located at First Presbyterian Church. Other area organizations are considering installing the last two sculptures in this series, When I Was a Stranger and When I Was in Prison.
A COURAGEOUS RESPONSE
A group came together to design something permanent that would preserve the history of the pandemic—how much suffering and how much good the Youngstown area experienced. “We really did not consider any other sculptures because Schmalz’s When I Was Sick is so magnificent,” Homick says. The addition would also make Youngstown one of the few places in the world to showcase all six sculptures in the corporal works of mercy series. “We hope that our area will become somewhat of a pilgrimage destination where people can come, walk, visit the other statues, and pray,” says Homick, noting that all of the statues will be within walking distance of each other. When I Was Sick will be the centerpiece of the memorial at St. Elizabeth Hospital. “We wanted the memorial to be a place where we recognized the suffering of the
Youngstown is a Rust Belt city midway between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. It still suffers the effects of the collapse of the steel industry and, more recently, the loss of manufacturing jobs with the shuttering of General Motors’ Lordstown Assembly Plant in 2019. “No community escaped suffering from the pandemic, but we were affected a bit more than other areas partly because we have an older population and partly because our region is one of the most socioeconomically challenged regions in the United States,” says Homick. “And that impacted how many people contracted the virus here.” The hospital and community rose to the challenge. “Our hospital staff, frontline workers, physicians, and nurses did an exceptional job providing high-quality care
PRESERVING HISTORY
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 19
sick as well as it being a place of peace, refreshment, and reflection, where people can meditate, pray, and remember those who suffered and died, as well as a place to honor and express gratitude for our caregivers,” says Homick. In addition to Schmalz’s bronze statue, which will be installed on a granite block, a granite wall behind it will feature three bronze plaques. The first plaque will honor the caregivers—frontline staff, physicians, nurses, and medical professionals—who provided care in one of the most trying and unusual times in world history. The second plaque will memorialize those who suffered and died, and the loss their families and friends experienced. The third plaque will be added as a permanent historical marker that will tell the story of the COVID-19 pandemic. A time capsule, to be opened in 100 years, will include items associated with the pandemic such as masks and daily intake logs from the hospital. “We felt strongly that we wanted to tell the story of what we all went through,” explains Homick. “Certainly, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were tragic and affected many of us, but they did not affect the entire world.
20 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
Already there are young people alive who have no memory of 9/11, and we didn’t want the story of the pandemic to be lost.”
VISUAL SERMONS Schmalz, an art school dropout, has been creating magnificent sculptures for more than 30 years and has a vast body of work featuring secular and faith-inspired subjects. He is most known for his Angels Unawares bronze sculpture, the first to be installed in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican in 400 years. It depicts the plight of refugees. Homeless Jesus, the first in his corporal works of mercy series, depicts a life-size Jesus figure sleeping on a park bench. The figure is shrouded in a blanket with his face covered; the only indications of who he is are the nail marks on the sculpture’s feet. The work includes room for someone to sit on the bench with the figure. The original sculpture was installed at Regis College, University of Toronto, in 2013. The first cast of Homeless Jesus is located in the Vatican outside the Papal Charities Building. Initially, a few early installations were criticized by the public, some believing that the sculpture was a demeaning depiction of Jesus. But now more
LOWER LEFT: The original cast bronze of When I Was Sick is installed at the entrance of Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome. “I made the hand reach out as an invitation to enter into the suffering,” says sculptor Timothy Schmalz. LOWER RIGHT: When I Was a Stranger depicts a homeless person “with his life in a tattered bag and reminds us that we are to welcome, not alienate others from our social workers,” says a statement by the sculptor.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SCULPTUREBYTPS.COM
TOP RIGHT: During the Year of Mercy in 2016, five of Schmalz’s Matthew 25 sculptures were installed in Rome. When I Was in Prison is located at St. Paul’s Basilica. The series is finding a second home in the city of Youngstown, Ohio.
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 21
Schmalz describes his sculptures as “visual prayers.” Put another way, “Christian sculptures are like visual sermons 24 hours a day,” he says. “My artwork is meant to bring us face-to-face with our faith,” he continues. “Taking care of the sick is a spiritual duty as is taking care of the homeless, feeding the starving, etc. I believe that is the fabric of Catholicism and to a greater extent Western civilization. That Catholic faith and morality is what keeps humans ‘human.’”
Pope Francis greets sculptor Timothy Schmalz on the day he blessed Homeless Jesus, which he called “a beautiful piece of art.”
than 100 replicas are on display around the world from the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, Singapore, to Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland; Sacred Heart Cathedral, Townsville, Australia; and the Church of St. Peter, Capernaum, Israel. Schmalz’s When I Was Sick was inspired by one of his visits to Rome. “I was walking toward the Tiber River when I came across Santo Spirito Hospital, the oldest hospital in Rome and Europe. It originally served as a lodging place for pilgrims and then evolved into a hospital,” he recalls. Although Schmalz, 52, knew he wanted to create something that spoke to the importance of caring for the sick, he wrestled with how to depict it. “If I portrayed Jesus with an IV, that would signify that it’s contemporary, and then I considered placing Jesus in a Victorianstyle bed, but not all sick people are in a bed. I struggled for years to come up with a way to translate that portion of the Gospel text of Matthew 25 authentically into sculpture. The problem was: How to depict a sick person? How to express visually that this is also Jesus but not overtly? I needed to hide his face so that everyone sees themselves in the sculpture,” says Schmalz. “I finally realized that sickness is expressed in gestures—the twisted torso, the knee drawn up signifying the suffering in the body. The subtle anguish is revealed in the way the arm is draped over the face obscuring that it is Jesus’ face,” says Schmalz. “I made the hand reach out as an invitation to enter into the suffering. Whenever I’m in Rome and I pass this sculpture now, I grasp that hand and say a prayer. I’ve seen many others do that as well. “Sculpture is a tactile medium. You can’t touch a painting, but you can [with] sculpture. That’s why I love sculpture. It takes up physical space and merges with the everyday world.” 22 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
This “living faith” has been demonstrated for decades at St. Elizabeth Hospital. “Our mission has always been to take care of the sick. Our health system—Mercy Health—was founded by the Sisters of the Humility of Mary in 1911, and one of the first challenges to face the sisters and Youngstown back then was, coincidentally, the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. Caring for others is what we do and who we are,” says Homick. Reaction to the pandemic memorial from hospital personnel as well as the community has been enthusiastic. “The mayor was thrilled as were other members of the community. All have been very supportive,” says Homick. The memorial is slated to be unveiled in October. The ceremony will begin with Mass in the hospital chapel followed by a blessing of the site. The memorial project will cost $150,000, and to date, more than half of that sum has been raised. “It’s been very humbling to witness the response and how generous people have been. Our leadoff gift was $25,000 and came from our medical staff as a way to honor the great caregivers working here,” says Homick. “The COVID-19 pandemic will be written about in history books, and people in the future will be reading about this time, and we intend the memorial to be a place where we remember what happened here—the people who suffered, the people who died, and the families who experienced loss—and as a place where we can express our gratitude to and recognize how important our community, hospital, and caregivers were in fighting this pandemic,” says Homick. “The suffering, sacrifice, and gratitude need to be remembered.” Janice Lane Palko is an author with over two decades of writing experience who has written for numerous Catholic and secular publications, including Reader’s Digest, the Christian Science Monitor, and this magazine. She resides in Pittsburgh with her husband. You can learn more about her at JaniceLanePalko.com.
GET INVOLVED
To contribute to the pandemic memorial, visit Foundation.Mercy.com/Youngstown, or call the foundation’s office at 330-729-1180.
PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SCULPTUREBYTPS.COM
A TRADITION OF CAREGIVING
Pope Francis has a special affinity for the devotion that is Mary, Untier of Knots. Some of the knots in our lives, he says, are those of selfishness and indifference, along with knots of violence and war.
Mary, Untier of Knots Story by Maureen O’Brien • Artwork by Carol Cole
When life gets tangled, who better to go to than our mother? ENVISION THE KNOTS you have tried to untie in your life—a gold chain, a phone charger, or a vacuum cord. Maybe a string in the waistband of your sweatpants. And did you, as I have done, worsen the problem by being impatient? Did you pull the knot even tighter, becoming angrier? I think of all the times I tried to undo a knot by poking it with a needle or nibbling at its strings with my teeth. These are the literal knots in our lives. And thus, we have the exquisite metaphor that is “Mary, Untier of Knots,” a Marian devotion inspired by a painting of the same name. Because, as we know, it’s not the snarls in our hands that cause the most pain, but the ones pulling tightly within us—the scary knots that become unbearable. As Pope Francis once pondered, “Those are the ones that are out of our hands, the knots of selfishness and indifference, economic and social knots, knots of violence and war.”
