St. Anthony Messenger May 2018

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world V O L . 1 2 5 / N O . 1 2 • MAY 2018

125 ANNIVERSARY th

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VOL. 125 NO. 12

MAY

2018

June 1893

June 1937

COVER STORY

18 125 Years—and Still Going Strong INSETS: ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES (3); TOP: TOMAS1111/FOTOSEARCH

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Thanks for welcoming us into your home, school, or place of business for 125 years of growing as Catholics, families, and citizens.

28 A Place at the Table

By Katy Carroll For parents of children with special needs, sacramental preparation can be challenging. Parents who have been there offer advice.

34 Last Words

June 1992

By Nancy Christie Your final goodbye to a loved one need not be spoken.

May 2018 COVER: Wearing a tonsure (a clerical haircut) and the Franciscan habit, St. Anthony of Padua holds the Scriptures and a flame to symbolize his zeal for preaching them. The lilies represent purity, and the fish recall his preaching to them in Rimini, Italy. In 1946, the Church gave him the title “Teacher of the Gospel.”

36 Blessed Are the Peacemakers

By Mark Lombard Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Father John Dear helped craft Pope Francis’ 2017 World Day of Peace address. For him, being a true disciple of Christ means embracing nonviolence as a way of life.

42 Mary, My Healer

By Marge Steinhage Fenelon When I discovered Mary, I found my path to healing.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 1

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VOL. 125 NO. 12

Though the Word of God “was rich, he wished, together with the most Blessed Virgin, to choose poverty beyond all else.”

—St. Francis of Assisi

SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS 14 Ask a Franciscan

14 26 POINTS OF VIEW 7

Is Centering Prayer OK?

Your Voice

Letters from Readers

16 Franciscan World

12 Editorial

16 St. Anthony Stories

26 At Home on Earth

17 Followers of St. Francis

54 Faith & Family

Poor Clares

‘Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’

Pray First, Then Search

Bouncing Back

Rick Dietz

MEDIA MATTERS

One Less Laundry Basket

50 56

48 Reel Time

51 Audio File

50 Channel Surfing

52 Bookshelf

The Heart of Nuba

True Conviction

2018 MAY

Nils Frahm: All Melody

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE 5 8

Dear Reader

Church in the News

27 Poetry

51 Pete & Repeat 55 In the Kitchen 56 Reflection

Going Deeper StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 3

Start your day the right way.

of the

minute meditations

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ST. ANTHONY

MESSENGER 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

EDITOR AT LARGE

John Feister

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Sharon Lape

dear reader Spreading the Gospel

F

or the past 125 years, readers have been welcoming this magazine into their homes and lives. During that time, with every article and column we have published, the purpose has always remained the same—to help spread the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis.

But did you know that St. Anthony Messenger magazine is just one piece of a much larger effort to achieve that goal? On any given day, Franciscan Media, the parent company of this magazine, reaches out to millions of people via many different avenues other than the magazine, such as books, free online resources, and a robust website—FranciscanMedia.org—filled with content to help people on their faith journey.

As Father Frank Jasper, OFM, says, “Franciscan Media reaches more people in one day than I have met and reached out to in my entire Franciscan ministry. It’s a multiplication of the message of the Gospel of Jesus.”

In this issue, take a look back with us at the many changes and challenges the magazine has addressed through the years in Father Pat McCloskey’s article on page 18. Also, remember Mother’s Day and first Communion celebrations with the articles “Mary, My Healer” and “A Place at the Table.”

Thank you for being our partner on this journey of faith.

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MARGE STEINHAGE FENELON

PAT MCCLOSKEY, OFM

SARA TYSON

writer

Mary, My Healer

125 Years—and Still Going Strong

125th Anniversary

PAGE 42

PAGE 18

Marge Fenelon is a Catholic blogger, speaker, and awardwinning author and journalist. Her writing has appeared in dozens of publications, including the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Our Sunday Visitor, and Catholic Digest.

She’s also a weekly contributor to Relevant Radio’s show Morning Air.

writer

Father Pat McCloskey, OFM, is the Franciscan editor of this magazine. He began his career here as an editorial intern in the summer of 1972, and has been the author of the popular “Ask a Franciscan” column since January 2000.

artist

COVER

Sara Tyson has worked for 35 years as an illustrator and graphic designer. Her figures occupy a highly organized space, with all elements playing important parts in her concepts. Sara is inspired by early Christian and Byzantine art. Away from her studio, Sara enjoys swimming, canoeing, cooking, film, and visiting big cities.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 5

Happy those who endure in peace.

—St. FranciS oF aSSiSi

Fill the world with Franciscan spirit!

F r an ci s can Spir it a journal of inspiration in the spirit of St. Francis of Assisi franciscanmedia.org/spirit

Changing Lives

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The Franciscan Friars Province of St. John the Baptist 513-721-4700

POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Feedback from Our Online Audience “Courtside with Sister Jean” (Photos by Karen Callaway; text by Joyce Duriga): “[It’s] inspiring to hear that prayer is still a part of the Loyola tradition.”

—Jeanette Dufour

“I remember Sister Jean from my days as a student at Mundelein [College]. We still keep in touch at Christmas. Love you, Sister Jean!”

—Sandra

“God has surely blessed you, Sister Jean.

How could someone not love you? You go, girl!”

—Renata

Pen-Pal Ministry a Joy I enjoyed the article “‘I Was in Prison and You Wrote to Me,’” by Jim Auer, which appeared in the March issue of St. Anthony Messenger magazine. Since last July, I have been a pen pal with Marytown prison ministry, home of the Shrine of St. Maximilian Kolbe. Kolbe was a priest who was martyred at Auschwitz.

My experience has been very rewarding in offering hope and inspiration to the inmates.

I find that many of the inmates are very skilled in writing and are sincerely interested in bringing God’s mercy and forgiveness into their lives.

I would encourage anyone who wants to participate as a pen pal to do so. At Marytown, the letters are sent by the ministry to the inmate, so you never need to identify who you are. It is very gratifying when you receive a reply from the inmate, and they are very grateful for your letter and assistance in bringing them closer to God. Ron Stack Leland, North Carolina

Look to the Gospel of Luke The letter by James Beck Sr., OFS, in the March “Your Voice” column (“Disconnect between Teachings of Christ, President’s Behavior”) reeks of his own hypocrisy and is detached from the teachings of Christ. How quickly Mr. Beck has forgotten how thenpresident Barack Obama abandoned the nation of Israel in December 2016.

Under Obama’s watch, the United States abstained on a United Nations Security

Council resolution that demanded an end to Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory.

The United States should have vetoed the resolution, as it has done for nearly 40 years when similar resolutions have come up for voting. Christ, as a human being, belonged to the Jewish people after all.

The intent of this letter is not to engage in a political debate but to recognize that those who seek the highest office of the United States share a common trait of egotism. I was most disappointed that Mr. Beck failed to follow the example of Jesus Christ to refrain from politics. I encourage him to concentrate on the message found in Luke 6:27: “Love your enemies.”

Mark Bent Wetumpka, Alabama

Church Needs to Address Sexism, Violence, and Other Societal Woes I was fortunate to have a niece send me a subscription to St. Anthony Messenger. What a spectacular magazine! Regarding Susan Hines-Brigger’s January editorial, “It’s Time to Speak Up,” I must say, having been Catholic all my life, that I am appalled that the Church has not taken a stand against sexual abuse, especially among its priests.

The incidents in the Boston Archdiocese come to mind. Cardinal Bernard Francis Law moved the guilty priests to other parishes, where they probably continued their sinful ways. Then the Catholic Church sent the cardinal to Rome, protected him, and kept him out of the limelight. To whom did he go to confession?

Another problem I have is with the homilies being delivered. Priests read several verses of the missal and talk on that subject.

What about the current problems the world is experiencing? Let’s talk and pray about those things.

I sometimes find it difficult to say I’m Catholic. Minority groups are still not treated fairly. Women are still relegated to being servants. Crime, drug problems, gangs, and abortion continue to plague our society. The Church could and should do much more to address these and other challenges.

—Name withheld upon request

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StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 7

church IN THE NEWS

people | events | trends

By Susan Hines-Br ig ger

POPE PAUL VI, ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO TO BE CANONIZED

Blessed Oscar Romero was archbishop of San Salvador from 1977 to 1980.

Pope Paul VI, seen here in an undated photo, served as pope from 1963 to 1978. He will be canonized this October at the end of the Synod of Bishops on youth and discernment. Pope Paul VI is most remembered for his 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” which affirmed the Church’s teaching against artificial contraception.

n March 6, Pope Francis signed decrees approving miracles attributed to Blesseds Pope Paul VI and Archbishop Oscar Romero, clearing the way for the pair’s canonizations, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). Paul VI will be canonized in late October—at the end of the Synod of Bishops on youth and discernment—according to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state. Paul VI revived the synod after the Second Vatican Council.

The miracle attributed to Paul VI was the healing of an unborn baby and helping her reach full term. The baby’s mother, who was told she had a very high risk of miscarrying the baby, had prayed for Blessed Paul’s intercession a few days after his beatification by Pope Francis in 2014.

El Salvador’s ambassador to the Holy See, Manuel Roberto Lopez, told CNS March 7 that the news regarding Romero “took us by surprise. They told us before that the process was going well and that all

8 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

we needed was the approval of the miracle, and it turns out the pope approved it yesterday,” he said.

The newspaper El Diario de Hoy, which publishes the online version ElSalvador.com, said a woman named Cecilia had been having problems with her pregnancy in August 2015.

After she gave birth, she was diagnosed with HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening condition that affects some pregnant women. She made a full recovery after her husband prayed for Romero’s intercession.

No date has been given for Romero’s canonization. Blessed Romero was assassinated March 24, 1980, as he celebrated Mass following several public denunciations of violence against civilians in the Central American nation. He had spoken out against injustice toward the poor that was leading to a conflict that would last 12 years and leave more than 70,000 dead. He was beatified May 23, 2015.

The pope also signed decrees for the causes of 11 other people—among them two young laywomen and a number of priests and nuns.

CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY

O

CNS PHOTOS, TOP: OCTAVIO DURAN (2); BOTTOM: GIANCARLO GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS

People carry a banner with an image of Blessed Oscar Romero during a March 18 procession in San Salvador, El Salvador, to commemorate the 38th anniversary of his murder.

BISHOPS SAY NOW IS THE TIME TO ADDRESS GUN VIOLENCE

POPE FRANCIS MARKS FIFTH ANNIVERSARY OF PAPACY

2015

POPE FRANCIS

May24

Signs encyclical "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home"

The First Five Years

2013 Sept.19–28

March 13

First Jesuit and first Latin American elected pope

Visits Cuba and US, addressing Congress and UN

Oct. 4–25

April 13

CNS PHOTO/PAUL JEFFREY

CNS PHOTOS, TOP: OCTAVIO DURAN (2); BOTTOM: GIANCARLO GIULIANI, CATHOLIC PRESS

J

ust weeks before tens of thousands of people gathered on March 24 for the March for Our Lives to address the issue of gun violence, the chairmen of two of the US bishops’ committees issued a statement saying it is long past time for the nation’s leaders to come up with “commonsense gun measures as part of a comprehensive approach to the reduction of violence in society and the protection of life,” reported CNS. Bishop Frank J. Dewane of Venice, Florida, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, and Bishop George V. Murry of Youngstown, Ohio, chairman of the Committee on Catholic Education, issued a statement on March 5, weeks after the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

“This moment calls for an honest and practical dialogue around a series of concrete proposals—not partisanship and overheated rhetoric,” said the bishops.

They praised the young people who are speaking up following the latest mass shooting.

“The voices of these advocates should ring in our ears as they describe the peaceful future to which they aspire,” Bishops Dewane and Murry said.

Synod of Bishops on the family

Appoints Council of Cardinals to advise him on church governance, reorganization of Roman Curia

July8

Travels to Lampedusa, Italy, praying for immi­ grants and those who lost lives trying to cross Mediterranean Sea

Dec.8

Opens Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica to begin Year of Mercy

2016

July22–29

April 8

First foreign trip: World Youth Day in Brazil

Releases "Amoris Laetitia," apostolic exhortation on marriage and family life

Nov.24

Releases "Evangelii Gaudium" ("The Joy of the Gospel"), apostolic ex­ hortation on proclamation of Gospel in today's world

2014

Sept. 4

Canonizes Blessed Teresa of Kolkata

2017

February 22

Creates his first cardinals, tapping 19 churchmen from 12 countries

April 26

Delivers TED Talk via video on "The Future You"

March 28

Breaks with protocol during Lenten penance service; before hearing confessions, he goes to confession

Why the only future worth building includes everyone

Oct.26

Holds live satellite link-up with crew aboard International Space Station

April 27

Nov.19

Canonizes Blesseds John Paul II and John XXIII

Celebrates Mass for first World Day of the Poor, hosts Vatican lunch for people assisted by Catholic Charities

July7

Meets with six survivors of clerical sexual abuse, reiterates message of zero tolerance, accountability, and continued commit­ ment to prevention

Dec.2

Joins interfaith leaders, signs Declaration Against Slavery

2018 Jan.18

Convalidates marriage of two flight-crew members on plane during Chile visit

©2018 CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 9

church IN THE NEWS

FILM ON POPE FRANCIS RELEASED

O

n May 18, the film Pope Francis: A Man of His Word will be released in theaters nationwide, reports CNS. The documentary by noted German filmmaker Wim Wenders took two years to complete and was the result of four long sit-down sessions with the pope.

During the sessions, Wenders asked the pope questions of his own as well as queries submitted from around the globe. The film includes exclusive footage shot for the documentary and clips of the pope speaking at the Vatican and abroad.

Wenders told Vatican News that the film “fulfilled the high hopes I had for it: that it would allow Pope Francis to speak directly to every viewer and listener, almost face-to-face, about all his concerns and all the issues that matter to him. This wasn’t meant to be a film about him, but with him.”

Pope Francis, Wenders says, is something “rare and precious” today: Filmmaker Wim Wenders talks with the pope during production of “a man who is not acting for himself, but for the common good.”

Wenders’ documentary Pope Francis: A Man of His Word.

