Sharing the spirit of St. Francis with the world VOL. 128/NO. 3 • SEPTEMBER 2020 • PUBLISHED BY FRANCISCAN MEDIA
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
Why Wearing a Mask Is Pro-Life
page 19
ANDREA BOCELLI ON MUSIC AND MIRACLES
SEPTEMBER 2020 • $4.99 StAnthonyMessenger.org
HOPE IN THE FACE OF GRIEF CATHOLICS AND GUN CONTROL CASTING A NET OF FAITH
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With gratitude,
we honor and celebrate our friars for their lifetime of service! 70-YEAR PROFESSION
John Joseph Gonchar, OFM
Frank Geers, OFM
60-YEAR PROFESSION
Philip Wilhelm, OFM
65-YEAR PROFESSION
Thomas Speier, OFM
Jack Wintz, OFM
60 YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD
Harold Geers, OFM
Neri Greskoviak, OFM
Dennet Jung, OFM
50-YEAR PROFESSION
Maynard Tetreault, OFM
Mark Ligett, OFM
50 YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD
25 YEARS OF PRIESTHOOD
Fred Link, OFM
Saleem Amir Maseh, OFM
The Franciscan Friars, Province of St. John the Baptist 1615 Vine St., Ste 1 • Cincinnati, OH 45202-6492 Franciscan.org • StAnthony.org • 513-721-4700, ext. 3219
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VOL. 128 NO. 3
2020 SEPTEMBER
36
COVER STORY
36 Andrea Bocelli on Music and Miracles By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
PHOTO AND COVER IMAGE: COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
The voice of Andrea Bocelli lifts up the new movie Fatima. But his talent is well grounded in faith.
20 From Grief to Healing By Stephen Copeland
Pediatric cancer is no longer a death sentence. But for the parents of children who have lost their battle, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital provides a program for processing their grief.
26 Catholics and Gun Control By Richard B. Patterson, PhD
Tension surrounds the issue of gun control. Taking a look at what the Bible says and understanding Jesus’ message of nonviolence can provide guidance.
ABOVE and COVER: Andrea Bocelli has sold over 90 million records worldwide during his impressive musical career. Instead of capitalizing on his fame, this beloved tenor has chosen to give back to those living in poverty.
30 Casting a NET of Faith By Susan Klemond
Over the past 40 years, National Evangelization Teams have reached out to more than 2 million youths across the United States and beyond through retreats and personal testimonies. They offer potential “nones” a reason to stay.
COMING NEXT
ISSUE
A look at the world through the lens of Javier Garza, OFM Cap, a Franciscan friar and photographer in Mexico
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Saint Day
of the
T
he saints were real people with real stories—just like us! Their surrender to God’s love was so generous that the
Church recognizes them as heroes and heroines worthy to be held up for our inspiration. Join Franciscan Media in our daily celebration of these holy men and women of God. Sign up for Saint of the Day, a free resource delivered right to your inbox. Go to SaintoftheDay.org to start your journey.
St. Teresa of Calcutta
St. Thomas of Villanova
September 5 Mother Teresa of Calcutta was born in Albania but is known for her work in India. A member of the Sisters of Loreto, she felt a call to live among the poor. While working in India, she founded the Missionaries of Charity, who continue her work.
September 10 St. Thomas was from Castile in Spain and received his surname from the town where he was raised. After joining the Augustinian friars at Salamanca, he became prior and then provincial of the friars. He sent the first Augustinian friars to the New World.
Our Lady of Sorrows
St. Pio of Pietrelcina
September 15 The principal biblical references to Mary’s sorrows are Simeon’s prediction about a sword piercing Mary’s soul and Jesus’ words from the cross to Mary and to the beloved disciple. The two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfillment.
September 23 St. Pio of Pietrelcina, popularly known as Padre Pio, grew up in southern Italy. At the age of 15, he joined the Capuchins and was ordained in 1910. In 1918 he received the stigmata, the markings of the crucified Jesus.
www.FranciscanMedia.org Go to www.FranciscanMedia.org/Alexa to learn how to add Saint of the Day to your Alexa-enabled device.