We can trace the journey of her ribbon of hope through the pope himself, as he’s treasured this Mary within his own heart for decades. He first discovered the original painting in the 1980s when he was a student. The artwork, dated around 1700, is by Johann Georg Melchior Schmidtner. Pope Francis transplanted this image from Augsburg, Germany, and brought her to Latin America. The adoration of the Blessed Mother has spread across years and continents. And now it has landed right in the middle of the world’s heartache over COVID-19. Personally, after these years of the pandemic, I’ve been saddled with brain fog, unable to finish most books that I start, unable to concentrate, relying on the calculator on my phone to add and subtract the simplest of numbers. The list goes on. My intellectual sharpness has eroded, and I’m emotionally numb. I find this is true for most people StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 23
I encounter—both strangers and those close to me. Perhaps the word to best describe it is disorientation. I don’t know when exactly, but at some point, Mary burst through my weariness and became a central part of my prayer life. Because, in all honesty, I have been floundering there too.
LET GO OF SUFFERING
that we somehow must earn God’s love? This is in direct opposition to what we have been told: of a love everlasting, unfailing. It’s harder to pare down, to simplify, to trust the process of stillness. When I saw the photo of Pope Francis in 2021, praying before Mary, Untier of Knots, I was moved by the gift of his continually modeling that we place our trust in God. We are deserving of love and grace. It’s not about the doing, but about the receiving. And if we put that knot into Mary’s hands, we can let our suffering go. Then our own hands are free to receive.
Mary entered, as she always does, because of grace. What burned through my gray sky, my despair, my loneliness? The simplicity of Schmidtner’s painting. All I had to do was think of my problems as knots and give them to her. It was so simple that, even in my pervasive exhaustion, HEARTS OPENED it could be done. I’m no expert on novenas, but I’ve done one for Mary for In the painting (on page 27), Mary is lit by the orb of a very simple reason. During my morning prayer time, a dove. She stands gazing down at a I’ve been slipping and sliding, unsure white ribbon, untangling a knot. With of how to get any traction. I do novea calm expression, head tilted, the nas because they allow me to use a We are deserving of love knot she’s working on is at the precise predetermined structure: day one, day and grace. It’ s not about moment of opening wider and becomtwo, day three, and so on. Wake up, get the doing, but about the ing loose. I know that feeling—when coffee, light a candle, start the prayer. the knot finally yields. If I’m honest, my tightest knots receiving. And if we put The angel assisting her on the have to do with family situations— that knot into Mary’s hands, left stretches out his bare arm. The ones that have been there a long time we can let our suffering go. silky tip of the ribbon hangs from his or more recently. I know that the point Then our own hands are open palm. He stares out at us, the of a novena isn’t like making a wish free to receive. viewer, composed and confident. The on your birthday cake and wanting it expression on the angel’s face says, to come true. But I can say that, doing to put it in contemporary language, this novena, I have found more peace “She’s got this.” as the knots begin to dissolve. The angel on the right is assisting with the messy The request I’d been making concerned a family matspool of ribbon. It’s enormous. But why fear problems ter weighing heavily on my heart since the death of my and pain that might be in the future? Why not just trust? father last year. On day five, something happened in my It’s hard, especially when our knots are situations that life that was a miracle of sorts. It wasn’t huge. But it was, never seem to heal, never shift, never stop. It’s overto me, a knot that started to loosen. I took a risk with a whelming, but not so much if we simply ask, “Can you family member to say the truth of where I stood amid help me with this?” And, being a mother, she responds a complicated conflict. “My heart is still open,” I conwith: “Let me try. Hand it over.” fided to one of the family members angry at another. He I’ve spent a lot of my life chasing after God, thinking laughed and said, “Well, my heart isn’t. It’s closed.” my efforts were what would lead me deeper. And I do But then, within days, the tone of his text mesadmire my discipline, my desire for an ever-deepening sages shifted. Just a little. Just enough for a miniature intimacy. But what this image has been showing me silken thread of peace to slide through. Truthfully, through all that has frayed in the pandemic is that it’s the knot is still in my life, but there’s the beginning of time for me to know that God reaches us. its becoming ribbon—moving forward and growing Our simplest stories have pointed to this over and softer in her hands. over. We are the lost lambs being met more than halfway. In fact, we’re met all the way. I’ve wondered if it is the LOST AND FOUND ingrained part of our American culture, the belief that Another time Mary found me was when I took the striving is a virtue. Is this the result of a misguided belief back roads home from visiting my daughter in Boston 24 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
In this piece, Pope Francis can be seen among a group of children bringing the knots in their lives to Mary for her assistance. To enforce the idea that there is power in community, artist Carol Cole created this piece with the help of a group of students. She often engages others to help create artwork.
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At some point in our lives, we all face struggles and challenges--knots, one might say. Even St. Teresa of Calcutta experienced a dark night of the soul, which challenged her faith. Like the author, we should remember to turn to Mary as a source of comfort and understanding.
once. I had the opportunity to visit the Shrine of the Little Flower in Harrisville, Rhode Island. I had also begun to read St. Thérèse of Lisieux’s words every day. A story that St. Thérèse told illuminates this idea of God coming to us, finding us. She said that we are like toddlers climbing stairs and struggling to lift our legs up. God is at the top of that staircase, will see us worn down with struggle, and will come and lift us up.
Again, in these times of disorientation and grief, it is straightforwardness and simplicity I need most. Anything else only increases my burden of separation and isolation, from both God and others. Is it possible that one gift of these pandemic years has been the realization of knowing that grace eases our uncertainty? At this particular shrine, the acres are full of dozens of statues, lovingly maintained by local
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parishioners. There is a moss-tinged outdoor Stations of the Cross, statues of Mother Teresa, the Holy Family, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and Gabriel. Silvia, the director of the shrine, gave me a tour on a cold winter day when I was the only one wandering happily, kicking through the leaves that swirled along the paths. As we stood at the bottom of a set of concrete stairs leading up to a tall pavilion with the crucifixion, she pointed to an empty area to the side of the railing. “I’m hoping to put another statue here,” Silvia said. In that extraordinary assortment of walkways and statues—some fresh, some eroded by years of winter ice and time—I couldn’t imagine who might be missing. “Who?” I asked. “Mary, Untier of Knots,” Silvia responded. I laughed, knowing this is how Mary works. In the empty spaces— the places before you think you have to push yourself and work harder and climb—she will meet you there. What I have learned mystifies me. I only need to allow the Blessed Mother to do what she wants to do: comfort me. It’s understandable why Mary, Untier of Knots, has become a part of our lives. My inability to concentrate, the grief I feel over the loss of a parent, over leaving a job of 25 years, have led me to a new place. I’ve been a “spiritual seeker” for a long time, and I thought I had to work hard to find my mother. I had it backward. It is our mother who will never forget. It is our mother who will always find her child. Hand her your ribbon. Maureen O’Brien is a member of the Franciscan parish of St. Patrick-St. Anthony in Hartford, Connecticut. She is the author of What Was Lost: Seeking Refuge in the Psalms (Franciscan Media). For more about Carol Cole’s artwork, visit CarolColeCatholicArtist.com.
Mother Mary: Pray for Us! IF YOU ARE NEW to Mary, Untier of Knots, you will find that, as Our Lady is renowned for doing, she will appear in places in your life now. One example is a recent trip I took to New York City to St. Francis of Assisi Church on 31st Street to do a talk with the friars there. I had quality time with my new friend, Father Tom, and I told him about my recent trust in this Mary. “Oh,” he grinned, “go on our website. We have a devotion to her.” When I looked it up, I was moved, perhaps because the first four items in the litany were my own most painful and primary knots. The list was so concrete, so physical, so purely addressing how hard it is to be human here. With all struggling families, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all beset by financial struggles, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all seeking employment, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all suffering from mental and physical illness, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all bound by political ideologies, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all the homeless and the destitute, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us.