O

n March 13, US President Donald Trump traveled to San Diego, California, to look at prototypes for a wall he has promised to build on the border with Mexico. Trump told reporters, “The state of California is begging us to build walls in certain areas. They won’t tell you that.”

He said he was looking for a wall that authorities can see through and that would deter would-be crossers from climbing it. His idea for the Mexico border wall, he has said, is based on the one in Israel.

WANT MORE? Visit our newspage:

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The wall was a major promise of the president’s campaign. Trump also said that Mexico would pay for the structure, which is expected to cost billions. The government of Mexico has said it won’t pay for it, so the president instead has been asking Congress to approve $18 billion in taxpayer money to fund the initial phase, saying it is a security issue.

“If you don’t have a wall system, we’re not going to have a country,” Trump said during the visit.

San Diego Bishop Robert W. McElroy issued a statement on the day of the visit, calling the wall “grotesque” and a symbol of division.

“It is a sad day for our country when we trade the majestic, hope-filled symbolism of the Statue of Liberty for an ineffective and grotesque wall, which both displays and inflames the ethnic and cultural divisions that have long been the underside of our national history,” Bishop McElroy said.

CNS PHOTOS, TOP: VATICAN MEDIA; BOTTOM: MIKE BLAKE, REUTERS

TRUMP LOOKS AT BORDER WALL PROTOTYPES; BISHOP SPEAKS OUT

You Can Help Spread the Gospel in the Spirit of St. Francis!

Did you know that at Franciscan Media, publishers of St. Anthony Messenger, we are touching the lives of millions with our online and print resources—many of them free to anyone who wants them? Your support helps touch people’s hearts, like Rubina, “Franciscan Media has been helping me find peace and comfort through the word of God, and they help me to pray and meditate on its wisdom. They help me to grow my faith in Christ. Thank you!”

CNS PHOTOS, TOP: VATICAN MEDIA; BOTTOM: MIKE BLAKE, REUTERS

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POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL

‘Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem’ It can still be a city that promotes international peace.

his quote from Psalm urging international recog122:6 is almost 3,000 nition of Jerusalem’s Old years old and is perhaps as City. That history through urgent today as it has ever 1990 is told in Vatican Policy been. On December 6, 2017, on the Palestinian Conflict: President Donald Trump The Struggle for the Holy announced that the United Land (Greenwood Press).

States is formally recognizThe Holy See’s stance on this ing Jerusalem as Israel’s has not changed. capital and will relocate its Pope Francis said at the embassy to that city. At the end of his general audience same time, he expressed on December 6, “Jerusalem hope that a two-state soluis a unique city, sacred tion could be found for the The Old City of Jerusalem is sacred to Jews, Christians, and Muslims. to Jews, Christians, and Israeli-Palestinian conMuslims who venerate the holy flict. On February 23, US State Department spokeswoman places of their respective religions, and has a special vocation Heather Nauert announced that the embassy move would to peace.” take place by May 14, 2018, the 70th anniversary of the birth BUILDING PEACE of the State of Israel.

Peace is not discovered the way that someone may find a With this action, the United States has effectively abandoned its 70-year claim to be an “honest broker” in assisting coin on the sidewalk. Unlike such a random event, peace in the settlement of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This decision must be built up by people who are firmly committed to will certainly make a just resolution of this conflict extremely justice. “Might makes right” can never be the firm foundation for a lasting peace. difficult.

The “peace of Jerusalem” should be of interest to all Jews, After Pope Francis met with King Abdullah of Jordan on Catholics, Muslims, and people who consider themselves December 19, 2017, the Holy See released a statement that builders of peace. The Old City of Jerusalem, perhaps the the two leaders had renewed their commitment to “encouraging negotiations as well as promoting interreligious most contested piece of real estate in the world, is home to dialogue.” the Holy Sepulchre (built over the tomb of Jesus), the Dome Following his 2014 visit to Jordan, Israel, and the of the Rock (the third most important shrine in Islam), and Palestinian Territories, Pope Francis invited political leadthe Western Wall (all that remains of the Jewish Temple ers from those entities to join him in planting a tree in the destroyed in AD 70).

Vatican gardens and praying for peace.

Last year the Franciscans celebrated 800 years of their DEFYING WORLD OPINION During World War I, the Balfour Declaration pledged British presence in the Holy Land. Begun during the Fifth Crusade, that fraternal presence continued after the last crusadsupport for an eventual Jewish homeland. The British ers left Acre in 1291. In 1342, the Holy See designated the Mandate followed that war. The United States supported Order of Friars Minor to represent it at the Basilica of the UN Resolution 181 (November 29, 1947), which called for a Nativity (Bethlehem) and the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre partition of Palestine into two states and international guar(Jerusalem). The friars and other religious communities have antees for Jerusalem’s Old City. opened schools, orphanages, hospitals, and medical clinics Immediately after the State of Israel was founded, surthat serve people regardless of their race or religion. rounding Arab countries declared war. The Old City was Statements from Pope Francis on this latest issue can be under the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan from 1948 through found at www.vatican.va.

1967, when Israel annexed it and the West Bank after that Are we “artisans of peace” as St. John Paul II urged people year’s war with neighboring Arab countries. Most countries of every religion and no religion to be at the conclusion of are now calling for a two-state solution with special guarthe World Day of Prayer for Peace (October 27, 1986, in antees regarding access to the Old City. Palestinians see that Assisi)? If not, what are we doing about it? city as the future capital of their country.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM Since World War I, the Holy See has been very active in

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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

Is Centering Prayer OK?

What is the Catholic Church’s position on centering prayer? Is it New Age? Is it allowed for Catholics? Why or why not?

Pat McCloskey, OFM

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

ONLINE: StAnthonyMessenger.org

All questions sent by mail need to include a self-addressed stamped envelope.

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

WE HAVE A DIGITAL archive of “Ask” Q & As, going back to March 2013.

Just click: • the Ask link and then • the Archive link.

Material is grouped thematically under headings such as forgiveness, Jesus, moral issues, prayer, saints, redemption, sacraments, Scripture—and many more!

I

t is allowed, despite what some selfappointed guardians of Catholic orthodoxy are claiming on the Internet.

In a 2014 article in America (December 3), Sidney Callahan wrote: “The simple steps of the method are to choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God’s presence and action within. Then, settling comfortably, you introduce the sacred word and remain quietly attentive within God’s presence.

“When distracted from your focus by wandering thoughts, you gently return to the sacred word and openness to God. After a set period of prayer time, you remain thankful for a minute or two. Two 20-minute periods a day of practice are recommended, although many have to work up to this standard.”

At ForYourMarriage.org, the section on contemplative prayer notes that this type of prayer includes “Scripture prayer, centering prayer, and Eucharistic adoration.”

One web post accuses centering prayer as being a form of “quietism,” a heresy condemned by the Catholic Church. Centering prayer is no such thing.

In the early Church, there was a dispute

14 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

over whether gentile converts were required to follow all the Jewish laws. Some Christians were sent to Antioch to chastise the Christians there for being lax on this. The resolution of this dispute is described in Acts 15:1–35, ending with a letter the apostles sent to the Church in Antioch.

Verses 24–26 read: “Since we have heard that some of our number [who went out] without any mandate from us have upset you with their teachings and disturbed your peace of mind, we have with one accord decided to choose representatives and to send them to you along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have dedicated their lives to the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Zeal can never substitute for the truth.

Some people use the term New Age to describe anything they don’t like. Jesus said to the Jews who believed in him, “If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (Jn 8:31b–32).

Do the shrill denunciations we increasingly hear in the Catholic Church today come from Jesus’ disciples who are remaining in his word?

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MAIL: Ask a Franciscan 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

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E-MAIL: Ask@FranciscanMedia.org

The Book of Revelation How does the Book of Revelation speak to 2018 Catholics? Should all its visions, images, warnings, cautions, advice, and guidance be applied to their spiritual and temporal lives?

T

he Book of Revelation, sometimes called the Apocalypse (from the Greek verb “to reveal”), was intended as a book of consolation for Christians who were suffering violent persecutions from pagan rulers in the last decade of the first century AD. Its affirmation that God’s power and justice will ultimately prevail continues to console Christians.

Unfortunately, over the centuries some people have treated it as a blank slate on which they could project whatever they wanted. Various people have said, for example, that the person with the number 666 on his forehead (13:18) is meant to signify Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, and many other leaders.

In an era when Dan Brown’s novel The DaVinci Code and similar books have become enormously popular, it is hardly surprising that the Book of Revelation is cited to “prove” whatever a speaker wants it to support. Jesus warned his followers in Matthew 24:6 not to despair because of wars and rumors of war; that warning still applies. Frenzy does not help anyone grow as a disciple of Jesus.

The Book of Revelation is part of the inspired word of God and should be understood in the spirit in which it was written—and in which the Church has received it. Its warning against being lukewarm in faith (3:16), for example, remains completely valid and relevant.

Ordination for Someone without Hands

One of my high school students asked if someone with a prosthetic hand could be ordained. If so, would that hand be anointed? What if a man was born without arms?

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LEFT: MCKOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: LINCOLN ROGERS/FOTOSEARCH

I

St. Isaac Jogues

think that all the things you mentioned are possible. The Catholic Church has established various impediments to ordination, but it can also dispense from many of them.

At one time, a man blind in his left eye could not be ordained because that was his “canonical eye.” The missal rested on a stand to the priest’s left at the altar.

The most famous case of such a dispensation may be St. Isaac Jogues.

He was already a priest when he lost several fingers during torture by Native Americans in the New World. Pope Urban VIII allowed him to continue celebrating Mass, noting that Jogues had lost those fingers precisely because of his preaching of the good news of Jesus Christ. Jogues was canonized in 1930.

Canons 1040–49 give an exhaustive list of impediments to ordination as a deacon, priest, or bishop. Some impediments prevent the exercise of a sacramental ministry already authorized.

Neither condition described above is currently an impediment. In some cases, impediments to ordination are reserved to the Holy See; in other cases, the local bishop or major superior for the man’s religious community can dispense from the impediment.

The Old Testament prescribed that only healthy animals could be offered for sacrifice by healthy priests. Physical impediments to ordination arose from one application of that command.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 15

SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS The saints did but one thing—the will of God. But they did it with all their might.

—Blessed Miriam Teresa Demjanovich

FRANCISCAN WORLD

Poor Clares

BORN IN Bayonne, New Jersey, in 1901, she was immediately baptized and confirmed in the Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic Church.

She joined the Sisters of Charity 25 years later. The 26 spiritual conferences that she wrote as a novice became the posthumously published book entitled Greater Perfection.

In 1927, she died of appendicitis. Hers was the first beatification Mass celebrated in the United States in 2014. In his homily, Bishop Anthony Serratelli quoted her: “Union with God . . . is the spiritual height God calls everyone to achieve—anyone, not only religious but anyone . . . who says yes constantly to God.” Her feast is May 10.

—Pat McCloskey, OFM

?

(founded by St. Beatrice of Silva, d. 1492), the Capuchin Poor Clares (begun in 1538), and the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration (founded in 1854).

Each monastery is independent; several monasteries of the same group may form federations.

In the United States, there are currently 20 Order of St. Clare (OSC) monasteries, 12 Colettine monasteries, four monasteries of Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration, and five Capuchin Poor Clare monasteries.

The OSCs have five monasteries in Canada and five others in Korea, Japan, Bolivia, and Guatemala but affiliated to US monasteries.

The Poor Clares of St. Colette have an affiliated monastery in Australia.

ST. ANTHONY STORIES

Pray First, then Search

R

ecently, we took a bus trip. After parking the car, I boarded the bus. I had the car keys in my hand, along with a carry-on bag on my arm.

After I had been seated a while, I decided to check where the keys were. I looked in all the pockets in my purse, in my jacket pockets, and in my jeans pockets. I got down on my hands and knees and checked the floor from the front of the bus to my seat, near the rear. I said a prayer to St. Anthony and checked my purse again. There they were, hiding behind some paper money in a pocket of my purse! Thank you, St. Anthony.

—Marlene, Cincinnati, Ohio

WANT MORE? Learn about your saints and blesseds by going to: SaintoftheDay.org

16 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICK DIETZ/ STEVE SHORT

She was beatified for doing little things with great love.

n 1212 at San Damiano, St. Clare began a monastery of cloistered nuns who were slightly traditional but mostly revolutionary. They resolved not to live on income from rented land but on the work of their hands and donations from local people. After 41 years, St. Clare finally received papal approval of her “Privilege of Poverty.”

Another revolutionary aspect of life at San Damiano was that single women from all levels of society could join and might also become leaders there.

In the Franciscan family, there are six main Poor Clare groups: Poor Clares (Rule of St. Clare), Urbanists (who follow the Rule established by Pope Urban IV in 1263), Colettines (Rule of St. Colette), the Conceptionists

LEFT: COURTESY OF SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. ELIZABETH; BOTTOM: ANTREY/FOTOSEARCH

BLESSED MIRIAM TERESA DEMJANOVICH

I

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

FREE to

FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS

Sharing the Joy of the Gospel

“My wife and I said, ‘OK, we need to take responsibility for this ourselves.’”

A

s a younger man, Rick Dietz heard God calling him, but it wasn’t to the priesthood. Marriage is his calling, which he left seminary to pursue, only months short of ordination. But what to do with so much theological training?

“If I were looking for a job in rural Minnesota with those degrees,” says Rick, tongue in cheek, “the type of job you would probably get usually included the phrase, ‘Do you want fries with that?’” Nothing against fast-food workers, but that wasn’t what God had in mind for him.

“I enlisted in the US Air Force and became a chaplain’s assistant,” he recounts. Over his career, he was stationed throughout the country and beyond: in Virginia, Arizona, Hawaii, and even Japan. But something kept bringing him to St. Francis.

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICK DIETZ/ STEVE SHORT

LEFT: COURTESY OF SISTERS OF CHARITY OF ST. ELIZABETH; BOTTOM: ANTREY/FOTOSEARCH

JOURNEY TO FRANCIS

Along the way, “I got to know a little bit of the Franciscan thing, but it wasn’t until after I retired and I went to Hesychia School of Spiritual Direction in Tucson, Arizona, that I put it all together.” He finally had a name for “the spiritual life that I had been working on: Franciscan.”

Asking his teacher Sister Eileen Ghesquiere for a referral back home, he found his next calling. When he told Sister Eileen he lived in St. Cloud, Minnesota, “her eyes got real big, and a smile came on her face.” She was a Franciscan sister of Little Falls, whose motherhouse is only 35 miles from his home. The rest, as they say, is history.

Pursuing spiritual growth, he and his wife, Geri, had tried to get a priest to moderate a reading group, but ran into the pastor’s time crunch. “My wife

SUBSCRIBERS

Rick Dietz

and I said, ‘OK, we need to take responsibility for this ourselves.’”

SPIRITUALITY FOR ALL

Some twists and turns later, he wound up directing the Franciscan Life Center at the Little Falls motherhouse, where he and Geri have been since 2013.

Along the way, both he and his wife became Franciscan Associates, vowed laypeople formally related to the Little Falls Congregation.

At the center, they and the sisters coordinate and sometimes present at formation programs for the sisters and a multitude of laypeople, all year long.

“The mission is to facilitate the spiritual growth of individuals,” he explains.

There are programs on spiritual direction, prayer, private and group retreats, and Franciscan spirituality, along with rituals and celebrations to mark the liturgical year.

LIFE OF JOY

“It was an understanding of the joy of the Gospel” that drove him and Geri into Franciscan spirituality. “It wasn’t all about sin and condemnation”; it was St. Francis’ “call to goodness.”

It’s a more reserved joy for Rick: “I’m a good listener, kind of a quiet guy. I’m not big into banners and throwing flowers in the air and that kind of a thing. But in my interior life, I am joyful.”

He credits many people along the way for his spot in Franciscanism. “I sometimes think that I’ve become who they hoped I would—a person who takes to heart what he or she writes or says and applies it.” His application? He and Geri are passing along the spirit of St. Francis.

—John Feister

On the go?

St. Anthony Messenger has a digital edition that is available to all print subscribers.

• Does not change your print subscription • Easy to register at: StAnthonyMessenger.org

Want more inspiration?

Visit the website FranciscanMedia.org for: • Saint of the Day • Minute Meditations • Family resources • Prayer downloads • Information on the seven sacraments

FranciscanMedia.org StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 17

Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world

125YEARS

AND STILL GOING STRONG

Thanks for welcoming us into your home, school, parish, or place of business for 125 years of growing as Catholics, families, and citizens.

By Pat McCloskey, OFM

F

ew magazines are blessed to complete 125 years of publication.

Thanks to you, our loyal readers, we will begin our 126th year next month. A short look back at our changing Church, government, society, and culture seems in order.

In order to serve its subscribers well, St. Anthony Messenger has grown as the Church, US government, and US culture have changed since 1893.

GOVERNMENT/SOCIAL

CHURCH EVENTS

Yellow indicates major events in the Church.

Blue identifies key events in government and long-lasting changes in society.

1889 This year is the 200th anniversary of the establishment of the US hierarchy; Pope Leo XIII warns that democracy is not required for Catholics.

1896 The College of Notre Dame of Maryland is chartered as the first US Catholic college for women.

1891 Pope Leo XIII issues “Rerum Novarum” (encyclical on the social-economic order).

Pope Leo XIII

1890s Many immigrants from Italy, Greece, and central European countries enter the United States.

1893 The first issue of St. Anthony’s Messenger is published in June.

1899 “Testem Benevolentiae” encyclical condemns “Americanism” heresy.

St. Anthony’s Messenger June 1893 cover Top nine foreign-born populations by country of origin in 1900:

1903 The Wright brothers make the first flight in a biplane.

1914 World War I starts. The loyalty of German Catholics in the United States starts being questioned should it enter the war against Germany.

* not yet entered into union

cis

1893–1918: GETTING STARTED

When St. Anthony’s Messenger began in June 1893, immigration to the United States had already largely shifted from northern Europe to Italy and the countries of central and eastern Europe. Many of these and earlier immigrants were Catholics who tended to settle in urban areas and earned their living through blue-collar jobs in factories; many others worked in sales and government service. Our magazine concentrated on promoting the message of St. Francis of Assisi (especially through the Third Order of St. Francis, now known as the Secular Franciscan Order), strong family life, and good citizenship.

In the first issue, founding editor Father Ambrose Sanning wrote that our 40-page magazine “is a herald of peace,” brandishing neither sword nor pistol like a Communist or Anarchist bomb thrower. The magazine aimed to help its readers become heralds of peace wherever they lived or worked.

The magazine, he explained, does not advocate revolution, slaughter, or pillage but is conservative, announcing “heaven’s best boon—peace.” Father Ambrose set the publication’s tone by quoting the proverb, “In all things, charity.”

In 1893, he also edited St. Franziskus Bote (a devotional magazine begun in 1892 and similar to St. Anthony Messenger) and served as rector of the Cincinnati friars’ high school seminary.

In our first 25 years, the Church lowered the age of first Communion to 7; many Catholics then received holy Communion only four times a year. Around the same time, the Catholic Church in the United States began exporting missionaries instead of importing them, even as it built many new churches, schools, orphanages, and other works of charity to address the needs of newly arrived and longerestablished Catholics in this country.

1918–43: IMMIGRANT CHURCH

When the United States entered World War I in 1917, Catholic bishops formed the National Catholic War Council to show that Catholics fully supported this war. The Knights of Columbus set up recreation centers open to military men and women of all faiths. Catholic chaplains were recruited.

After the war ended, the US bishops felt that the benefits of working together should be extended in a time of peace, deciding to hold annual meetings and to set up a national office in Washington, DC. More Catholic churches and schools were built; men’s and women’s Catholic colleges and universities increased.

Catholics gradually began moving into the country’s

1919 The “Bishops’ Plan for Social Reconstruction” calls for child labor laws (see photo of child coal miner), a minimum wage, social insurance, and many other initiatives addressed after 1933 during the New Deal.

1900 Catholics are more concentrated in cities than the general US population is.

1917 The National Catholic War Council begins; it is renamed NC Catholic Welfare Council (1919); bishops set up a national office and begin to meet annually.

The United States changed considerably within the same 25 years. As a result of the Spanish-American War, it acquired the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam— all territories with significant Catholic populations. Partly because the Holy See did not officially recognize the Republic of Italy, the loyalties of foreign-born and US-born Catholics were suspect in the eyes of many US citizens whose ancestors had immigrated to this country decades earlier.

During World War I, Catholics joined the military at rates slightly higher than their percentage in the general population. US Catholics were proud to be US citizens.

By 1918, St. Anthony Messenger was using photos with its essays and international news stories. “The Wise Man’s Corner” column for answering questions began in 1915. The ’s in our title ceased in June 1917. Subscriptions to the magazine were sold door-to-door and through Catholic parishes.

Its sister magazine, St. Franziskus Bote, ceased publication after the United States entered World War I. Anti-German sentiment caused the street in front of our headquarters to be changed from Bremen Strasse to Republic Street.

Harley Bruce, a child coal miner

1917 The United States enters World War I. • The Knights of Columbus establish recreation centers for US military personnel.

• The national parks are established.

1922 The Holy See approves the establishment of the National Catholic Welfare Conference, which eventually becomes the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and later the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

1920s The 19th Amendment gives women the right to vote in national elections.

• The Ku Klux Klan is very active throughout the country, targeting African Americans, Jews, and Catholics.

St. Peter’s Square

1924 US Congress establishes immigration quotas by country.

• The “melting pot” image is very popular.

Alice Paul campaigned tirelessly for women’s right to vote.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 19

1925 US Supreme Court upholds the right to have private religious schools.

1928 Al Smith, Democratic candidate for president, loses the election, partly because he is a Catholic.

1929 Lateran treaties normalize relations between the Holy See and the Republic of Italy.

Al Smith

Francesco Pacelli, older brother of the future Pope Pius XII, helped the Holy See negotiate the Lateran treaties.

1933 The Catholic Worker movement and newspaper begin.

The May 1933 issue of The Catholic Worker

1944 The first GI Bill enlarges veterans’ educational choices; a later bill does the same for housing.

1939 Gone with the Wind debuts, as does The Wizard of Oz. 1935 Social Security begins.

1931 Quadragesimo Anno (On the 40th year) advances Catholic social teaching about work and justice.

Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh star in Gone with the Wind.

20 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

1941 During World War II, more women work outside the home. Numbers decline in the late 1940s but increase in the 1960s and thereafter.

Rosie the Riveter

Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the first GI Bill.

WARREN COMMISSION US GOVERNMENT

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES

middle class. For many people, the country and allowed for a direct the Catholicism of Al Smith, the communication previously imposDemocratic nominee for president in sible. Labor unions grew in member1928, raised old fears that Catholics ship and influence, raising concerns were not completely loyal to this about Communist influence within country’s form of government. The them. St. Anthony Messenger worked worldwide Church did not encourage to explain Catholic social justice the separation of Church and state. teaching as much more beneficial The first US quotas on immithan Communism or Socialism for grants from Europe began in 1924, working men and women of all faiths using statistics from the 1890 census, and no faith. when the percentages from Ireland,

By St. Anthony Messenger’s 50th France, Germany, and Austria were anniversary issue, the magazine had much higher. The Ku Klux Klan increased to its present size and had reached the height of its political started using cover color photos power nationwide, targeting not only (on religious and family themes).

African Americans but also Catholics In April 1943, we published “Grow and Jews. Anticlerical governments Your Own Victory Garden.” Special in Mexico drew protests from US columns for Third Order Franciscans, Catholics, who also tended to support cooks, young people, and inquiring General Franco and the Nationalists This cover from 1942 celebrates the 50th anniversary.

Catholics had begun. Ads for dress in Spain’s civil war (1936–39). Franco patterns had begun to appear in its was aided by the Nazis and Italy’s Fascists but opposed pages. In the June 1942 issue, 16 writers (10 of them women) Communists. The US entry into World War II after the were identified as regular contributors. bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, again prompted Catholics to organize and to show their patriot1943–68: DEVELOPING A NEW NORMAL ism. Catholic priests readily volunteered to serve as chapUS Catholics supported their country during World War II lains. and did their part in helping to rebuild war-ravaged Europe.

The number of people directly involved in US agriculThe American Bishops’ Overseas Appeal was generously supported. Most US Catholics approved the dropping of atomic ture fell considerably in these years, and increasing numbers bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of projections of people sought jobs in cities. Large numbers of African about lives saved among the US military personnel if an Americans moved from the South to the North, revealing invasion of Japan had been necessary to end the war. racial prejudice across the country. In a sense, radio shrank

WARREN COMMISSION US GOVERNMENT

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES

President Harry S. Truman, who the growing liturgical, social justice, served as a captain in World War I, and biblical movements. A Church was determined that World War II that had prided itself for 400 years veterans would be treated better by on accepting very little change now the federal government than he and faced an entirely “new normal.” The his fellow soldiers had been after Catholic Church’s suspicion that World War I. Various GI bills created democracy undermined religious tremendous new opportunities for fervor gave way to a feeling that an education and home ownership. amicable Church and state separation That influence was felt among on an international scale was needed all parts of US society, including to protect religious liberty.

Catholics. This legislation and the Vatican II’s “Pastoral Constitution education many Catholics received on the Church in the Modern World” in parish grade schools were major reminded Catholics of their duties factors in Catholic movement into to their earthly city as well as to their the country’s middle class and into heavenly one (#43). white-collar jobs. Many Catholics and Religious sisters expanded their others saw the 1960 election of John ministries beyond schools and hospiF. Kennedy as proving that Catholics tals, becoming more frequent particihad finally arrived in the mainstream pants in marches and initiatives for of US society.

John F. Kennedy was the first Catholic elected president. social justice.

Immigration from Asia, Mexico, Many Catholics who initially supand Central and South America increased considerably ported US involvement in the Vietnam War as a way to resist during these years, changing the demographics of the the spread of Communism eventually began to have their United States and of the Catholic Church here. Ecumenical doubts about that support. The number of Catholic consciand interfaith initiatives took on a new urgency. Pope Paul entious objectors grew significantly.

VI visited New York City and spoke at the United Nations By 1968, many Catholic colleges and universities had on October 4, 1965, almost two months before Vatican II already gone coed or would soon do so. Women became concluded its fourth and final session. Television made our more prominent in national politics. Increasing numbers of world smaller, giving us access to people and events we women were elected or appointed to office on local, state, would otherwise never have encountered. and national levels.

The US Catholics best prepared for the changes initiated St. Anthony Messenger introduced a major redesign with

by Vatican II were the very few who had a strong interest in its November 1964 issue, offering more photos selected by

1934 John LaFarge, SJ, founds the first Catholic Interracial Council.

1950s The writings of John Courtney Murray, SJ, on Church-state relations generate controversy among some US Catholic theologians.

1954 Brown v. Board of Education decides that “separate but equal” public schools are unconstitutional. Some Catholic schools are already desegregated; others will follow.

1964 Parts of the Mass start to be celebrated in English and in other languages.

1974 The Watergate scandal forces the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

1964 The first civil-rights bills are signed.

• The Beatles first appear on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1960s The assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy occur.

1962 Archbishop Joseph Rummel of New Orleans formally excommunicates Leander Perez and two other Catholics in New Orleans for their racist views and opposition to the integration of Catholic schools.

From left: Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Ed Sullivan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney

1970 At Kent State University, four students are killed and nine are wounded by the National Guard during an antiwar protest.

1965 Medicare begins.

Elvis Presley visits the Oval Office and meets President Nixon, who resigned two years later.

Three years later, Elvis Presley passes away.

pete and repeat The gang is going to the show And Peter, too would like to go.

But should he spend his bread on that hat?

Perhaps you think you’re seeing double, But that’s not true. Without too much trouble You should find eight changes, brother, That show in one and not the other.

1968–93: IS IT THE SAME CHURCH?

The year 1968 saw massive social and political changes in the United States, especially on college campuses. The country became more diverse demographically and slowly began to admit that racism represents a serious moral challenge for all US citizens.

Initiatives begun by Vatican II continued to be implemented. Soon this country would have the largest number of permanent deacons worldwide. More laywomen began working on parish staffs and in the management of Catholic

Pope Paul VI addresses the United Nations on October 4, 1965.

1965 The US bishops strongly back Vatican II’s documents on religious liberty and relations with non-Christian religions.

• Pope Paul VI visits New York and addresses the United Nations General Assembly.