PUBLIC DOMAIN/JOHANN GEORG SCHMIDTNER CIRCA 1700; BACKGROUND: CAROL COLE
With all burdened with loneliness, fears, or worries, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all living with addictions, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all estranged from the Church, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all who have been abused by the Church, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all enduring religious or ethnic persecution, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all overwhelmed by shame or despair, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all traumatized by violence or neglect, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all targeted by racism or discrimination, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all struggling to let go of grudges, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all working to protect our planet, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. With all seeking peace, we pray: Mary, Untier of Knots, pray for us. For more go to StFrancisNYC.org/Week-Of-Prayer-To-Mary-Untier-Of-Knots-5/
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I’D LIKE TO SAY:
STOP WEAPONIZING T
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G THE EUCHARIST
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We may find common ground on pro-life issues when we expand our view to include other pressing social problems.
By Mark P. Shea
AMERICAN BISHOPS are struggling with the idea of “eucharistic coherence.” The issue presented to them is, in a nutshell, what to do about politicians (most obviously, the observant Catholic President Joseph Biden) who hold a pro-choice position on the question of abortion. Should they be subject to some as-yet-to-bedefined discipline? The argument put forward seems very simple to a portion of American Catholics: How can you square what the proponents of this move term “support for abortion” with a Catholic faith that teaches abortion to be an “abominable crime” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2271)? On the other hand, many Catholics see the move as an attempt to politicize and even weaponize the Eucharist on behalf of a shortsighted political agenda that does not deal with the enormous social, political, theological, and moral complexities of the American Church. Among this latter group would appear to be the pope himself. In a recent interview, when he was asked about “bishops who want to deny Communion to the president and others who hold office,” Pope Francis flatly declared: “I have never refused the Eucharist to anyone, to anyone. I don’t know if anyone in that condition came, but I never, never refused the Eucharist. As a priest, that is. Never.” Pope Francis then added: “The problem is not the theological problem—that is simple—the problem is the pastoral problem: How do we bishops deal with this principle pastorally? And if we look at the history of the Church, we will see that every time the bishops have dealt with a problem not as pastors, they have taken a political stance on a political problem. . . . What must the pastor do? Be a pastor. Be a pastor and don’t go around condemning. . . . But if he goes out of the pastoral dimension of the Church, he immediately becomes a politician: You see this in all the accusations, in all the non-pastoral condemnations the Church makes.”
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First, a brief discussion of the Church’s abortion policy is in order. It is a popular myth among some Catholics that to vote for the left side of the spectrum is to “support abortion” and thereby make oneself worthy of the fires of hell. The simplistic formula at work here is: Liberals promote abortion while conservatives fight it. Therefore, there is a moral obligation to vote conservative. In fact, America’s abortion policy is the creation of a Supreme Court that has been dominated by Republican appointees since 1970. The historical truth is that every Democratic appointee to the Court could have been golfing on the day Roe v. Wade was decided, and it would have made absolutely no difference to the outcome of the ruling. Moreover, when the biggest entrenchment of abortion law since Roe—the 1992 Casey decision—was made, the 5–4 Court that made it consisted of eight GOP appointees along with a Democratic appointee who was pro-life. In short, our abortion policy is a completely Republican creation. This brings us to the next point. While it is true that those on the left tend to favor a pro-choice position, it is not true that they “promote” abortion. What they 30 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
BY THE NUMBERS Abortion rates rose from 1973 to 1980, during the tenures of two pro-choice GOP presidents and one Democrat who was on record saying that Jesus would not support abortion in most cases. Abortion rates slowly declined during the Reagan/Bush years, though these presidents would consistently appoint to the Supreme Court justices who would form the backbone of entrenched support for abortion rights in the Casey decision. But suddenly there came a precipitous drop in abortion rates in the 1990s. The reason had nothing to do with the Court. It was due to Clinton-era policies that took economic pressure to abort off lower-income women. Far from “promoting” abortion, the goal during the Clinton years was, in the words of the administration, to make abortion “safe, legal, and rare.” And the
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A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
do is maintain a GOP-created and -entrenched system that permits—not compels—private citizens to have an abortion. There is no state-ordered abortion program. This is neither the Nazi regime mandating the death of the “unfit” nor the People’s Republic of China compelling women to abort. Our abortion policy is, in fact, a triumph of libertarian thinking and the free market. Women can abort or not as they wish. To speak of “promoting” abortion, as though it is ordered by either the president or a politician, is to radically distort language. In fact, what drives abortion is not the state but economic pressure. Abortion is primarily pursued as an economic relief valve by women who feel they cannot afford to raise a child. The number one abortifacient in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute, is poverty. To that degree, the “pro-choice” position is a misnomer, not because liberals compel it but because certain right-wing policies that are economically hostile to poor families do. Large percentages of women abort not because they choose to, but because they feel they have no other choice.
CNS PHOTO: TYLER ORSBURN
I am not a bishop and will not presume to tell them their job. But I am, I hope, a faithful member of the flock—as well as a citizen of the United States charged by the Church with the job of actively participating in our democracy. As a layperson, it actually falls to me, far more than to the Church’s shepherds, to do the work of sanctifying the secular order. I do this out of a desire to protect human life from conception to natural death as the Church teaches. At the altar, the priest presides. But in the world, we laity preside. So when the bishops contemplate barring a president of a secular nation-state from the Eucharist on the grounds of “eucharistic coherence,” this directly impinges on what the Church itself declares to be my proper sphere of authority as a layman and citizen called to involvement in our political process.
As a Catholic who believes human life to be sacred from conception to natural death, what am I to do? And what would I like the bishops to do?
numbers show that Clinton’s policies, in fact, achieved the pro-life goal of reducing abortion. In other words, what the Clinton administration chose to do was to leave in place the abortion policy that was the creation of Republicans and not attempt to interfere with the supply of abortion, but to instead tackle the problem of demand. This would be the same tactic used by the Obama-Biden administration. And in both cases, abortion rates saw their steepest declines since Roe. Not until Trump (who, by the way, also raised funding for Planned Parenthood to historic levels) did abortion rates rise because conservatives, as they have historically done, pursued policies that punished the poor. If we want to speak about “promoting” abortion, that is where the problem lies. What promotes abortion is not supply but rather economic pressure that creates demand. If we want to effectively fight abortion as opposed to merely talking about it, then a committed, pro-life Catholic voter like me concludes—with a completely clear conscience—that he not only may, but must, support the policies of Obama/Biden.
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CNS PHOTO: TYLER ORSBURN
WHAT DO AMERICANS WANT? This brings us to the next problem that politicians such as Biden (and pro-life voters like me) face as pluralistic Americans living in a representative democracy: the paradox that legal abortion is among the most popular things Americans loathe. It’s like this: Precisely because there is a demand for abortion created by a host of economic and social pressures on women, only 13 percent of Americans want abortion to be outlawed. At the same time, only 21 percent want “abortion on demand without apology.” Meanwhile, 60 percent of Americans feel deep discomfort with abortion, but do not want Roe to go anywhere. That 60 percent in the middle is a huge, fluid demographic of people who find abortion distasteful and repugnant, but who have no intention of telling some petrified teenager that she must carry her baby to term even if her parents disown her or her boyfriend ditches
her (as well as a million other crisis scenarios you can easily imagine). The result is citizens who insist on maintaining some form of legal abortion and, at the same time, eagerly hope they never have to hear about abortion again. That means that both proponents and abolitionists can truthfully say that some 75–80 percent of Americans side with them in both opposing abortion and wanting it legal. Our political discussions are built around that ambiguity. Neither party wants to do anything to get rid of our abortion policy for one very good reason: Americans don’t want them to do that. But both know how to exploit the fears and angers of their base in order to keep milking them for votes with promises of (and dire warnings against) imminent abolition, even though both parties know that is not going to happen.
EUCHARISTIC COHERENCE: MORE THAN ABORTION As a Catholic who believes human life to be sacred from conception to natural death, what am I to do? And what would I like the bishops to do? To start with, I take as a given that, for the foreseeable future, abortion will remain legal. But the idea here is not to “support the lesser evil” (we can never do that), but to lessen evil, to reduce it, to do what is possible. I applaud the idea of “eucharistic coherence.” But what I want to see is not zinging one Catholic politician about abortion. The claim that the Catholic Biden, acting as a secular politician in a secular democracy, is somehow confusing the world about what the Church teaches concerning abortion is, to put it simply, nonsense. Everybody on planet Earth certainly knows that the Church opposes abortion. What they are confused about is not the Church’s teaching about the dignity of human life from conception, but the Church’s teaching about any form of life that gets in the way of what American conservatives want to do. Eucharistic coherence includes being against war and torture, against the death penalty, against injustice at our StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 31
Eucharistic coherence includes being against war and torture, against the death penalty, against injustice at our southern border.