1989 The Berlin Wall opens up.

1975 The United States withdraws the last of its troops in Vietnam.

On November 9, 1989, East Berlin’s Communist Party announces that citizens of the GDR are free 22 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org to cross the country’s borders.

hospitals and other institutions—and serving as lay missionaries inside and outside the United States.

The June 1968 publication of “Humanae Vitae,” Pope Paul VI’s encyclical on birth control, caused many Catholics to say publicly for the first time that they did not support one of the Church’s official teachings. Numbers of priests, sisters, and seminarians declined dramatically. More foreign-born priests began ministering in this country. Collective pastoral letters from the US bishops were more openly challenged by some Catholics.

The 1973 Roe v. Wade US Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion in most situations led to the rise of pro-life marches in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, with Catholics heavily involved. Papal visits to the United States became more common. World Youth Day was celebrated in 1993 outside Denver (August 10–15).

Many Catholic parishes became multicultural, celebrating liturgies in multiple languages that parish founders could never have anticipated. The first national Encuentro for Latino Catholics was held in 1972. Catholic migration to the

1979 The US bishops publish “Brothers and Sisters to Us” on racism.

• Pope John Paul II makes the first of five visits to the United States.

1983 The US bishops publish “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response.”

President Reagan and Pope John Paul II meet in Fairbanks, Alaska, on May 2, 1984.

1990 The First Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm) begins; it ends the following February.

1990 The World Wide Web begins.

The Twin Towers prior to 9/11

1986 The US bishops publish “Economic Justice for All.” 2001 The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and a plane crash in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, occur.

CNS/PAUL HARING

a full-time art director. Each issue now included editorials, letters to the editor, movie and TV reviews, a roundup of national and international news, cartoons, book reviews, and a “Words to Remember” page (a striking photo or graphic and a related quote). “Abigail, Senator McCarthy’s Better Half ” appeared in our May 1968 issue. “Pete and Repeat” had been a regular feature since the July 1959 issue. By the end of 1968, the editorial team included a layman; women editors soon followed.

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES

“Pete and Repeat” has been popular since 1959. This one is from July 1972.

CNS/PAUL HARING

ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES

South because of jobs led to new chalFrancis did that for 50 minutes and 40 lenges of establishing parishes and seconds on September 24, 2015. They probably would have been very surfinding the lay and clerical ministers they would need. prised to learn that this Argentinian, In 1970, an earlier St. Anthony the son of Italian immigrants, was Messenger special issue on conscience invited to speak by Speaker of the was released as the first book from House John Boehner, himself a Catholic.

St. Anthony Messenger Press; the other book was about the Sacrament Jefferson, Adams, and Franklin would also have marveled that this of Penance. For our 100th anniverpope held up Abraham Lincoln, sary issue, Dan Hurley wrote “St. Anthony Messenger: 100 Years of Good Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas News” and produced a video history Merton, and Dorothy Day (two Protestants and two converts to with interviews (see https://vimeo. com/261486361).

Catholicism) as examples of all that is best in the United States: a concern The magazine was increasingly for the common good; respecting the sold over the phone by then. “AIDS: A Worsening Crisis Challenges Church rights of all its people; openness to prayer; and caring for the hungry, the and Society” appeared in January homeless, and all those people whose 1993. Starting in January 1981, the monthly “Followers of St. Francis” dignity is frequently denied.

The pope’s speech was vigorously applauded.

Although in 2017, an estimated column featured US and international 38 percent of all US Catholics were Hispanic, they accounted individual friars, Franciscan sisters, Poor Clares, and Secular for approximately 60 percent of US Catholics under the age Franciscans, and associates of Franciscan congregations. of 18. The Internet has made us much more connected and has heightened the need for accuracy and charity in all our 1993–2018: WORLD CHURCH postings about individuals and groups.

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and Benjamin Franklin, In March 1996, some of St. Anthony Messenger became the principal drafters of the Declaration of Independence, available online. Digital subscriptions for the entire almost certainly could never have imagined that the bishop magazine were introduced later. See below for a world map of Rome would address the US Congress in its Capitol. Pope

TIME LINE PHOTO CREDITS: 1889: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; 1893: ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER ARCHIVES; 1896: COUNCIL OF INDEPENDENT COLLEGES; 1903: UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS; 1914 (MAP): PEW RESEARCH CENTER; 1917: WELCOMIA/FOTOSEARCH; 1919: LEWIS HINE; 1920S: WIKIPEDIA/HARRIS & EWING; 1922: CREATIVE COMMONS ZERO; 1924: AMERICAN WIKIPEDIA; 1928: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; 1929: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/PRIVATACHRIV; 1933: COURTESY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, MARQUETTE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES; 1939: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; 1941: WIKIPEDIA/WESTINGHOUSE; 1944: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; 1954: UNITED STATES LIBRARY OF CONGRESS/WARREN K. LEFFLER PHOTOGRAPHER; 1964 (THE BEATLES): CBS PHOTO ARCHIVES; 1964 (BOOKS): ROMMMA/FOTOSEARCH; 1965: CNS/UTAKA NAGATA; 1972: WHITE HOUSE ARCHIVES/OLLIE ATKINS; 1979: COURTESY RONALD REAGAN LIBRARY; 1986: UNITED STATES CATHOLIC CONFERENCE;1989: SENATE OF BERLIN ARCHIVES; 1990: VIGNES81/FOTOSEARCH; 1993: CNS/JOE RIMKUS JR.; 2001: MEINZAHN/FOTOSEARCH; 2008: BARACK OBAMA, CONGRESSMAN BART STUPAK; 2008: POPE BENEDICT XVI, CNS/ERIC DRAPER; 2016: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; 2018: CNS/PAUL HARING

Pope John Paul II embraces a young woman during World Youth Day 1993.

1993: World Youth Day is celebrated in Denver.

2008 Barack Obama is elected president.

Barack Obama takes the oath of office with his hand on the Lincoln Bible.

2002 During the clergy sex-abuse scandal, the US bishops adopt the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People.

2009 A financial crisis and recession (begun the previous year) continue to threaten the global economy.

2008 Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States.

Pope Benedict XVI arrives at Andrews Air Force Base and is greeted by President George W. Bush on April 15.

2015 Pope Francis visits and addresses the US Congress.

2018 In March, three young US adult Catholics participate in Rome pre-synod meetings about vocational discernment.

2016 Donald Trump is elected president.

2014 12 Years a Slave wins Academy Award for Best Picture.

2010 The Affordable Care Act is passed.

President Donald Trump is sworn in using Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and a childhood Bible given to him by his mother.

Pope Francis sits with international delegates at the pre-synod meeting.

2018 In February, the US Supreme Court declines immediate review of the Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, sending cases back to federal appellate courts.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 23

showing where our print and digital subscribers live. People in other countries use products from Franciscan Media such as books, audiobooks, and various online resources.

In preparation for our 125th anniversary, St. Anthony Messenger unveiled a major redesign in its January 2018 issue, introducing a new column for music reviews, bringing back recipes, and starting a “Franciscan World” column. One

article that appeared in that issue was “A Pro-Life State of the Union,” by Ann M. Augherton.

THANKS!

In 1893, Catholics often spoke of faith as an object, something that could be lost or found. In 2018, they are more likely to speak of it as a relationship, a journey with the

THE BAHAMAS & WEST INDIES

subscribers SPAN THE

GLOBE Current subscribers

Potential subscribers This map is not to scale and should not be used for navigation. Some areas have been enlarged for readability.

Lord. Faith always requires knowledge (in a certain sense, an object), but that grows as the relationship grows deeper.

We take our mission statement (“To spread the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis”) very seriously. And, despite all the changes in the world and shifts in attitudes, St. Anthony Messenger magazine has remained committed to delivering the Gospel message and Catholic perspective to you, our

readers of various faiths.

Thank you for 125 years of inviting us to accompany you on your faith journey!

Pat McCloskey, OFM, is Franciscan editor of this publication. His most recent book is Peace and Good: Through the Year with Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media).

INDIA

TAIWAN

HONG KONG

PHILIPPINES

MALAYSIA

BORNEO INDONESIA

INDONESIA

INDONESIA

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 25

POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH

By Kyle Kramer

Bouncing Back

L

Kyle is the executive director of the Passionist Earth & Spirit Center, which offers interfaith educational programming in meditation, ecology, and social compassion.

He serves as a Catholic climate ambassador for the US Conference of Catholic Bishopssponsored Catholic Climate Covenant and is the author of A Time to Plant: Life Lessons in Work, Prayer, and Dirt (Ave Maria Press, 2010).

He speaks across the country on issues of ecology and spirituality.

He and his family spent 15 years as organic farmers and homesteaders in Spencer County, Indiana.

EarthandSpiritCenter.org

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

26 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

close relationships and strong social networks, invest in communities and social capital, build infrastructure with climate change in mind, and protect nature’s buffering capacity by preserving forests, coastal wetlands, and biodiversity.

When Scripture encourages us to “fear not,” God isn’t promising to keep us safe, just to stay with us during the mess and inspire us to navigate it together with grace, helping us stay flexible and cooperative. After all, isn’t it far better to bounce than to break?

HELPFUL Let’s Be Flexible!

TIPS1 2

Meditate on Paul’s description of the body of Christ, in 1 Corinthians 12.

What are your core connections—family, neighbors, parish, city? What three new things can you do this month to strengthen and broaden those connections?

3

What is your general attitude toward life’s uncertainties—fortress or flexibility?

Practicing some physical flexibility exercises— such as stretching or yoga—can spill over into other areas of your life.

LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; TOP RIGHT: GATORDAWG/FOTOSEARCH; LOWER RIGHT: VADIMGUZHVA/FOTOSEARCH

Kyle Kramer

ife is unpredictable. None of us can avoid injury, illness, heartbreak, and loss. It’s a risky thing to love, to raise children, to have a job—really, to be alive, in general. I’ve lived a lot of my life in fear, trying to cultivate the strength and invincibility of a fortress in the face of life’s uncertainties.

Lately, though, I’ve been leaning away from the fortress mentality and more toward flexibility and resilience. I assume that difficult things will happen—both in the form of personal challenges and large-scale shocks to our systems and ecosystems—and I’m focusing on finding ways to bounce back from those disruptions. For this, nature is a great guide.

Back in 1995, wolves were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park after having been hunted out of existence 70 years earlier.

In their absence, deer had multiplied, severely overgrazing the land. When the wolves were brought back, however, miracles happened.

The deer population was reduced, and, fearing the wolves, deer began avoiding the valleys and gorges that made them vulnerable to predation. This allowed those areas to regenerate shrubs and trees, which encouraged more songbirds to show up.

Wolves also reduced the coyote population, which meant more mice and rabbits, which brought more hawks, weasels, badgers, and foxes. With more trees, beavers returned, and their dams created new habitats for greater numbers of otters, muskrats, ducks, fish, and amphibians. Ravens and bald eagles also multiplied, feeding on the carrion of wolf kills.

Even rivers and streams changed course, as increased vegetation stabilized their eroding banks. Nature bounced back in surprising ways.

The wolves at Yellowstone teach us that resilience requires systems thinking: recognizing that everything and everyone has an important and interconnected role—similar to St. Paul’s metaphor of the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12–31). We have to pay attention to individuals (like the wolves) and the system as a whole.

Each one of us should certainly tend to our own well-being, but we must also nurture

POETRY

LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; TOP RIGHT: GATORDAWG/FOTOSEARCH; LOWER RIGHT: VADIMGUZHVA/FOTOSEARCH

The hushed voice echoes down the Twists and turns Of what seems a thousand years; The words forever soaked into The gray sponge Buried in my head: Ready to be squeezed out In the droplets of a spring rain or In the torrents of a summer squall.

The silent lips bring memories now . . .

Of advice given, But not taken; Of words hoarded, But not spoken.

And so I grieve, And shed the tears Of those thousand years.

Till, in the swelling wave, too late, the words come tumbling out: “I love you.”

—Jeanette Martino Land

BREAD s

FRANK JASPER, OFM

Too Late

s

ST. ANTHONY

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

s

mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:

St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

s

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 27

A PLACE AT THE TABLE

For parents of children with special needs, sacramental preparation can be challenging.

Parents who have been there offer advice.

By Katy Carroll

O

JANPIETRUSZKA/FOTOSEARCH

ver the years, many people have commented to me on how moved they were to see my late son, Liam, at the front of the Communion line in our parish church, as our pastor knelt before Liam’s wheelchair to offer him the Eucharist.

That might never have happened.

It was a difficult decision for us whether we should even prepare our son for first Communion. As a Catholic family, we understood that the Eucharist is a great gift, but we questioned whether he would understand receiving the Eucharist. Could this child, who couldn’t read—and rarely spoke—understand that Jesus is truly present in that ordinary-looking, nearly tasteless wafer? Then again, to what extent does any child understand that?

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JANPIETRUSZKA/FOTOSEARCH

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 29

“Liam’s first Communion at a daily Mass close to Christmas made it really special for us.

It was a small group of devout families in our parish, and it was a safe environment, in case Liam needed more time or help.”

When his younger sister made her first Communion ahead of Liam, we thought we might gain some insights about adapting lessons for our son, who had cerebral palsy and seizures. Still, we hesitated to bring the subject up with our pastor. And our lives were chaotic with ambulance runs and long nights in the hospital. We just didn’t have the energy to tackle such a daunting project.

It seemed it was largely left to families and parish priests to solve the challenges. But we found we weren’t alone. Along the way, we and other families grew in our awareness of the nearness of God in our children’s lives and witnessed God’s own longing to rest in these special hearts.

Both Pope Francis and the US bishops have raised the importance of including people with disabilities as fully as possible in the life of the Church. In his 2016 “Address to Participants in the Convention for Persons with Disabilities,” Pope Francis spoke at length on the importance of “an awareness of the possibility to educate in the faith the people with even grave or very grave disabilities; and a willingness to consider them as active subjects in the community in which they live.”

He observed that denying the sacraments to them “denies disabled people the practice of their divine adoption and full participation in

30 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

the ecclesial community.”

The US bishops have also affirmed the importance of persons with disabilities in the life of the Church. In the 2017 document “Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities,” they laid out key principles for including people with disabilities in the sacraments: “The criterion for reception of holy Communion is the same for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities as for all persons, namely, that the person be able to ‘distinguish the Body of Christ from ordinary food,’ even if this recognition is evidenced through manner, gesture, or reverential silence rather than verbally” (#22).

Families, pastors, and parish staff can find support in newly developed resources and in the stories and experiences of families who have been there.

READY OR NOT?

Family and friends began encouraging Sue and David Hutten to prepare their daughter Genoa for first Communion at the typical age, but the Huttens were hesitant. Genoa had developmental delays due to a chromosomal microdeletion; she communicated with sign language and a few spoken words. Sue says: “You see everybody at their age get ready,

COURTESY OF HUTTEN FAMILY; RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

“Let the children come to me,” Jesus instructed his disciples (Mt 19:14). In the same spirit of inclusion, Pope Francis and the US bishops encourage all children—including those with special needs—to participate in the Eucharist.

TOP: COURTESY OF CARROLL FAMILY (2); RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

—Tom Carroll

but we’re not going to do it just because she’s the right age. Especially with special-needs children, [you ask yourself], Are they really getting it?”

Prayer and patience were the keys. David and Sue began watching their daughter for signs of readiness. After a few months, they noticed changes in Genoa’s responses at Mass. “All of a sudden, she was just watching the priest and the whole table scenario more and more,” says Sue. Gradually, Genoa began expressing her desire to receive. “She was trying to be as involved as she could in the Mass. She was calmer and she was just so into it, and she kept saying, ‘Me, me, me,’” Sue recounts.

David and Sue knew the parish religious program wouldn’t be a good fit for Genoa, and they asked their pastor if they could instruct her at home. In addition to facilitating their daughter’s preparation for first Communion, he helped the Huttens find a specially trained priest who could assist by offering Reconciliation using sign language.

FIRST STEPS

COURTESY OF HUTTEN FAMILY; RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

TOP: COURTESY OF CARROLL FAMILY (2); RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

For many families, the process begins by identifying the essential elements of preparation, then devising a plan to teach their child.

Scheduling a meeting with the priest, deacon, or director of religious education (DRE) is a crucial step. They can be great encouragers as they adapt sacramental preparation. It helps if the pastor or DRE is well acquainted with the child, to better advise parents about identifying a son’s or daughter’s readiness to receive. The child’s learning style and special needs will shape the plan for preparation.

It may be especially helpful for parents to: • Draw the child’s attention to the significance of the moment of consecration within the Mass, and to the reverential postures of the priest and the assembly.

• Bring the child forward for a blessing when the Eucharist is distributed.

• Bring the child along to the adoration chapel.

• Say a spiritual Communion prayer for the child, or pray together: “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Flexible time frames are often a key element of adapted catechesis. Some children with special needs receive their first Communion as second graders, but many move through the process at their own pace.

CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Families with a child with an intellectual disability can find help through their parish or diocese. Adaptive teaching materials are available to help parents, pastors, and directors of religious education provide the best learning experience for each child.

Chris and Ann Spanier began actively con-

“Our parish community was so incredibly kind. . . .

The Knights [of Columbus] got wind of our plans, and a few of them got together and did the procession for her—just because.”

—Sue Hutten

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 31

“The day of his first Communion, I said, ‘You’re gonna wear your Jesus suit.’ He knew something special was happening.

He knew it was his day to receive Jesus.”

—Ann Spanier

32 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

communicate with their children during Mass and practice prayers and reverential gestures at home and in church (in and outside of Mass) to build understanding over time.

While the Spaniers found that printed educational materials were helpful in augmenting Will’s experience of the Mass, the Huttens knew their daughter Genoa would benefit from a different approach. They talked with her extensively about their family’s experiences at Mass and encouraged her fullest participation during prayer times at home.

They also found that Genoa responded to an animated Catholic video series, Brother Francis (see sidebar).

COMMON CONCERNS

Communication issues, dietary needs, and logistical challenges are frequent concerns for parents, but these can be addressed with sensitivity and flexibility while reflecting authentic Church teaching.

The content: The pastor or DRE can help identify the best approach. Is it appropriate for the child to prepare for the Sacrament of Reconciliation first? How can he or she demonstrate understanding of who Jesus is?

Of the Mass? Of the Eucharist as no ordinary bread? What experiences and resources can best assist the child, the family, and other

BRITISHPICS/FOTOSEARCH

sidering their son Will’s preparation for first Communion when he was a first grader. They knew Will, who is on the autism spectrum, might need extra time to prepare. Ann says of Will, “He’s very good at memorizing— that’s his thing—but does he understand it?”

Will was in religion classes at school, but his teacher recommended a flexible time frame for preparing him for first Communion.

Over a two-year period, Ann and Chris continued encouraging Will to participate at Mass and sought resources to help him get ready for the sacrament. Ann adapted the standard catechesis used in her parish, Christ Our Light, for her son, incorporating it into his regular homework time and discussing key ideas with him. The coordinator of religious education in their parish suggested the Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit, published by Loyola Press (see sidebar on p.

33). It allows the child to demonstrate understanding of three key catechetical concepts: The Eucharist is Jesus; the Eucharist is not ordinary food; and we receive the Eucharist with reverence.

For any child, familiarity with the rhythms of Mass—the listening, praying, and singing; the sitting, standing, kneeling, and other liturgical gestures—paves the way for greater understanding of the Eucharist. Parents can

TOP: COURTESY OF THE SPANIER FAMILY; RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

Individualized eucharistic preparation is a key element for children with special needs.

Accommodations such as extended instruction, flexible preparation, and an uncomplicated setting can help make a child’s first Communion a loving and meaningful event.

members of the parish in this preparation?

The setting for catechesis: Various settings could be an inclusive religious education class if available, home study, or a one-on-one approach.

Consider asking a teen or an adult with relevant experience to assist at a class as a service project. Young Will Spanier completed his sacramental preparation primarily as home study, but also attended the Jesus Day Retreat at his parish, accompanied by his father.

The part is the whole: The Eucharist, under either species, is the body, blood, soul, and divinity of Jesus.

The tiniest fragment of the host is still the Eucharist. Many children with special needs have dietary or sensory needs that can present challenges to receiving the Eucharist. Low-gluten hosts are widely available, and some people following a low-gluten diet can tolerate a tiny fragment of the regular host. Using a very small piece of the host can make reception of the Eucharist easier for individuals who find it difficult to tolerate the texture or taste.

Parents can help their child practice with unconsecrated hosts of various shapes and sizes, receiving on the tongue or in the hand. Ann Spanier found that it took about two months of

practice to help Will prepare to receive about one-quarter of a standard-sized host.

What to wear on the big day: Special clothing is often a part of first Communion celebrations, but it may be helpful to practice wearing that fancy ensemble in advance of the day.

Children with tactile sensitivity may benefit from careful consideration of the clothing they choose for their first Communion.

The distributor: It may be best for the child to go directly to the priest for Communion at each Mass, rather than receiving from a less-experienced eucharistic minister. As the process becomes more familiar to the child, the family may decide that this step is no longer necessary. However, many families find that additional accommodations or adjustments are needed when they are attending Mass outside their home parish.

When and where: Some children with special needs are comfortable participating in the celebration along with the whole class of first communicants, while others will prefer to receive the sacrament in a quieter setting at a regular Sunday Mass or even at a daily Mass.

Will Spanier participated in Mass with one of the first Communion

classes at his church. Genoa Hutten made her first Communion individually at her parish at a Saturday Mass, followed by a celebration in the church basement. (This party made such an impression on Genoa that she thought every Mass would be followed by a party!) Our son, Liam, made his first Communion at a weekday morning Mass a couple of days before Christmas, followed by a quiet family breakfast with our pastor.

GIVE IT TO GOD

There are many ways God answers the prayers of faith-filled parents who want the Eucharist for their child. St. Padre Pio’s famous advice applies here: “Pray, hope, and don’t worry.” While the Huttens were apprehensive at times, they found Genoa’s preparation to be abundantly blessed. “It was the Holy Spirit who made it so much easier,” says Sue. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me” (Mt 19:14). With compassion, preparation, and trust, children with special needs can take their rightful place at the Lord’s table.

Katy Carroll is a married mother and freelance writer/editor who holds an MA in English from Indiana University. She resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Resources

For their daughter Genoa, David and Sue Hutten chose an animated Catholic video series, Brother Francis, which incorporates stories, songs, and music. The episode “The Bread of Life” (https://www.brotherfrancisonline.com/episode-2-the-bread-of-life) focuses on the Eucharist with songs and animated lessons. The series is available in English and Spanish, with subtitles, and a companion coloring/activity book is also available.

BRITISHPICS/FOTOSEARCH

TOP: COURTESY OF THE SPANIER FAMILY; RIGHT: STILLFX/FOTOSEARCH

Ann and Chris Spanier used the Adaptive First Eucharist Preparation Kit, published by Loyola Press (www.loyolapress.com/ products/special-needs/adaptive-learning/adaptive-first-eucharist-preparation-kit). In part, its materials use PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System), familiar to most special-needs children from educational settings, to convey and allow children to demonstrate their understanding and readiness. Other components of the kit, such as Mass cards and “My Picture Missal,” facilitate children’s participation in the Mass, and the kit contains resources for catechists that offer additional ideas.

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, “Guidelines for the Celebration of the Sacraments with Persons with Disabilities”: http://www.usccb.org/about/divine-worship/policies/guidelines-sacraments-persons-with-disabilities.cfm Pope Francis, “Address to Participants in the Convention for Persons with Disabilities”: https://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/ en/speeches/2016/june/documents/papa-francesco_20160611_convegno-disabili.html

Last Words Your final goodbye to a loved one need not be spoken.

had heard about “last words”—what people say when they have just enough life force to express one final thought, share one final memory, show one final emotion—but I had no firsthand knowledge of those last communications. I had never been with a dying person as the end drew near—that is, until 2005, when it was clear my mother had lost her sixyear battle with uterine cancer. With chemo, surgery, and radiation no longer options, all that was left was to make the letting-go process as painless as possible.

And then came the actual process of her going—one in which I became intimately involved. I gave my mother her meds, emptied her fluid collection bags, washed her frail body and still-curly white hair, and, as she weakened, even brushed her teeth.

To say that I was intimidated by these responsibilities 34 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

would be putting it lightly. Many care-related fears filled my days and nights. What if, while bathing her, I accidentally dislodged the drainage tubes? What if, while changing the sheets (with her still in the bed), I inadvertently caused her discomfort? What if I didn’t apply the fresh, pain-relieving fentanyl patch on schedule and gave the cancer the opportunity to knife into her?

But my greatest fears centered on what might be her last words and whether I would, or even could, provide the right response. What if she expressed fears about dying, about where she was going, or if, in fact, there was a destination?

What should I say? How could I respond? In the midst of my own grief at losing my mother, was I up to the task of giving her the kind of support, reassurance, and comfort that she might need?

COMPOSITE: VALENTINA75 AND NIELSKLIIM/FOTOSEARCH

I

PIXELEMBARGO/FOTOSEARCH

By Nancy Christie

After all, there were no do-overs. If I got it wrong—if I said the wrong words, hesitated for a moment, or worse, was completely at a loss—there would be no second chance. Each day, she gradually slipped further away. What needed to be said on day one could not be expressed on day 12 because, by then, she might not understand or be able to respond.

A QUIET ACCEPTANCE

FINDING PEACE

There were no “last words” from my mother—and, I regretted later, no last words from me. I didn’t take the opportunity to tell her how much I loved her, what a wonderful mother she had been, how I’d miss her. What held me back?

Was I still, at some level, unwilling to acknowledge my impending loss by speaking the words one associates with the final goodbye? Was I afraid that my grief would be so overwhelming that it would paralyze me, and I would fail her in her time of need?

For months afterward, I replayed those last weeks, agonizing over my silence, berating myself for not saying something—anything!—while I still had the chance. But gradually, I began to hope that perhaps those important “last words” did not have to have a verbal expression. Maybe those looks, smiles, and touches that passed between mother and daughter during the long weeks of leaving were as much an expression of love as the words themselves.

Maybe, in the end, she spoke—we spoke—more than I realized.

Nancy Christie is a writer and speaker who resides in Austintown, Ohio. Visit her website, NancyChristie.com, to learn more about this talented wordsmith.

COMPOSITE: VALENTINA75 AND NIELSKLIIM/FOTOSEARCH

PIXELEMBARGO/FOTOSEARCH

In the end, I needn’t have worried. The tubes stayed in place, her drugs were administered on time, and, as near as I could tell, I never caused her physical pain. As for any questions she might have had about what was ahead, those, too, were never expressed. Either she didn’t have them or, loving mother to the end, she wanted to spare me the pain of trying to deliver answers that no living person could give with certainty because any response would be based not on fact, but only on faith.

And my mother’s faith was strong. She never railed against God for her illness, never berated him for robbing her of time with her husband and family. Each time the deacon came to lead the rosary, my mother would recite the Hail Mary and Our Father with the rest of us. And when she could no longer speak, she still held the beads, moving them through her fingers, one by one.

Day by day, hour by hour, she traveled further from me and closer to wherever it was a dying person goes in that stage between being here and being gone. And while I was relieved that the questions didn’t come, I did wish that there had been at least one of those deathbed conversations: opportunities for her to tell me something that perhaps she had never shared before, something that would give me one final insight into the woman she was.

But in my mother’s case, the gradual physical decline was accompanied by a mental deterioration. From knowing that her condition was terminal, to believing she was simply recovering from yet another surgery, to gradually not even knowing my name, my mother’s cognitive abilities slowly but irrevocably declined. If she did have something to say, some final farewell speech, it was lost in the confusion that she developed in the ensuing days and weeks.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 35

Q A

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, Father John Dear helped craft Pope Francis’ 2017 World Day of Peace address. For him, being a true disciple of Christ means embracing nonviolence as a way of life.

36 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

COURTESY JOHN DEAR

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

By Mark Lombard

COURTESY JOHN DEAR

PHOTO CREDIT HERE

F

ather John Dear is a priest of the Monterey (California) Diocese and outreach coordinator for Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, an independent, nondenominational 501(c)(3) organization founded by the Franciscan Friars of California in 1989.