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More than this, the Eucharist—which is Jesus himself—must not be turned into a thing: a lucky talisman for blessing one party and withholding favor from another. As a pro-life citizen, I oppose abortion. I always have. I voted for Biden because I am pro-life and knew that his policies would, as they did from 2009 to 2017, lower abortion rates. I did not vote for him because I “support the lesser evil” (I repeat: no Catholic can do that) but because I sought to lessen evil. More than this, I believe Catholics must provide a credible witness to those who do not share our conviction about the unborn. The way to do that is to relate the unborn to—not pit them against—all those people menaced by the threats many non-Catholics rightly care about. In addition to the unborn, we must bear witness to the Church’s teaching on the dignity of the lives of victims of climate change, racism, poverty, hatred of LGBTQ individuals, capital punishment, sexual abuse, and a host of other issues. Every time the unborn are pitted against all these other sorts of human beings instead of related to them, true eucharistic incoherence occurs. Instead of turning the Eucharist into a sort of reducing valve designed to cut people off from grace, I would much rather see grace extended as fully as possible through the Eucharist to every person, born and unborn, in the Church’s pastoral preaching. Instead of beginning every discussion of the Eucharist with “Who do we get to exclude?”, we should, like Pope Francis, preach the good news of the grace and mercy of Christ to every person from conception to natural death. Mark P. Shea is a popular writer and speaker. He is author of the best seller The Church’s Best-Kept Secret: A Primer on Catholic Social Teaching. He is also a regular guest on Catholic radio and writes the blog Stumbling Toward Heaven at MarkPShea.com.
JRROMAN/ISTOCK
DON’T WEAPONIZE THE EUCHARIST
CNS PHOTO: GO NAKAMURA/REUTERS
southern border. Eucharistic coherence includes care for all people, regardless of race, creed, sexual orientation, or any other type of division. Eucharistic coherence is incompatible with insurrection in our nation’s capital (see sidebar on opposite page). As a lay voter, I don’t need to be reminded that the Church opposes abortion. I know. I agree. I have for decades. What I want to see is the Church (clergy and laity) really presenting a full-orbed and coherent picture of Catholic teaching that is more pro-life, not less; more eucharistic, not less. For the past 15 years, many Catholics have claimed that the Church teaches that abortion is a so-called “nonnegotiable” issue while such things as war, torture, a living wage, climate change, racism, police violence, sexual abuse, the dignity of marginalized people such as LGBTQ individuals or refugees, the death penalty, murderous insurrection, and a host of other pressing questions are “prudential matters” and therefore trumped by abortion. The practical result of this claim (nowhere attested by the magisterium) is that the unborn are pitted against rather than related to nearly the whole of the Church’s social teaching and the people it aims to protect. Indeed, in many cases, support for the Church’s social teaching is often sneered at by self-identified “pro-life” advocates, as though objecting to the death penalty, or climate change, or the kidnapping of children at the border necessarily makes one “pro-abortion.” This must cease. Jesus, fully present in the Eucharist, offers his body, blood, soul, and divinity—his very self—for every human being from conception to natural death. Therefore, any attempt to pit the unborn against all the other forms of human life Jesus loves and cherishes is incoherent.
ST. ANTHONY
BREAD
WHAT DOES EUCHARISTIC COHERENCE REALLY MEAN? To be coherent with Catholic social teaching, the following cases should be considered as violations of the Church’s pro-life teachings on a par with abortion. • In the ramp-up to the Iraq War, noted Catholic “pro-life” conservatives like Michael Novak pushed for an unjust war rejected by two popes and all the bishops of the world. There was no push to punish advocacy of mass murder as eucharistic incoherence. • During that war, EWTN’s Raymond Arroyo more than once offered apologetics for the Bush administration’s use of torture, an act every bit as incoherent with the Eucharist as a celebration of abortion. • In 2018, Nebraska Catholic governor Pete Ricketts vowed to continue killing prisoners on death row despite the legislature moving to ban capital punishment and the Church calling for its global abolition— and despite the estimate that 4 percent of death row prisoners are innocent. The eucharistic incoherence of killing innocents in order to unnecessarily kill guilty people went unchallenged.
• Austin Ruse, president of the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam), celebrated the murder of George Floyd by tweeting, “Just a reminder that George Floyd has gone five weeks and two days drug free.” He also tweeted support of his nephew for being a member of the White supremacist Proud Boys group and declared, “We need more not less toxicity.” No calls for eucharistic coherence resulted.
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• TV host Laura Ingraham, who is Catholic, mocked refugee child detention facilities as “essentially summer camps.” The eucharistic incoherence of laughing off kidnapping and jailing children went unchallenged.
• John Eastman, chairman of the board of the National Organization for Marriage, authored the proposed plan for the Trump administration to overthrow the results of the 2020 election, as well as helping to foment the insurrection on January 6, 2021. Eucharistic incoherence was not invoked over this massive public scandal.
FRANK JASPER, OFM
COHERENCE OR CONFUSION? The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation. The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below. Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week. viSit our webSite to:
StAnthony.org mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:
St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498
Five Ways to Celebrate Your Body By Shannon K. Evans
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TETIANA LAZUNOVA/ISTOCK
PHEELINGS MEDIA/ISTOCK
When you stop and think about it, you really are a miracle. It’s time to start acting like it.
TETIANA LAZUNOVA/ISTOCK
PHEELINGS MEDIA/ISTOCK
IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT the sheer improbability of your even being here: of your body even existing at all. Your mother was born with one million eggs in her womb. Only about 400 of those eggs would ever be ovulated during her years of reproduction. Your father released hundreds of millions of sperm cells at your conception. Think of it: The likelihood of their having formed you is astronomically small. Now zoom out. Consider the odds that out of all the people on earth, the two who created you happened to cross paths at all, much less that their relationship would extend so far as to make a baby. Pause for a moment and appreciate your body for the marvel that it is. Some estimates put the odds of your existence at about 1 in 400 trillion. Science indicates that your body is composed partly of stardust. Faith tells us this was no accident. The presence of your body on this earth today is a miracle—a massive statistical improbability. And yet here you are, held fast in the divine generosity of this body you were given. Here you are, your flesh and bones a product of a perfect, generative, mysterious love—a love that holds all things together. Here you are, created for such a time as this.
to dominate your body, but to live together in a harmonious relationship. Trusting your body will teach you something about trusting yourself. When you practice deep listening within your body, you will begin to learn how to listen deeply to the spirit of God within you too. Everything is connected. There is no separation within God’s own self, and there need not be any separation in you either. This is one mysterious way you embody the image of God. By consciously integrating our bodies into our concept of spirituality, we find our entire lived experience of the divine expands and deepens. On a practical level, we can do this through a few intentional mindset shifts: changing our vocabulary, redefining growth, taking up space, and honoring the legacy we are leaving.
TWO: CHANGING OUR VOCABULARY
Think for a moment about the words you use to describe your body, both when talking to other people and privately to yourself. The words you speak over your body have power. Words can do violence or they can nurture; words can wound or words can heal. This doesn’t mean you must use overly positive language that feels disingenuous to you; sometimes that’s just too much to ask, and speaking in neutral terms about your body is fine too. ONE: THE PHYSICAL AND THE But we must be aware that the domiSPIRITUAL nant cultural narrative is not neutral. Do you live in awe of your body? Most What if you could Countless industries make billions of dolof us don’t. The miracle of its existence rewrite the story lars off of keeping you dissatisfied or even tends to get lost in the hustle and bustle disgusted with your own form. The more of our everyday lives. But what if your to be deeply and you hate your body, the more likely you are body was meant to be an integral part of soulfully at home to spend money trying to change it. These your spirituality? What if your relationin yourself? industries are playing a game of money ship with your body actually affects your and power—a game that cares nothing for relationship with God? you or the divine life that burns through your skin. Rather than being taught how to listen to and honor But what if you could change the narrative? What the way God speaks to us through our bodies, we have if you could rewrite the story to be deeply and soulbeen taught by cultural conditioning that our bodies are fully at home in yourself? What if you got to make the to be controlled and mastered instead. This manifests in rules about what makes your body beautiful? What ways like monitoring the amount of food we consume, makes it worthy? pushing for more intensity in exercise, and fixating on what size clothing fits. In some circles, this is even painted in religious language and made to seem pious, THREE: REDEFINING GROWTH as though achieving dominance over your physical self How do we measure our growth? Is it the weight gained indicates some kind of spiritual gift. or lost? The mental or physical health recovered? Is it But this mastery mindset separates the divinely interfinally accepting the body parts we’ve always disliked twined parts of yourself. If you are seeking to dominate most? These can be promising signs of life, but they don’t your body, there is no way to hear and trust the messages corner the market on growth. it is trying to send you. Your body is not a thing separate Growth also means letting go of control and judgfrom you for you to control. Your brain was not created ment. Growth can mean changing your mind or StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 35
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amount of time: Maybe you took a big risk, got a job promotion, had a baby, learned about a justice issue, set an important boundary, deepened your faith, or cared for an aging parent. Look at all the important ways you have grown. Look at how much more it matters than the inches around your waist. In reality, your relationship with your body can never be healed through diet and exercise—not in a real, lasting sense. There will always be something to dislike or criticize. Healing your body-soul connection has to come from touching on the sacredness of this vessel you’ve been given. That means honoring the many ways your body leads you to develop, expand, and become more than you used to be. That means refusing to punish, restrict, and demean yourself. That means giving yourself room to flourish and grow. There are many ways we try to become smaller. There is diet and exercise, of course, but most of what we do is unconscious and harder to identify. Maybe you cross your arms and legs when you sit down—or maybe your habit is to pull a throw pillow over your lap. Maybe you squeeze into a size that became uncomfortable a long
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FOUR: TAKING UP SPACE
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expanding your worldview. For some, growth means saying yes. For others, it means saying no. Growth, both internal and external, reminds us that we were not meant to stay the same. You were meant to live a dynamic life that changes you for the better every step of the way. You were made to grow and stretch and take up space as you become someone who knows what they have to offer the world. Do not fear becoming a softer, heavier, or saggier version of your younger self; rather, fear the inability to see your own growth as good. Whether it’s cellulite, weight gain, stretch marks, stomach rolls, or big feet, our bodies tell the story of growth: the story of our rising and falling, our loving and losing. We are told we should be embarrassed about these signs of life; we are told to cover them up, make them disappear, or find any solution other than accepting them. But what if you decided not to? What if, instead of being ashamed that those pants no longer fit, you affirmed yourself for the growth, maturity, and substance that you’ve gained since you last wore them, not pretending that there is a direct correlation, but letting what is visible remind you to see and honor what is invisible? Sure, maybe you went up a pants size since last year, but let that discovery remind you of the more important ways you have grown in that same
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time ago. Perhaps for you, it’s taking a flat iron to your prevalence says about our values as a society. Aging wild, curly hair, or forgoing the fabulous heels that would should be seen as a gift, not a curse; after all, the alternamake you “too” tall. Do you apologize when someone tive is not being alive. else bumps into you? Do you hesitate to speak up at Having the gift of long years on this earth means that, work? Notice yourself, and begin asking questions. eventually, our bodies will tell the story. Facial wrinkles, What if you took on taking up space as a spiritual sagging body parts, varicose veins, liver spots, unusual practice? Perhaps you could try stretching out wide moles, renegade body hair, stretch marks, cellulite, and before you start your day or breaking the habit of always gray hair are natural and expected parts of aging, not crossing your arms when you feel self-conscious. Maybe a reason for shame. Every human on earth has some you could try letting your hair go wild and wavy, or combination on that list, and likely a few more. How you wearing heels that make you tower over everyone else. choose to manage such things is up to you, but the inviThese do not sound like spiritual practices, but when tation is to find a kind of neutral acceptance rather than done intentionally they can have an impact on your soul, a strong emotional reaction to such bodily phenomena. reminding you that you do not exist to be a convenience You can do this by reclaiming perspective. The more to others. After all, this world is your world too. You are invested you become in big social and environmental entitled to take up space. issues, the less likely you are to take your own aging Along those lines, there is a pervasive lie that thin too seriously. In a world where tragedy strikes left and people are inherently more disciplined, more caparight, the very experience of aging is a sheer gift. When ble, and even more trustworthy than those with larger there is unlimited pain to be alleviated and action to be bodies, regardless of the facts. Have you taken, the years you have on this earth bought into that lie? Is that the standreally are too short for all the goodness ard you have held for your own worth? you wish to bring. Many of us cognitively reject that belief How are you using your years? Are you while still unconsciously internalizing it planting flowers, making art, engaging in against our will. activism, raising kind children, creating a The truth is that the size of your body more ethical workplace, or volunteering in has nothing to do with the condition of your community? You are so much more your soul, the ability of your mind, or the than the lines on your face. Right here in validity of your emotions. In many cases it this aging body of yours, you are creatdoesn’t even reflect the physical strength ing, birthing, and building a better world. or fitness of your body. You can be any And the more you can make peace with size and be perfectly qualified for the task your body, the more peace you will have to at hand physically, spiritually, mentally, or offer the world. emotionally. The only thing the shape of Healing your your body determines is the size of clothCONNECTED TO GOD body-soul ing you buy—nothing more. Your body is not an end in itself; rather, it connection has to You would not be worth more if you offers the gift of tangible connection to the come from touching looked different than you do today. You spiritual world. As a human, you experion the sacredness would not be a better person. You would ence God in and through your physical not be smarter or more important. You are of this vessel you’ve body. Perhaps this looks like kneeling and already necessary, already vital, already standing through your worship service. been given. full of contributions to the world, already Perhaps for you it is hiking through the a voice the rest of us need to hear. And if woods or meditating in the grass. The way others cannot see that, it is their problem, not yours. You you reach out for God might differ from the way of the are already dearly beloved by God, in the very body you next person, but you can be sure that if your heart desires are in today. You are already enough. divine encounters, then your body will put itself to good use to make them happen.
FIVE: HONORING YOUR LEGACY
Anti-aging products are so common you could throw a stone at a beauty counter and hit three of them. While there’s nothing wrong with purchasing these products, we should be asking serious questions about what their
This article is adapted from the book Luminous: A 30-Day Journal for Accepting Your Body, Honoring Your Soul, and Finding Your Joy (Franciscan Media). Shannon K. Evans, a writer in the contemplative Catholic tradition, is a monthly columnist for Jesuits.org and a regular contributor to Franciscan Media.
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CULTURE
E-LEARNING by Susan Hines-Brigger
ANCESTRY ACADEMY
38 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
When we think of genealogy research, we typically think of people. But another aspect of the research focuses on either the actual homes in which we currently live or ones in which our ancestors lived. Homes, after all, have stories too. In the video “Discovering the History of Your House,” genealogist and house historian Marian Pierre-Louis explains the process of researching your current home and any other homes in which you are interested. The process, she says, is very similar to that of researching family genealogy. Reasons for doing such research, Pierre-Louis explains, include seeking National Historic Register status, learning about former owners, or even to prevent demolition. Over the course of the 11-video series, the viewer is taken step-by-step through the process of how to do the research. But even if you aren’t interested in doing any research yourself, the videos are interesting enough in themselves. It is worth watching them just to learn about what they reveal, such as the progression of how information was gathered and when street names began being documented. An interesting tidbit from the 1930 census is that it was noted whether the homeowners had a radio in the house. In the final video of the course, Pierre-Louis says that it’s not only houses that people can research. They can also look into the history of a particular church or other building. Most of the records, she says, are readily available, and within those records lie the stories.