Calling himself a “pilgrim of peacemaking,” the 58-year-old activist, lecturer, and author/editor of some 30 books on peace and nonviolence has been twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Father Dear served as director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest US interfaith peace organization. After 9/11, he was a Red Cross chaplain, counseling thousands of victims’ relatives and rescue workers. He has traveled in war zones throughout Latin America and the Middle East; been arrested more than 75 times in acts of civil disobedience against war; spent eight months in prison for a Plowshares nuclear-disarmament action; and, in the 1990s, arranged for Mother Teresa to speak to various US governors to stop the death penalty. He recently spoke with St. Anthony Messenger about the Christian call to nurture nonviolence in the world today.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 37

QA

A: In early 2016, 80 peace leaders from around the world came to the Vatican— most of them from war zones, involved in stopping wars and facing death threats and imprisonment—people from all over Africa, the Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Colombia, and several of us from the [United] States.

38 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

COURTESY JOHN DEAR

Q: You helped draft Pope Francis’ message for the 50th anniversary of the World Day of Peace on January 1, 2017. How did that opportunity come about?

We issued a joint statement, “An Appeal to the Catholic Church to Return to Gospel Nonviolence,” calling upon the Catholic Church to reject the just war theory [the Church’s conditions under which war is justifiable] and return to the nonviolence of Jesus and asking Pope Francis to write his next encyclical on the nonviolence of Jesus and what that means for us. While we were there, Cardinal [Peter] Turkson, then president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, asked me to draft the pope’s next World Day of Peace message.

What’s so important about this [message] is that it is the first statement in the history of the Catholic Church on nonviolence. And with this World Day of Peace message—the 50th one—Pope Francis has entered into the same league as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King in terms of understanding Christianity from the perspective of nonviolence. This is active peacemaking, universal love, working for justice and disarmament, but without using the means of violence.

Q: THE HOLY FATHER’S THEME FOR THE DAY WAS “NONVIOLENCE: A STYLE OF POLITICS FOR PEACE.” WAS IT SIGNIFICANT THAT HE CENTERED ON THE NEED, IN HIS WORDS, “TO CULTIVATE NONVIOLENCE”?

A: I think he understands the complete failure of violence with now a realization that the just war theory is completely obsolete. There is no just war, nor can it be applied in today’s world. And, in this time of permanent war, we have to find another way forward or we will destroy ourselves.

The pope understands that the Church has been deeply involved in war and violence for centuries and has even made it a part of the Catechism [of the Catholic Church] and canon law with the just war theory. But things are so precarious in the world, and people are suffering and dying. Like many people, he is waking up to the understanding that violence doesn’t work, war doesn’t work, violence and war only breed further violence and war, that we need to . . . resolve conflicts nonviolently. And that this is doable, that this is not pie-in-the-sky talk, that this methodology of nonviolent conflict resolution, when funded and when built through movements and nations that really pursue it, works. All the evidence is in. There are hundreds of cases of how nonviolence can work to end war and conflicts.

Q: ARE YOU SAYING THAT THE VATICAN AND POPE FRANCIS HIMSELF ARE SERIOUSLY CONSIDERING REASSESSING AND REJECTING THE CONCEPT OF THE JUST WAR THEORY?

A: Yes. Cardinal Turkson has said that in several media interviews as well. I don’t know if they will [reject it]. But the joint statement from the Vatican conference in 2016 says that warfare does not work as a means to end war, that too many people are getting killed, and too many people are getting rich off these wars and killings.

It is not the way of Jesus, most importantly. That’s what the pope says in the World Day of Peace message.

Jesus was clearly nonviolent, and it’s time that we grow up and become mature disciples and start practicing the nonviolence of Jesus. That includes not only us as individuals, but the global Church, the community of followers of the nonviolent Jesus.

COURTESY JOHN DEAR

Q: THE JUST WAR THEORY HAS ITS ROOTS IN THE FOURTH CENTURY, WHEN ROMAN EMPEROR CONSTANTINE LEGALIZED CHRISTIANITY AND RULED THAT CHRISTIANS COULD ENGAGE IN ARMED CONFLICT. WHAT HAS CHANGED TO MAKE THE CHURCH QUESTION AN UNDERSTANDING THAT GOES TO THE CORE OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF?

A: The pope has been saying that we are in World War III by piecemeal, and no one is naming it. There is no future with violence or warfare. War is just a dead end. Even outside of Jesus, it just doesn’t work anymore. That’s why Pope Francis is questioning. This is very serious. You’re right. It is at the heart of the Church.

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Q. WHY IS THE CONCEPT OF NONVIOLENCE SO IMPORTANT TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF CHRISTIANITY?

Q: WHAT IS JESUS CALLING US TO AS CHRISTIANS?

A: Jesus models perfect nonviolence. In the Sermon on the Mount, he teaches a practical way of life through nonviolence. “Love your enemies and then you are really the sons and daughters of the God who lets the sun rise on the good and the bad and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” [Mt 5:44–45]. There, in the most political sentence in the entire Bible—“love your enemies,” you don’t kill your enemies, you love them nonviolently— he describes also the nature of God as a God of nonviolence.

I don’t think we want that.

Q: WHY DON’T WE WANT TO SEE GOD AS NONVIOLENT?

A: We want a God who is like us. We are afraid of God. We like God being violent and throwing those “other people” into hell. Somebody needs to go to hell, but not us.

But what Jesus is saying is that God is completely nonviolent, that the reign of God is the reign of total nonviolence. There is no violence, no killing, no death.

If we want to live in the life of God as followers of the nonviolent Jesus, we can recognize every human being as a sister and brother and actually work for a new culture of peace and nonviolence.

This is what the Church should have always been doing, but we have failed to teach the nonviolence of Jesus. Pope Francis is trying to change that, and that’s why this is an exciting time of hope.

40 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

CNS PHOTO: LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS

Father John Dear links arms with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for leading the nonviolent struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

A: We were not taught that Jesus was nonviolent. We were never taught the nonviolence of the Gospels. The Church has really failed in that. And that is why this is such a historic turning point.

Jesus was meticulously nonviolent; he didn’t have a mean bone in his body. All of his teachings are of this visionary nonviolence: “Blessed are the peacemakers” [Mt 5:9]; “Love your enemies” [Mt 5:44]; and, that one sentence, “Offer no violent resistance to one who is evil” [Mt 5:39], which was put in the World Day of Peace message.

And then Jesus goes on a campaign of nonviolence in Jerusalem. It is aggressive, militant nonviolence. He confronts the Temple and the empire in active civil disobedience. He doesn’t hit anybody, hurt anybody, kill anybody, or drop any bombs, but he is not passive. And Matthew, Mark, and Luke are clear that he marches to Jerusalem, he does the civil disobedience, and he is arrested, tortured, and killed.

But even in his suffering and his death, not only is Jesus nonviolent, he is not even angry.

He forgives people, and, when he comes back at the resurrection, he continues to be nonviolent.

A: We are undergoing an epic of violence. I think we are getting closer to global destruction. Right now, there are some 30 wars happening, 3 to 4 billion people in some form of extreme poverty, 16,000 nuclear weapons good to go, catastrophic climate change, and all of these forms of violence from racism, sexism, corporate greed, and torture.

After centuries and millennia of violence, we just presume that’s what it means to be a human being. We’re wounded people, and we’re violent to one another, and then we go off and kill or support killing.

Unless we become nonviolent, we become doomed to our own self-destruction. So it is a very practical issue. This is not idealistic. This is not utopia. This is just basic survival of the human race and creatures and creation.

COURTESY PACE E BENE

QA

Q: DIDN’T WE ALL LEARN AS CHILDREN ABOUT HOW JESUS PHYSICALLY THREW OUT THOSE BUYING AND SELLING IN THE TEMPLE?

Father Dear makes the peace sign during a protest at the entrance to the White House. He and other activists were arrested after blocking the gate to protest war, poverty, and environmental destruction.

Q: DO YOU SEE ANY PARALLELS BETWEEN THE NONVIOLENCE JESUS IS CALLING US TO AND THE LIFE OF ST. FRANCIS?

A: Of course. We had hundreds of years of terrible violence through the Middle Ages.

And then St. Francis bursts on the scene, and he says, “You can’t carry weapons. We are people of prayer, penance, poverty, service to the poor, oneness with the earth, and nonviolence.”

And he proves it by walking through the war zone [during the Crusades] to meet this hated enemy, the sultan [Malik al-Kamil of Egypt], and practicing the nonviolence of Jesus, loving your enemies.

CNS PHOTO: LARRY DOWNING/REUTERS

COURTESY PACE E BENE

Q: WE HEAR FROM SOME US POLITICAL LEADERS THAT NONVIOLENCE IS IDEALISTIC AND WILL NEVER WORK.

A: The world says that in the face of violence you can do two things: You fight back using the means of violence or you run away and do nothing. That’s not what we are talking about. Nonviolence is a third option of active nonviolent resistance to violence where you engage the opponent. You try to stop the violence, only you do not use the means of your opponent because then you only become just like them.

[Violence] is not the way of Jesus, but also it is just not working. Our nuclear weapons did not protect us on September 11, and our war on terrorism is just turning the whole world against us.

We are going to have many more September 11s until we wake up and stop bombing the world and start getting at the roots of terrorism and violence, which is end-

ing hunger, ending oppression, ending unjust occupations and disease.

Q: IS NONVIOLENCE TIED TO OTHER ISSUES SUCH AS CLIMATE CHANGE, IMMIGRATION, AND GUN CONTROL?

A: I don’t see nonviolence as an issue. I see nonviolence as life. It is the way of God. All of my teachers have told me that— Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, Mother Teresa, Coretta Scott King, and Archbishop [Desmond] Tutu. The fullness of life is the fullness of nonviolence. Be nonviolent to ourselves, be nonviolent to others and creation, and be a part of the movement to transform the world nonviolently.

We are talking about a language of love and peace and compassion. If you apply that to every form of violence—and we are connecting all of the dots here—that means we love our neighbors, we’re nonviolent to people around us, we don’t have guns, we don’t threaten to kill people.

That means we try to be nonviolent in rehabilitating people. We don’t execute people. That means we are nonviolent to people in other countries, nonviolent to immigrants, and we welcome people because they are our sisters and brothers.

I think this is Christianity. This is how to be a disciple for today. In other words, to be Christian right now is to become a person of nonviolence.

Mark Lombard is the business manager of the Clarion Herald, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, and the former director of book publishing at Franciscan Media.

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 41

my healer When I discovered Mary, I found my path to healing.

By Marge Steinhage Fenelon

D

REEED/FOTOSEARCH; PDESIGN/FOTOSEARCH

o you want to be made well?

That is what Jesus asked the sick man at the Sheep Gate (called Bethesda in Hebrew).

The man had been ill for 38 years. The blind, lame, crippled, and sick would go to the healing pool and immerse themselves—or have someone immerse them—in the waters (Jn 5:1–18).

For a very long time, my answer to that question was no. Because I was afraid of what it would take to be made well, I preferred to stay just as I was, ignoring my pain and hiding my past. I wanted to be vindicated, excused, hidden, and even, at times, patronized for the wounds I had suffered from my mother’s mental illness. I wanted to be whole and free of the pain, and I wanted to feel normal in the way I assumed everyone else except me felt.

Admitting that I needed to be healed meant admitting that I was different.

No, I did not want to be well, not in the way that Jesus meant, and not in the way I needed to be well. Pretending as though none of it had ever happened seemed to be the safer route.

42 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

REEED/FOTOSEARCH; PDESIGN/FOTOSEARCH

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 43

A STRAINED RELATIONSHIP

mental illness is an insidious thing that can disappear and reappear in the blink of an eye.

Even if I had tried to share my secret, I doubted that anyone would have believed me. My mother was always convinced that I was up to no good and tried to convince others of the same. I think she was projecting her own sinfulness on me, and there were many times she tattled on me to a priest or my youth leader about some fictitious or imagined sin I had committed.

Oddly, she bought clothes for me that were on the outer fringe of being modest and insisted I wear them.

When I wouldn’t, she would become furious. While she frequently accused me of being sexually illicit, she herself struggled with infidelity for most of her married life. It was humiliating and confusing at the same time.

IN NEED OF HEALING

Unlike the man beside the pool of Bethesda, I did not want to be well.

Yet the two of us did have something

LEFT: DMITRIMARUTA/FOTOSEARCH; TOP: IRISANGEL/FOTOSEARCH

From early on, I was aware that my mom was somehow broken, and I had mixed feelings about it. At times, I would become angry at her behavior because I thought she should know better. Other times, I felt sorry for her because it seemed she was incapable of acting better. There were times when she seemed genuinely contrite for her actions, giving me hope that she would change her ways. Then things would turn around again, dashing my hopes.

As a child, I did not understand that

44 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

I was soothed by looking into the Blessed Mother’s eyes. I loved examining every feature of her face, her hands, her veil. And I loved gazing at the baby Jesus nestled

LEFT: DMITRIMARUTA/FOTOSEARCH; TOP: IRISANGEL/FOTOSEARCH

snugly in her arms.

in common: We could not get to the healing waters on our own. When Jesus asked the sick man whether he wanted to be made well, he was measuring the man’s faith. It is much like asking, “Do you trust me?” He wanted the sick man to realize and truly feel his trust in him.

I had faith in Jesus, but not the kind I needed to surrender my wounds to him.

So I hid them away and pretended that they were not there. At times, I even hid myself, and one of the places I went to hide was a small white shrine dedicated to Mary. It was a Schoenstatt-style Marian shrine, and it had been built on the playground of my elementary school.

When I was in first grade, one of my teachers introduced me to the shrine.

Despite the chaos I faced at home, I frequently got very homesick at school.

One day, probably to coax me out of my tears, the gentle sister of Mary took me out of the classroom, down the hall, out onto the playground, and into the

shrine. From the moment she opened the door, I felt at home.

A picture of Mary holding Jesus in her arms was enshrined above the altar.

It was the exact same picture of Mary that hung above my couch at home. At that instant, I believed that the sisters had hung it there just for me (oh, the mind of a 6-year-old!) so I would no longer get homesick.

That picture would play a vital role in my life.

FINDING REFUGE

After that day, I visited the shrine as often as I could. For the most part, I just sat there. Sometimes I would do my best to say the rosary, even though I did not fully know how. But usually, I just stared up at that picture and relished the peace and quiet of the shrine.