TOP LEFT: UCLA LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; TOP RIGHT: LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER; FAR RIGHT: ALL COURTESY OF PBS.ORG (3)
RESEARCHING YOUR HOME
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THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE, we can find many stories of families and their ancestors. For instance, in the Gospel of Matthew, we find the genealogy of Jesus (1:1–16). And chapter four of the Book of Genesis details the descendants of Adam and Eve. All of this information helps to piece together the stories that make up the history of our faith. Much like those in the Bible, we, too, have our own family histories to uncover. And with those histories come stories, some known but also many unknown. Those lost stories are only discovered, however, with some digging. Ancestry Academy (AncestryAcademy.com) is a free resource of the website Ancestry.com. The academy features videos that can help people learn how to research and find information—both good and bad—regarding their families. The videos cover topics such as how to use vital records in your search, how to find military veterans, or tips for navigating wills and probates. Many of the videos direct viewers to Ancestry.com, which is a paid service, to find more in-depth information. But signing up for the paid service is not necessary. Ancestry Academy also offers a number of suggestions for ways to conduct free searches on your own, such as by using church and state records. It also gives tips on how to go about that process. Looking into your family’s history can be a daunting but very rewarding task. After all, our families make up the stories of our lives. Luckily, there are resources available—such as Ancestry Academy—to help make the journey a little less confusing and overwhelming.
CULTURE
TV/STREAMING by Christopher Heffron
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Available on PBS and at PBS.org
FLOOD IN THE DESERT
American Experience on PBS • May 3, 9 p.m.
TOP LEFT: UCLA LIBRARY SPECIAL COLLECTIONS; TOP RIGHT: LOS ANGELES DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER; FAR RIGHT: ALL COURTESY OF PBS.ORG (3)
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The St. Francis Dam collapsed on March 12, 1928, killing over 400 Californians. The dam’s engineer, William Mulholland (right), was haunted by the tragedy for the rest of his life.
“MAN MUST CONQUER NATURE” is a quote attributed to Communist leader Mao Zedong. This narrow-minded approach to the natural world should chill a Franciscan heart. William Mulholland (1855–1935), a UK-born, self-taught civil engineer, however, would have likely agreed. His St. Francis Dam in California’s San Francisquito Canyon, finished in 1926 to address Los Angeles’ growing water needs, collapsed on March 12, 1928, killing hundreds. Mulholland ignored one simple truth: Nature will always have the final word. “Flood in the Desert,” American Experience’s quietly riveting examination of this disaster and its ripple effect generations later, is another impressive addition to the program’s canon of documentaries. And the central message of the film is still applicable to a 21st-century audience. Just before midnight on March 12, as the St. Francis Dam started to erode, the power across the city of Los Angeles flickered. Mulholland, the mastermind behind the dam’s conception and construction, slept through the electrical hiccup. By morning, some 430 people would be swept away by over 12 billion gallons of water. The precise death count will never be known. Mulholland came from humble Irish beginnings to amass profound influence in early 20th-century California. His engineering plans for the St. Francis Dam, as much a vanity project as one of necessity, were not peerreviewed—likely in deference to his power. Mulholland would endure water wars with White settlers in the Owens Valley as well as Northern California’s native Paiute people, whom the colonists displaced. But by 1924, construction on the dam began. Tragedy followed four years later. “Flood in the Desert” manages to check several boxes in a scant 52 minutes. On the surface, the documentary examines the ingenuity—and blind arrogance—needed to harness an element as formidable as water. But a deeper dive examines how the quest for power always comes at the expense of the powerless. And human-caused disasters aren’t relegated to the history books. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 and California’s Camp Fire in 2018 show what little we’ve learned in the following decades. Mulholland spent the rest of his life in seclusion, reportedly haunted by the tragedy. But he was introspective when questioned about it: “If there is an error of human judgment,” he said, “I am the human.”
THE RISE AND FALL of Joseph McCarthy has been likened to a Shakespearean tragedy—or comedy— depending on your political persuasion. But under the steady hand of American Experience, the life of the disgraced Wisconsin senator is handled with evenness and authority.
FIRST AIRED IN 1993, “Goin’ Back to T-Town” examines “Black Wall Street,” a community of thriving Black-owned businesses in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was the site of one of the worst acts of racially inspired domestic terrorism in our nation’s history. This should be required viewing for all Americans.
L. FRANK BAUM created one of the most enduring stories in all of children’s literature with his Oz series, but his own life was no stroll down the yellow brick road. American Experience’s measured and deeply engrossing exploration of the author’s life is worth a revisit.
CULTURE
FILMS by Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
40 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
Stu begins to feel the call to the priesthood. He asks to meet with Carmen, who thinks he is going to propose. Instead, he tells her he is going to become a priest. She is angry and heartbroken. Stu applies to the seminary in a most unconventional way. The rector sends him a rejection letter, but Stu doesn’t take no for an answer. His conversion is an ongoing endeavor. Father Stu is based on the true story of Father Stuart Long of the Diocese of Helena, Montana. Wahlberg and Gibson give credible performances as a father and son at odds with one another. Writer-director Rosalind Ross, in her first feature film, combines humor and heart in a profanity-laced story about redemption. However, themes of family, grace, faith, forgiveness, and reconciliation prevail. Father Stu is in theaters now. Not yet rated, R • Pervasive language, sports violence, peril.
SISTER ROSE’S FAVORITE FILMS ABOUT ONLINE LIFE SCREENED OUT (2020) HER (2013) CODED BIAS (2020) THE SOCIAL DILEMMA (2020) 15 MINUTES OF SHAME (2021)
FATHER STU: SONY PICTURES
STUART LONG (MARK WAHLBERG), whom everyone calls “Stu,” grows up to be a boxer in his home state of Montana. As he’s aging, the wins are fewer, his body is showing signs of wear and tear, and so he tells his mom, Kathleen (Jacki Weaver), that he’s going to Hollywood to be an actor. His estranged dad, Bill (Mel Gibson), works construction there. But they only meet when Stu tries to “borrow” his father’s pickup truck to go to an audition. To cover expenses as he waits for his big break, Stu gets a job at the meat counter of a supermarket. There he flirts with Carmen (Teresa Ruiz) and tries to sweet-talk her into a date. She posts a flyer about St. Mary’s Church, and Stu finds her there. He has an annoying but endearing manner, but Carmen says her parents will not let her date a man who is not baptized. To everyone’s surprise, Stu begins the process of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA). He becomes friends with Ham (Aaron Moten), who volunteers at the parish. After his Baptism, Stu and Carmen become close. She is falling in love with him, and he meets her parents. He goes to confession for the first time and then stops for a drink at a bar. A stranger tells him, “Life is going to give you a lot of reasons to be angry, but you only need one reason to be grateful.” After, he is in a terrible motorcycle crash. When he wakes from a coma, he believes Mary spoke to him at the crash.
THE ADAM PROJECT: NETFLIX FILMS; DRIVE MY CAR: HBO MAX/C&I ENTERTAINMENT/BITTERS END (JAPAN)
FATHER STU
THE ADAM PROJECT IN 2050, ADAM (RYAN REYNOLDS), a fighter pilot, goes rogue by traveling down a wormhole and crashing into his past in 2022. However, he was aiming for 2018 so that he could stop his father, Louis (Mark Ruffalo), the godfather of time travel, and reset the future by destroying an algorithm in a particle accelerator. Adam’s boss, Maya (Catherine Keener), is exploiting time travel through “The Adam Project,” which she cocreated with Louis for profit and power. Adam finds his younger 12-year-old self (Walter Scobell), who constantly starts fights at school, and his mom, Ellie (Jennifer Garner). Adam’s wife, Laura (Zoe Saldaña), has been stranded in 2018, and Adam wants to find her too. From here on in, the narrative of the catchy script, directed by Shawn Levy, is classic Ryan Reynolds, who engages with his younger self with heart and humor. Scobell is a perfect foil for Reynolds’ inner journey of forgiveness and righting wrongs. After the ethical consideration of tampering with the universe, it doesn’t really matter what happens in the film in terms of parallel time travel because this is ultimately the story of a family in grief trying to find a way forward in love. I really enjoyed it. The Adam Project is available on Netflix.
THE ADAM PROJECT: NETFLIX FILMS; DRIVE MY CAR: HBO MAX/C&I ENTERTAINMENT/BITTERS END (JAPAN)
FATHER STU: SONY PICTURES
A-3, PG-13 • Greed, peril, science fiction violence.
DRIVE MY CAR ALTHOUGH THIS OSCAR-WINNING Japanese film opens with some uncomfortably explicit talk, it tells the story of Yûsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima), an actor and theater director, and his wife, Oto (Reika Kirishima), a screenwriter. The film, available on HBO Max, develops into a story of hope, grief, and healing. Oto tells her stories to Yûsuke, who writes them down. But she dies suddenly after having an affair with a young actor who will come back into Yûsuke’s life two years later when he directs a version of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya. Yûsuke, however, must accept a chauffeur to drive his own car while in residence. The driver’s name is Misaki (Tôko Miura). She is silent and smokes, but never in his car. Over the weeks the characters come to know each other, and they grow in ways they could never have imagined. At almost three hours long, Drive My Car is a dramatic, artful showcase of human grief, love, and loss with exceptional acting that culminates in transcendence and freedom. L, Not yet rated • Brief nudity and sexuality.
Catholic News Service Media Review Office provides these ratings. Source: USCCB.org/movies A-1: General patronage • A-2: Adults and adolescents • A-3: Adults • L: Limited adult audience • O: Morally offensive
Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, is a Daughter of St. Paul and the founding director of the Pauline Center for Media Studies. She has been the award-winning film columnist for St. Anthony Messenger since 2003 and is the author of several books on Scripture and film, as well as media literacy education.
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POINTS OF VIEW AT HOME ON EARTH by Kyle Kramer
GIFTS OF MORTALITY To integrate an awareness of death into our life means a lot of things, most of them beyond the scope of this column and probably beyond my scope as a writer. But I’d like to focus on two things that I’ve found helpful and that have really affected how I live my life. 42 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
The first gift of facing mortality is perspective. I’ve worked alongside vowed religious for my entire career, and I’ve come to admire deeply their practice of memento mori: intentionally recalling, every day, that you will die, that your time on earth is the briefest of moments against the backdrop of eternity. Contrary to what you might think, this doesn’t lead the monastics I know to be morbid and resigned. If anything, it grounds them in gratitude for the precious time they do have. It offers them a strong dose of humility about their own accomplishments relative to the vast scale of deep time. It gives them an acute awareness of their connectedness to the great cloud of witnesses, who began their order’s work before them and will continue it long after they are gone. Such a perspective isn’t unique to monastic communities. In my family, my mom has lived for many years with incurable cancer. That has been difficult, but it has also given us an amazing gift of cherishing the time we have together, however long or short it ends up being. And it’s a small step from cherishing an all-too-brief human life (our own or that of someone we care about) to cherishing all life within our common home. Another gift of facing mortality is the opportunity to become very intentional about our habits. If our lives really are so brief, don’t we want to spend them in the best way possible, focused on the most important things? And isn’t a well-lived life largely the aggregation of our daily choices and habits? As the writer Annie Dillard pointed out, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”
MARILYN NIEVES/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER
IF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has offered us anything along the lines of hard-won wisdom, it’s a renewed sense of our own mortality. I’d bet that anyone reading this has lost someone you cared about to this virus, or you know someone who has. As I’ve reflected on this, I keep coming back to one of the fundamental paradoxes of American culture. On the one hand, we do almost anything to avoid confronting mortality. We fear death and decay, and so we shun it, instead valuing youthfulness and often disregarding our elders, lest they remind us that, sooner or later, the bell will toll for us too. Yet at the very same time, so many of us live in ways that create ill health and harm for ourselves, for those on the margins, and for so many creatures in the more-than-human world. In some cosmic irony, denying death simply gives it that much more power. As we begin to integrate the lessons of the pandemic, we have an amazing opportunity to flip this paradox on its head. I believe that if we can acknowledge mortality in wise and healthy ways, this will be tremendously life-giving, for us as individuals and as a society. We must give death its rightful place at the table of our life.
HISPANOLISTIC/ISTOCK
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
One of the geniuses of Catholicism people are far better suited to a more We may plant and tend in general, and monastic life in particuplanned, regimented life than others. lar, is the insight that our character is However, to the degree that I’ve estabthe garden of our life, shaped in profound ways by our rituals. lished healthy rhythms and rituals in but, ultimately, our The monastics I’ve known don’t tend my life, I have actually found them to growth is up to God. (or expect) to wander around in a cloud be freeing. Habits can change from day of religious ecstasy. Instead, they adopt to day as circumstances require and practical ways to structure their time that help them can evolve over time, but having them in place both avoid the pitfalls of overwork, media bingeing, physical pushes me to embody the values I say I want my life to and mental sloth, narcissism, and so forth. be about and assures me that I am making a reasonable effort to do so. I always need to remind myself that as important as THE POWER OF HABITS good habits are, we don’t chisel ourselves into perfection The Benedictines, with whom I worked for 15 years, through our routines. We may plant and tend the garden have in their Rule the directive for a well-ordered life, of our life, but, ultimately, our growth is up to God. That with predictable daily routines, including time for comhelps me forgive myself when I inevitably and repeatedly munal and individual prayer, reading and reflection, fail, and to trust that if I just keep showing up, God will manual labor and craft, recreation and leisure. Such form me into a person who is more and more capable of habits don’t make for perfect monks, but to use Catholic love and depth, who can face death with courage, whenWorker Peter Maurin’s phrase, they do make it “easier ever it comes, knowing that all shall be well. for people to be good.” And most of these monastic Living a deep, intentional, fully present, valuespractices can be adapted for the rest of us. We can craft aligned life is also one of the most pleasurable and our days in ways that support a deep and worthy life, satisfying things you can do in the face of your mortality. however long or brief. It will save your soul, and it will save our common life on Such structured and predictable habits may seem this beloved planet. (and can certainly be) stultifying and boring, and some
ACTION STEPS MAKE TIME MATTER
MARILYN NIEVES/ISTOCK; BOTTOM: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER
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• If you live to be 80, you will be alive for a mere 4,000 weeks. For a thoughtful reflection on how facing mortality can help you craft those weeks with intentionality, check out Oliver Burkeman’s book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. • Time is a nonrenewable resource, so budget it carefully and spend it wisely on activities in the areas of your life that really matter. I like Cal Newport’s taxonomy of the 4Cs: community (family, friends, etc.); craft/work (work and quality leisure); constitution (mental and physical health); and contemplation (matters of the soul).
Kyle Kramer is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center (EarthandSpiritCenter.org), which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion. He is the author of Making Room: Soul-Deep Satisfaction through Simple Living (Franciscan Media).
StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 43
POINTS OF VIEW FAITH AND FAMILY by Susan Hines-Brigger
REDEEM YOUR COUPONS
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES I’m sad because now my kids have entered the phase of their lives where I know that those coupons have expired, despite their redeem-by date of “whenever.” These days, a hug is met with hesitancy, straight arms, and an expression that says they’d rather be anywhere else in the world. “I’m not a hugger,” they say. I get it. They are no longer the little kids for whom things like coupons were easy and freely given. To be honest, when I look at them now, the thought of a teenager or young adult giving me a head massage makes me laugh. Yet I still keep the coupons there, tacked up within my sight.
Why? Honestly, I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s to remind me of when my kids were younger, snugglier, and freer with their love. Or maybe I leave them there to remind myself not to miss out on other opportunities I have with my kids—even now that they’re older and those times look different.
THINGS CHANGE, BUT NOT REALLY Or maybe I leave them there to remind myself that, as my kids grow older and step away from me and into their own lives, I still matter. And just because our relationships may not look the same as when they wrote those coupons, they’re still those same kids and I still love them the same. Too often, we moms can lose our sense of purpose and importance as our kids grow up. We need to know they still love us as much as they did back then. Thus the reason we hold on to as many memories as we can, like unredeemed coupons. So, yes, the days of my kids excitedly distributing coupons for affection are gone. And I wonder, Why didn’t I cash in those coupons when I had the chance? But then I remember that there are still precious moments to take advantage of. Hugs and massages have been replaced by promises of FaceTime calls and text messages from my out-of-town kids. Time spent together watching a movie, shopping, or just talking—when they’re in the mood—is my blessing from the ones still at home. Maybe those coupons hanging by my desk will continue to remind me to take advantage of every one of those opportunities.