There was a lot of conflict in my childhood home—between my parents and us siblings as well—and the shrine was void of the bickering, cursing, uneasiness, and noise. I felt safe there.

I was soothed by looking into the Blessed Mother’s eyes. I loved examining every feature of her face, her hands, her veil. And I loved gazing at the baby Jesus nestled snugly in her arms. I felt protected and loved.

I was too young to understand Marian theology, but I was not too young to sense that the answer to my healing was in that shrine. More specifically, the answer to my healing was in Mary. There was no vision or sudden revelation. Instead, it was a slow, subtle, and simple knowing that she had something I needed. And I kept wanting more and more of it.

Looking back, I realize that in the Marian shrine, I had met the person who would move me closer to the pool of Bethesda. Her name is Mary.

‘YES, LORD’

Do you want to be well? Are you ready to go through the work of effecting that healing? Put yourself in the place of the sick man. See the pool, listen to StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 45

the splash of its waters, and hear the rejoicing voices of the others being cured there. Look into Our Lord’s eyes and hear him speak to you.

On most of the occasions in which Jesus healed someone, the cure was a question of faith. Jesus wanted the person to recognize his faith and trust in him. That was true of the sick man at Bethesda.

Now consider the two blind men whom Jesus healed on the road near Capernaum (Mt 9:27–31). He had just left the home of the Jewish official Jairus, where he had brought the official’s 12-year-old daughter back to life.

Two blind men approached him along the road, begging to be healed.

“Son of David, have pity on us!” they cried out to him.

Jesus responded, “Do you believe that I can do this?”

As with the man at Bethesda, Jesus wanted to measure the blind men’s faith. He wanted an admission of their trust in him.

The men answered, “Yes, Lord.”

Then Jesus touched their eyes and told them, “Let it be done for you according to your faith.”

Jesus is saying the same thing to you: “Let it be done according to your faith.” You will be healed if you believe that you will be healed. It takes great courage to have faith like that.

Mary had the courage, and she had that kind of faith. When the angel Gabriel appeared to her at the Annunciation, she was afraid and confused. God wanted something of her that she considered to be beyond her capacity. He wanted her to become the mother of his son.

Not only was that a daunting task in and of itself, but Mary was a virgin. Motherhood was physically impossible. How did she respond?

“But Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?’ And the angel said to her in reply, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God.’ Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.’ Then the angel 46 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

NIGLAYNIKE/FOTOSEARCH

FEARLESS AND FAITH-FILLED

departed from her” (Lk 1:34–38).

Mary was not to be healed, but she was about to be changed in a drastic way. She had only one question, “How can this be?” Once Gabriel assured her that it would be done by God’s power, Mary’s only concern became following God’s will. “May it be done to me according to your word.” In courageous faith and trust, Mary allowed God to transform her.

Healing from woundedness will change you in a drastic way as well.

Perhaps you are afraid, as Mary was when the angel appeared to her.

Certainly, there are times when you have been, and will be, confused—just as Mary was. But if you allow him to, the Lord will make you the whole and healed person you were meant to be.

But first, he wants you to admit that you want to be well.

Adapted from the book Forgiving Mother: A Marian Novena of Healing and Peace (Servant).

NIGLAYNIKE/FOTOSEARCH

Marge Steinhage Fenelon is a Catholic wife, mother, author, journalist, blogger, and speaker.

She was awarded the 2015 Egan Journalism Fellowship, which recognizes exceptional journalists with demonstrated excellence in reporting for Catholic media. Learn more at margefenelon.com.

Go online to order the book: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For 20% OFF print and audio editions Use Code: SAMFENELON

POPE FRANCIS the COURAGE to be HAPPY The Pope Speaks to the Youth of the World

Nowhere does Pope Francis’s exuberance and outgoing personality seem to come more alive than in the company of young people. That vitality, tenderness, and love is on display in this comprehensive collection of his talks with young people around the world.

978-1-62698-272-7 208pp pbk $20

From your bookseller or direct 1-800-258-5838 M-F 8-4 ET

OrbisBooks.com

A wonderful gift for young Catholics and those that work with them—especially in this year of the Synod on Young People, Faith, and Vocation.

O R B I S B O O KS Maryknoll, NY 10545

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media MATTERS

reel TiMe | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP

FAVORITE

BIOPICS The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Erin Brockovich (2000) Madame Curie (1943) The King’s Speech (2010) The Elephant Man (1980)

D

r. Tom Catena grew up in a Catholic family in Amsterdam, New York, played football for Brown University, earned a degree in engineering, and then decided he wanted to help people. After becoming a physician and serving in the military, he left for Africa to become a medical missionary.

This new feature-length documentary by director Kenneth A. Carlson, who played football with Tom at Brown and remains his close friend, is a deeply inspiring account of the only doctor at the only hospital for a million people in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan.

Each morning, Tom rises around 5:00.

His earthly belongings are at a minimum.

He heads to the chapel of Mother of Mercy Hospital—rosary and breviary in hand. After prayer and Mass if there is a priest, Tom heads out to the hospital where he will see about 300 patients: Catholics, Muslims, or followers of the traditional religion. Together with a local staff, Dr. Tom makes his daily rounds among and with the people he serves.

But as soon as the ominous sounds of Russian Antonov planes are heard in the distance, everyone who is able-bodied runs to one of the foxholes that mar the already

48 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

blighted landscape. From these planes, Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir’s soldiers dump crude bombs that maim and kill people, and destroy villages. Dr. Tom keeps a book with the names of all those who have been killed or injured as evidence against alBashir, who has already been indicted for war crimes against his own people.

As I watched this film, I realized I was watching a Catholic layman at work in a way that transforms society and gives hope in a bleak land. This is what it looks like to lay down one’s life for one’s neighbor.

Not yet rated • Peril, war, violence, and immense love and kindness.

CHAPPAQUIDDICK: CLAIRE FOLGER/ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS; SUMMER IN THE FOREST: R2W FILMS

SISTER ROSE’S

THE HEART OF NUBA

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; THE HEART OF NUBA: KENNETH A. CARLSON

Sister Rose 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.

SUMMER IN THE FOREST

T CHAPPAQUIDDICK

CHAPPAQUIDDICK: CLAIRE FOLGER/ENTERTAINMENT STUDIOS; SUMMER IN THE FOREST: R2W FILMS

LEFT: SISTER NANCY USSELMANN; THE HEART OF NUBA: KENNETH A. CARLSON

E

very few months since the death of Robert Kennedy in 1968, younger brother and Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy (Jason Clarke) hosts a reunion of Bobby’s campaign staff that includes his cousin and reluctant cleanup-man, Joe Gargan (Ed Helms), and Paul Markham (Jim Gaffigan).

This time, in 1969, 29-year-old Mary Jo Kopechne (Kate Mara), the only child of a devout Catholic couple, is present too. She admired Bobby, but doesn’t know Ted very well.

When Mary Jo notices how sad Ted seems, she chats with him. Though he has been drinking, he invites her out for a drive. When she suggests they go back to the guesthouse, he heads to a beach instead and mistakenly drives off the bridge with no guardrails. The car flips over and sinks. He escapes, but Mary Jo does not.

Ted knows right away he is in trouble. He is concerned about what his elderly father, Joe (Bruce Dern), will think of him, his chances for the presi-

dency, and being reelected as senator.

Back at the guesthouse, Joe and Paul urge him to contact the authorities, but he goes to bed instead. He calls his sick father who can barely speak, but manages one word: “alibi.” The next morning, Ted begins to think of how they can spin the story by telling their version of the truth. While there is no way Ted can escape responsibility for Mary Jo’s death, he manages to survive the tragedy by admitting some facts, lying directly, and misdirecting the public and reporters.

Clarke is effective as Ted, and the supporting cast shines. Dern performs with his eyes and eerily communicates the elder Kennedy’s disdain and political ambitions for his son. Ted’s cousin expresses deep concerns, but the absence of morality and ethics—and the manipulation of the truth in private and political life—is all too real.

Not yet rated, PG-13 • Peril, cowardice, dishonesty.

Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings.

A-1 General patronage

A-2 Adults and adolescents

A-3 Adults

L Limited adult audience

O Morally offensive

Source: USCCB.org/movies

he decade of the 1960s was a time when people revolted against authority and formed small communities, recalls Jean Vanier. He founded L’Arche (“The Ark”), a federation of organizations, networks, and homes that provide housing for people with intellectual disabilities.

Vanier was a young Catholic philosopher when, in 1964, he became aware that thousands of people with disabilities were in asylums. He invited two men to leave an asylum and live with him in a small house with no running water near a forest outside of Paris. It was the beginning of a global movement.

The film follows the stories of four men in their 60s and 70s who live at L’Arche near that forest today. Michel, who suffered greatly in an asylum as an adolescent, cares for himself and loves history. A story of two residents who fall in love and become engaged is showcased. We also get to meet some Muslim residents from L’Arche in Bethlehem.

There is an ineffable and contemplative quality to this gentle, beautiful film. It asks us to slow down and notice the disabled, to live life at their pace, and to find the peace and love that humanity needs today. While not a comprehensive biography, it is a fitting tribute to Jean Vanier.

Not yet rated • References of cruelty to the disabled.

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 49

media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Christopher Heffron IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History CNN and CNN.com ooking into the warm and humble face of Pope Francis, you’d think the papacy is immune to corruption. Far from it. During his reign in the 14th century, Pope Urban VI had several cardinals tortured. In 897, Pope Stephen VI had his predecessor exhumed, tried, and thrown into the Tiber for papal missteps.

And Pope John XV brazenly distributed Church wealth to relatives in the 10th century.

In CNN’s absorbing, sometimes shocking, docuseries Pope: The Most Powerful Man in History, channel surfers are given a historical glimpse behind Vatican doors. There, drama unfolds. From Pope Alexander VI’s pursuit of power during the Renaissance all the way to Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation in 2013, this impeccably researched series— narrated by Liam Neeson—is worth your time.

For Catholics with a love of Church history, Pope is a trove of absorbing information, but producers are careful not to exploit its subjects for cheap thrills. The position of pope might be one that is sanctioned

by God, but it is occupied by human beings. That means sin and grace are juggled in equal measure.

Independent Lens on PBS, streaming throughout May

A

s we learn in the closing minutes of Jamie Meltzer’s powerhouse documentary True Conviction, in 2016, 166 innocent people were released from US prisons.

On average, the exonerees spent 15 years behind bars for crimes they did not commit. And some haven’t fared that well. Max Soffar, for example, died from cancer on Texas’ death row for a triple homicide in 1980, despite no physical evidence tying him to the crime: no DNA; no witnesses. Until his last breath, Soffar maintained his innocence and looked to a life of freedom that never came.

But his case did not go entirely unnoticed. On hand to help Soffar while he was alive wasn’t a lofty civil-rights organization or a high-powered law firm to right this wrong. Rather, it was three ex-inmates (Christopher Scott, Johnnie Lindsey, and Steven Phillips, pictured above), themselves imprisoned for crimes they didn’t commit, who offered Soffar a lifeline. Since their release, these three wise and wounded freedom fighters have been devoted to giving a voice to the voiceless.

In the best documentary so far this year, director Jamie Meltzer is fearless with his camera—holding tight close-ups of his subjects’ pained faces while allowing the narrative to unfold slowly. Though Scott, Lindsey, and Phillips are far from perfect (Phillips is rearrested during filming on a drug charge), viewers navigate these often-dangerous waters with three flawed and funny guides.

And they have an uphill climb to face. Prison statistics are sobering: The United States locks up more people, per capita, than any other nation. Roughly 2.3 million are incarcerated, according to the Prison Policy Initiative. Establishing the truly innocent among those millions is impossible to determine. But even if Scott, Lindsey, and Phillips fail in their mission to free the wrongfully imprisoned, they succeed in providing hope to those who need it. They breathe new life into Matthew 25: “[For I was] in prison and you visited me.”

50 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

R.E.M.: WARNER BROS.; NILS FRAHM: ERASED TAPES RECORDS; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

True Conviction

TRUE CONVICTION: COURTESY OF SARAH LIM PHOTO; POPE: THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN HISTORY: CNN

L

reel time | channel surfing | auDio file | bookshelf

Editor’s Pick Retro-spective R.E.M. | GREEN

U

R.E.M.: WARNER BROS.; NILS FRAHM: ERASED TAPES RECORDS; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE

NILS FRAHM | ALL MELODY

F

or the last 13 years, German composer/producer Nils Frahm has been quietly chipping away at developing a certain kind of sound. By way of deconstructing and then reconstructing instruments and mixing consoles, Frahm has established himself at the vanguard of music.

His latest offering, All Melody, solidifies Frahm as a true innovator and pioneer.

When many have written off classical music as a thing of the past, a museum piece to be appreciated remotely and retrospectively, All Melody breathes new life into what could be called new classical music. He’s managed to do this by incorporating 21st-century technology and electronic music aesthetic into expansive soundscapes. It’s all the more proof that Frahm’s kind of music, steeped in the ambient tradition of Brian Eno and the minimalist classical style of Philip Glass, is a step ahead of its time.

Always a meticulous composer, Frahm has outdone himself here. He recorded the album at Berlin’s legendary Funkhaus studio, going so far as to construct his own studio within a studio by creating a mixing desk from scratch and even building a pipe organ from the ground up. There is a spirit of discovery in Frahm’s approach that hearkens back to a time when artists such as the Beatles and Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys treated the studio itself as an instrument.

On the song “Human Range,” a chorus slowly churns out a beautiful melody, only to be reflected by instruments in a similar frequency range to the human voice. The result is an ethereal celebration of the very frequencies our ears have been attuned to since hearing our mothers’ voices even before birth. Each song seamlessly morphs into the next, despite their distinct differences.

There’s a meditative and, indeed, a prayerful quality to Frahm’s pieces on All Melody. This album is a good pick for helping to quiet the mind before taking some time to pray. Or you can even listen to it at low volume while praying and/ or meditating. Dive in and discover.

PETE&REPEAT

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 below)

GET THE Great fun for BOOK puzzlers of all ages!