SUSAN WANTS TO HEAR FROM YOU! Faith and Family • 28 W. Liberty St. • Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 CatholicFamily@FranciscanMedia.org • FranciscanMedia.org/Faith-and-Family
44 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
ABOVE: VIOLETA STOIMENOVA/ISTOCK; BELOW: MC KOZUSKO/SAM
STUCK TO THE CORKBOARD next to my desk at home is a stack of coupons. They’re not regular store coupons that I have tacked up there so I don’t forget to use them before they expire. No, they are coupons on scrap pieces of paper with writing in bright colored marker and crayon. They are ones that my kids have made for me over the years. Some were for Mother’s Day, others for my birthday. My favorites, though, are the ones I got “just because.” One coupon is for a hug; another is for a head and back massage. Their expiration date is labeled as “whenever.” I’m pretty sure I have more of those coupons tucked away in drawers and special places all over, put there just so I didn’t lose them. But then life happened, and I forgot about them. What I do know is that I never took the time to redeem them. And I’m really sad about that.
THE PUREST LOVE by María Ruiz Scaperlanda IT WAS MY LAST DAY in Milwaukee visiting my first grandchild. For two weeks, my son and his wife had joined me in practicing with 18-month-old Elena how to say Abuela, or even Buela. I wanted my grandmother name to be in Spanish to reflect my culture. But over and over what Elena called me instead sounded exactly like “Bella,” or beautiful. On the way to the airport, I laughed when Christopher looked over and said, “We can keep working on it, Mom, and she’ll get closer to Abuela. Or, you could just go with Bella!” And so began my cherished role as Bella to my growing family tribe. In the midst and thick of raising children, it feels as if it will go on forever. But—as my husband pointed out to me recently—in the course of our life, the total time we had our four children at home will soon be only 50 percent of our married life. I thoroughly enjoyed my children, at least most of the time. So it was challenging for me after being so completely invested in their activities and lives to watch them go off to college and establish young adult lives away from us. In parenting, and certainly in mothering, as soon as you get used to the stage you are in, everything changes. Being a grandparent is like nothing else. The best way I can describe grandparenting is to say that it is the purest version of God’s love that I can experience this side of heaven. The minute
Elena would spot me across a room, for example, she’d shriek with delight—arms and legs flinging—at just seeing my face. My heart leaps for joy every time one of my grands runs to hug me squealing “Bella!” or joins me dancing in the kitchen, or stands by and leans into me, or giggles as they try to tell me one of their jokes. I feel loved for me, not because of anything I do or give them or say. What did I do to deserve such goodness, kindness, and love? And the answer is, nothing! This is the perfect characterization of how God loves me. Their love is nothing less than a physical theology—a tangible manifestation of God in this world. It is God in the skin! I pray that the reverse is also true. When I look at them or listen to them, I pray that my grands feel and experience love, above all. I want to be an instrument of God’s love for them, that in my presence they may feel unique and special in all the world, because there is no one else like them. I want my grandparenting to be deliberate and generous in time, love, energy. Not only as a help to my adult children in their parenting needs and tasks, but above all, because being their Bella is God’s gift to me and a special vocation that I take seriously. I still very much enjoy my now-adult children, my awesome foursome—and the amazing spouses they have brought into our family. But the delight and joy that my grandchildren—all 13 of them!—bring to my life are blessings that continue to surprise and inspire me.
These scenes may seem alike to you, but there are changes in the two. So look and see if you can name eight ways in which they’re not the same. ANSWERS: 1) Sister Agnes’ yellow flower is a different shape. 2) A larger drop of water is coming out of the watering can. 3) There is another petal on the ground. 4) The hole in the trowel handle is gone. 5) There are more holes in the watering can spout. 6) The microphone is shorter. 7) Friar Pete’s pot is taller. 8) The wagon is shorter and wider.
ABOVE: VIOLETA STOIMENOVA/ISTOCK; BELOW: MC KOZUSKO/SAM
by Bob Vojtko
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POINTS OF VIEW LET US PRAY by Carol Ann Morrow
A CANTICLE TO MARY
When Mary and Gabriel met (though I like to think this wasn’t their first encounter) on the annunciation, Mary had one question and one declaration. She wondered how. She said yes. The answer to her puzzlement freed her to say yes despite her engagement to Joseph. But they had to talk about it at some point, didn’t they? Mary: “This baby is the Son of God.” Joseph: “I know you will be a great mother, but what will we do? Do we take him to the temple and leave him there? How can we be his teachers and guides when he will have gifts and powers we can’t imagine?” Mary: “I think we’re expected to act like other 46 • May 2022 / StAnthonyMessenger.org
CRADLE YOUR JOY Mary couldn’t call ahead and book a room. When she got to Elizabeth’s home, it was definitely a surprise. Elizabeth was with child as well, and Mary could feel her own pregnancy advancing. Elizabeth: “What brought you all this way, Mary?” Mary: “I heard you were having a baby.” Elizabeth: “Who told you?” Mary: “An angel.” Elizabeth: “That angel also visited us and said, among other things, ‘Joy and gladness will be yours.’” Yes, babies increase the laundry load, but they also gurgle, smile, roll over, and do other tricks. They make my heart glad. I take delight in many other little things. I rejoice when the grape hyacinths poke their tiny heads up. I rejoice when I get real mail, not addressed to “occupant.” I love to catch up with a neighbor in the grocery store. I take it all to prayer, being thankful for this world with all its colors and surprises. A little is a lot to delight in!
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MARY AND THE MESSENGER
parents. We are to love him, teach him, and allow him to grow and change—just as we will. If we don’t know what to do, surely the one who put us in this situation won’t desert us.” Here’s my takeaway: Once I agree to something, I must not hold back. I am called to move on in faith. And faith means that the God who put me on the path will not let me walk without help, both human and divine. I am also “the servant of the Lord.”
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THE MAY ALTAR, the May procession, Marian hymns— all were integral to my spiritual upbringing. Singing the “Litany of the Blessed Virgin,” as taught by the Sisters of Providence, fascinated me—both the melody and the multitude of honorifics. As a prefect at St. Mary Academy, the all-girls high school I attended, I was doubly bound to honor Mary. Mary still walks with me. She is a mother with fears, muscles, calluses, furrowed brows, and graying hair. She doesn’t use many words, according to Scripture. I like to think she had more to say. My prayers intuit those messages. Some biblical commentaries speak of the seven words of Mary. I prefer to think of four events in which she said things I need to hear. She teaches me plenty about acceptance, delight, attention, and trust.
LOSSES BRING LESSONS I’m the oldest of many. My parents once left my sister, Barb, at Aunt Pauline’s when they packed us up to return home. After all, the station wagon was full! When Jesus was 12, he was left behind too. You can’t always corral a tween, even in biblical times. Mary scolds Jesus, saying, more or less, “How could you?” And, unlike most 12-year-olds, Jesus never did it again! Joseph: “Son, you really upset your mom.” Jesus: “Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” Mary: “Ah, this is what Simeon meant when he said, ‘This child is destined for the fall and rise of many.’ I need to spend more time with this boy. If he can teach the teachers, I must pay closer attention to every word.” Words are treasures. Divine revelations can happen on Facebook but are more likely (and plausible) at home. What I learn, I can treasure. I can deal with loss. I can ponder mysteries in my heart and unpack the revelations of grace.
‘DO WHATEVER HE TELLS YOU’ Getting the last word at a wedding is a miracle on its own. Mary whispered. Only her adopted son, John, recorded it. Jesus: “This is not our problem, Mom.” Mary: “Yes, it is. These are our friends, and I know you can help them out in a pinch. Do something—now.” I can also act, not with drama or miracles, but with trust. A divine someone is using the world’s troubles to test me. Jesus will fill my soul with the wine of wisdom, and I’ll know what to do. His mother told him, and he’ll do it! That’s Mary’s last word.
MARY’S PRAYER
ACTION STEPS
behold, from now on will all ages call
• An image of Mary may assist your prayers. My mother especially loved Madonna of the Streets, by Roberto Ferruzzi, which was not intended to be Marian in subject matter. I have an African image of a mother holding her child aloft. Is it Marian? I’ve decided it is. Picturing Mary as someone to whom you can relate may enrich your relationship with her.
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• Use your rosary to connect with Mary. Only the joyful mysteries focus specifically on Mary, but you know she was part of the entire life of her son and beyond. Include her as you meditate on all the mysteries.
And Mary said: “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For he has looked upon his handmaid’s lowliness;
me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is from age to age to those who fear him.” (Luke 1:46–50)
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StAnthonyMessenger.org / May 2022 • 47
REFLECTION THE FEAST DAY OF ST. JOAN OF ARC IS MAY 30.
I am not afraid. I was born to do this.
MICHAEL SVOBODA/ISTOCK
—St. Joan of Arc
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