Go online to order: Shop.FranciscanMedia.org For ONLY $3.99 Use Code: SAMPETE ANSWERS to PETE & REPEAT: 1) Sis is holding flowers. 2) Scruffy is in the flowers. 3) There is a watch on Pete’s wrist. 4) An orange flower has appeared on the left. 5) The sun’s rays are shining more brightly. 6) The clouds are smaller. 7) Sis’ dress now has a white hem. 8) Sis’ hair is longer.

TRUE CONVICTION: COURTESY OF SARAH LIM PHOTO; POPE: THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN HISTORY: CNN

sually, when a band makes the leap from a small to a major record label, it’s a sign that they will start to play it safe with their music.

Not so with R.E.M.’s 1988 album, Green. It is an album that looks within while also looking around at our fractured world, in search of meaning.

Singer Michael Stipe’s lyrics are layered with sociopolitical critiques and existential crises, but he balances the dark content with affirmations of the power of love and art. In “You Are the Everything,” for example, Stipe starts off with: “Sometimes I feel like I can’t even sing/I’m very scared for this world/I’m very scared for me.” But later on, he sings: “I look at her and I see the beauty/Of the light of music.”

The listener is treated to a wide range of sounds and approaches to songwriting, from the driving pop of “Stand” to the mandolin-infused “The Wrong Child.” Stipe’s distinct vocals are full of conviction and urgency.

Green largely hinges on the dynamic between light and darkness, with the light ultimately prevailing.

By Daniel Imwalle

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 51

media MATTERS

reel time | channel surfing | audio file | bookshelf

By Julie Talbert

Logic in Support of God

“Breaking down the discussion into the smallest possible pieces is a masterstroke of presentation that achieves a clarity that I have rarely seen.”

—Michael Dennin

GOING DEEPER

BY LEO SEVERINO Ignatius Press

T

he book Going Deeper: A Reasoned Exploration of God and Truth delivers on the promise in its title.

Philosophical arguments are often challenging for the layperson and can lead to more confusion rather than clarity. However, in his book, Leo Severino provides logical arguments that lay out God’s existence and main characteristics in easy-to-follow pieces.

Breaking down the discussion into the smallest possible pieces is a masterstroke of presentation that achieves a clarity that I have rarely seen. One example is a key turning point in the book: chapter 8. Logical arguments for the existence of God often fail to clarify the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning. Severino divides the book according to what can be established deductively versus inductively and, by doing so, adds an element of intellectual honesty and clarity to the results.

However, this was one place I was hoping he would go just a little bit further. The first seven chapters establish the existence of a “First Cause” that even atheists would probably agree with. The rest of the book transforms

the “First Cause” from an abstract concept to the personal God of the Judeo-Christian tradition, and here I felt a more explicit acknowledgment of this transition would help the reader.

Still, Severino’s inductive reasoning that provides a full picture of God is highly compelling and useful for any believer discussing God with atheists. The icing on the cake is the direct approach to some of the main arguments against a loving God. Taken all together, the book is powerful, clear, and a joy to read.

Reviewed by Michael Dennin, PhD, a professor of physics and astronomy at University of California, Irvine, and author of Divine Science: Finding Reason at the Heart of Faith.

Finally, a Great Godparent Book

“What happens at Baptism is that God puts a song in your heart. . . . It is up to the Godparent to sing it back to you.”

S

eldom have I read a book and been blown away by the first few pages.

What followed was a series of essays, real letters over many years to a godson, written not in the lofty tones of theology, but rather in direct, accessible, friendly style. The author/godfather is Stanley Hauerwas, a seminal American theologian, long on the faculty of the University of Notre Dame, then at Duke University, now retired.

The godson is Laurence, son of the prominent theologian Samuel Wells.

Wells had asked Hauerwas, beginning with Laurence’s Baptism in 2002, to write a letter each year. The elder theologian complied. Wells’ 28-page

52 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

introduction, “On Being a Godparent,” on its own is incredible. But Hauerwas’ letters that follow are so substantive, informative, and readable that this book might be considered mustreading for all godparents.

Its premise is a virtue each year, some classical (temperance, etc.), others modern (friendship, simplicity, and others). Each enlightening essay to a beloved godson is sprinkled with popular examples.

I read it in a few sittings, filled pages with notes, and will return to this book. A godparent myself, I will reconsider my role and try to do better. The only improvement I wished

THE CHARACTER OF VIRTUE: LETTERS TO A GODSON

BY STANLEY HAUERWAS

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

for is minor—identifying Wells’ long, powerful essay as a foreword would have spared me some confusion.

Reviewed by John Feister, editor at large of this publication.

GETTING PAST PERFECT

ONE BEAUTIFUL DREAM

SUPER GIRLS AND HALOS

BY KATE WICKER

BY JENNIFER FULWILER

BY MARIA MORERA JOHNSON

Ave Maria Press

Zondervan

Ave Maria Press

“It’s not going to be easy. Overcoming perfectionism demands that we acknowledge our flaws, our weaknesses.”

“The kids were giddy. A little bit of healthy pressure always brings fresh energy into a house.”

“Few of us live dramatic lives of extraordinary heroics, but I think all of us are called to lives of extraordinary virtue.”

I

H

T

n 135 pages, this mother of five tackles the true grit of real motherhood.

Yes, being a mom is a great—perhaps the world’s greatest—vocation. But that pedestal doesn’t do moms any favors.

It’s a real, in-the-trenches job, as every mom knows.

This book, pushing realism, is nonetheless good-natured. This mom is having a good time and certainly can laugh at herself. Each of the eight chapters starts with an “earworm” (oft-repeated mistruth about motherhood, e.g., “A good Christian mother is a martyr for her children and her family”), followed by an “unvarnished truth” (e.g., “Mothers are loving servants, not subservient martyrs”).

ere’s a “rollicking tale of family chaos, personal passions, and saying yes to them both.” Sound familiar, moms? Fulwiler is host of the self-named SiriusXM radio show, a popular speaker, and cofounder of Edel Gathering, a women’s spiritual renewal conference.

Once an atheist who was going to forgo motherhood, now she is mother of six and has embraced family living as a God-filled path of holiness.

Each of her pregnancies carried near disaster from a blood clotting disorder. She chronicles how she made it through, amid her duties of mom, homeschooler, author, and speaker, and continued to embrace life fully.

What I’m Reading

SOCIAL MEDIA PICKS Resisting Happiness, by Matthew Kelly

Seven Last Words: An Invitation to a Deeper Friendship with Jesus, by James Martin, SJ A Call to Mercy: Hearts to Love, Hands to Serve, by Mother Teresa Drinking with the Saints: The Sinner’s Guide to a Holy Happy Hour, by Michael P. Foley The Women of Easter: Encounter the Savior with Mary of Bethany, Mary of Nazareth, and Mary Magdalene,

by Liz Curtis Higgs

he author of the award-winning My Badass Book of Saints is back with another book of saintly profiles, this one laced with fiction. Morero Johnson takes up some feminine hero-archetypes from popular culture, matches them up with women saints, and unpacks how they exemplify heroic virtues of faith.

There is Wonder Woman and St. Katharine Drexel (pioneering foundress of many schools and ministries), Rey (the light-saber-wielding Star Wars heroine) and St. Clare of Assisi (a “ray of light”), Marvel’s Avengers Black Widow paired with St. Mary Magdalene—all examples of virtue. It’s a very creative concept.

KIDS’

SPOT MARY OUR MOTHER

TEXT BY ROSA MARIA RAMALHO, FSP ILLUSTRATED BY IVAN COUTINHO

C

oloring and activity book is the selfdescription: It’s an 8.5x11-inch booklet of pious pages to color, pages to cut out, word puzzles, and more. It ends with a set of popular prayers, some shortened for the preschool age group.

Books featured in this section can be ordered from:

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply

1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604

web: www.stmarysbookstore.com e-mail: stmarysbookstore@gmail.com

StAnthonyMessenger.org | May 2018 • 53

POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY

By Susan Hines-Brigger

One Less Laundry Basket I should have known it would be something so nondescript that would bring the reality home. I quickly learned after my mom died that it was always the little things in life—not the big, predictable moments—that seem to hit closest to home and evoke the most emotion. In fact, this would have been a good time to have her around.

Susan Hines-Brigger

E-MAIL: CatholicFamily@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Faith & Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202

?

WANT MORE? Visit our website: StAnthonyMessenger.org

B

efore my oldest daughter, Maddie, was born, I remember spending what seemed like hours washing, folding, and refolding her little outfits before placing them in her tiny laundry basket. I remember holding them close to my face, breathing in their babypowdered scent. I would then carefully place each of them neatly in her dresser drawer, anxiously awaiting her arrival.

After she was born, I remember diligently working to get the spit-up and then babyfood stains out of those same outfits. As she got older, the source of the stains changed— food, mud, blood—but the process did not: wash, fold, place in her laundry basket, repeat.

Late-night washes of bedsheets morphed into last-minute washes of school uniforms, which transitioned into my husband, Mark, asking, “Is this yours or Maddie’s?”

So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that it was a laundry basket that undid me when Maddie recently moved out. No, it wasn’t her bed missing. It wasn’t the bare room that just a few days ago had been filled with all of her stuff. No, it was a white, plastic laundry basket with her name written on the handle in red marker that reduced me to tears.

54 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

It was just an average day when it happened. I was downstairs in our laundry room helping my youngest daughter, Kacey, look for her gym clothes. As I reached for Kacey’s basket, I looked at the shelves where our family’s laundry baskets are kept, and I froze.

Suddenly, I was face-to-face with the empty space where Maddie’s basket had, until just recently, resided. Five laundry baskets sat on the shelves where just a few days ago there had been six. An overwhelming rush of emotion came over me.

Really? I thought. It wasn’t as if I didn’t realize it was gone. After all, I had helped her do the last loads of laundry before she left and piled her basket high with clothes for the move. In fact, I think I might have even carried it into her new apartment. But now, seeing that empty space made the reality of her absence crystal clear.

And it wasn’t as if her moving out came as a complete surprise. You see, Maddie is fiercely independent. She has been ever since she was little. She had made it very clear to Mark and me that she planned to head out on her own as soon as she was able. Apparently, that time was now.

And so we packed up her car with her belongings and helped her take that next step into adulthood. After all, that’s what we’re supposed to do as parents, isn’t it? It is the moment we work toward from the time we fold and refold those baby clothes to the time they take one more step away from us and into their own lives. We hold their hands, teach them, support them, and then, at some point, we help them pack up and move on— unfortunately, with their laundry basket in hand.

BOTTOM: BHOFACK2/ISTOCKPHOTO; TOP: MICHAEL JUNG/FOTOSEARCH

Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions!

REALITY CHECK

LEFT: MCKOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: PEOPLE IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 23 years and is an executive editor. She and her husband, Mark, are the proud parents of four kids—Maddie, Alex, Riley, and Kacey. Aside from her family, her loves are Disney, traveling, and sports.

in the kitchen

with Susan Muto

Meatloaf

yield: 6 servings • prep time: 45 minutes; baking time: 1 hour • preheat oven 450 degrees

Ingredients: 2 lbs.

lean ground beef

1 cup

bread, cut into cubes, then dampened and squeezed dry

1 cup

mashed potatoes

1 cup

ricotta cheese

4

eggs

½ cup

heavy cream

½ cup

mayonnaise

¼ cup

ketchup

Dash of Worcestershire sauce ½ tsp.

salt

¼ tsp.

pepper

1 tsp.

cornstarch

¼ cup

Marsala wine

FIND THIS AND OTHER RECIPES AT: FranciscanMedia.org/source/recipes

Instructions: Place the meat in a large mixing bowl; add the next 10 ingredients from the list. Knead the whole mixture by hand until all the ingredients are blended. Shape into a loaf and place in a nonstick, shallow pan.

Put the drippings from the meatloaf pan into a small saucepan over low heat. Add the cornstarch to the Marsala wine, then add to saucepan. Allow sauce to thicken slowly, for 5 to 10 minutes. Whisk gently to keep from sticking and reduce lumps.

Unwrap the meatloaf and drizzle the sauce over it; then serve.

usan Muto invites you to experience meals as a sacred time.

GH

SuSan Muto is the executive director of the Epiphany association, a nonprofit ecumenical education, consultation, and research center. a prolific author and internationally renowned teacher and speaker, she holds an M.a. and ph.D. in English literature from the university of pittsburgh.

G ood Food fo r Body a nd Spiri t

her love for cooking permeates this book, as she shares her memories of growing up in an Italian family with a mother who also loved to cook. Muto’s stories make you feel as if you are right there in the kitchen with her and her mother as they go about preparing meals, each of which becomes an opportunity to experience the goodness of God through the food we eat and the company we share. Muto also includes recipes that are simple to prepare, using ingredients that are readily available.

Whether you are a novice cook or highly experienced, or just enjoy good food, this book will bring you to a new understanding of the gift we share when we take the time to eat well.

Table of Plenty

S

Go o d Fo o d f o r Bo dy a n d Spi ri t Muto

BOTTOM: BHOFACK2/ISTOCKPHOTO; TOP: MICHAEL JUNG/FOTOSEARCH

lthough you may be fiercely loyal to the recipe you have inherited from your mother or grandmother, consider experimenting with this one as Mother’s Day nears.

As you prepare it, recall the many enjoyable meals created in mom’s kitchen.

Fresh Italian bread or a baguette may go well with the main course. A tossed salad or your favorite side dish can be added. Wine, anyone?

A dessert popular among your guests may help make this meal memorable as well as delicious.

You’ve done your part; encourage the diners to do their part by means of conversations that affirm the bonds of all those present at your table.

Bake for 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for 45 minutes. After baking, remove meatloaf from pan, wrap in aluminum foil, and set aside.

“A compelling book about the intimate connection between the food we eat and the nourishment required for a healthy spiritual life.”

— F r . r a l p h ta j a k , o . S . B . , chaplain of the Epiphany association

LEFT: MCKOZUSKO/SAM; RIGHT: PEOPLE IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

A

LIMITED COPIES AVAILABLE. GET YOURS NOW!

l Table of Plenty s t o r ies r e f lections r eci pe s

CookInG—Essays & narratives

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reflection “What on God’s good earth is more glorious than this: to be a mother?”

PHOTO CREDIT HERE CHRISTINLOLA/FOTOSEARCH

—Cardinal Joseph Mindszenty

56 • May 2018 | StAnthonyMessenger.org

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