LEFT TO RIGHT: PUBLIC DOMAIN/JUDGEFLORO/DERIVATIVE WORK: THARONXX; CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-INTERNATIONAL: JOSÉ LUIZ BERNARDES RIBEIRO; DGUENDEL; ITALY WIKIMEDIA
Saints featured in the month of September include . . .
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VOL. 128 NO. 3
“The soul reaches the beauty of its perfection only at the price of pain.”
2020 SEPTEMBER
—St. Padre Pio
12 SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS 10 Ask a Franciscan
Understanding Sins of Omission
19 POINTS OF VIEW
14 I’d Like to Say | Patrick Carolan
COVID-19 Can Lead Us to a Better World
12 Franciscan World
16 At Home on Earth | Kyle Kramer
12 St. Anthony Stories
18 Faith Unpacked | David Dault, PhD
13 Followers of St. Francis
19 Editorial | Susan Hines-Brigger
House of Bernard of Quintavalle
Prayers Answered during Quarantine
Brother Kristoforus Pudiharjo, OFM
Stop. Listen. Learn.
Embracing Our Imperfections
Be Pro-Life. Wear a Mask.
46 Faith & Family | Susan Hines-Brigger LEFT TO RIGHT: PUBLIC DOMAIN/JUDGEFLORO/DERIVATIVE WORK: THARONXX; CREATIVE COMMONS ATTRIBUTION-INTERNATIONAL: JOSÉ LUIZ BERNARDES RIBEIRO; DGUENDEL; ITALY WIKIMEDIA
A Tale of Chronic Anxiety
43 CULTURE
42 Media Reviews
Video | The Biggest Little Farm TV/Streaming | Race in Reel Time YouTube | Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
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ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
44 Film Reviews 4 Dear Reader
The Painted Bird 5 Your Voice Rebuilding Paradise 6 Church in the News Greyhound
47 Lighten Up 47 Pete & Repeat 48 Reflection
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dear reader Thank you, Dr. Patterson
PUBLISHER
A
s editors, we’re fortunate to work with a collective of talented writers, photographers, copy editors, and artists. Without their contributions, we wouldn’t have a magazine. I’d like to feature one in particular: Dr. Richard Patterson, who authored the “Catholics and Gun Control” article in this month’s issue. Dr. Patterson has been a contributor to St. Anthony Messenger for some years now. In his tenure with us, he has written about welcoming home veterans, selfforgiveness, moral injury, and wounded healers. As a clinical psychologist and trauma therapist, Dr. Patterson is uniquely positioned to tackle these very human issues. But it’s his voice that rings loudest with me. He doesn’t write with a judgmental pen. Dr. Patterson guides the reader into a shared experience. He recognizes, rightly, that we’re all broken in some measure. We just want healing. Dr. Patterson’s efforts have not gone unacknowledged. His January 2019 cover story for us, “The Death Penalty and the Myth of Closure,” tackled a thorny subject in a way that was holistic, hopeful, and very Franciscan. For that article, he won an award from the Catholic Press Association. You can see a complete list of winners on the back cover of this issue. Thank you, Dr. Patterson, for doing your part to heal a wounded world.
Daniel Kroger, OFM PRESIDENT
Kelly McCracken EXECUTIVE EDITORS
Christopher Heffron Susan Hines-Brigger
FRANCISCAN EDITOR
Pat McCloskey, OFM ART DIRECTOR
Mary Catherine Kozusko MANAGING EDITOR
Daniel Imwalle
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
Sandy Howison
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Sharon Lape
Christopher Heffron, Executive Editor
DIRECTOR OF ADVERTISING
Ray Taylor
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writer From Grief to Healing PAGE 20
Stephen Copeland is an Indiana native who now lives in Charlotte, North Carolina. He published his first book, Where the Colors Blend, about his journey from despair to a place of faith and hope. Like any good millennial, he juggles multiple jobs—coaching high school golf and pouring beer at a local brewery.
SANDY HOWISON
SUSAN KLEMOND
proofreader and copy editor
writer Casting a NET of Faith
Sandy has been a proofreader and copy editor for St. Anthony Messenger and Franciscan Media for over 37 years (mostly freelance). She’s also worked as an environmental specialist, yearbook advisor, and substitute teacher. She and her husband live in southwest Ohio, where they are frequently visited by their five children, two grandchildren, and five granddogs.
Susan Klemond, of St. Paul, Minnesota, finds inspiration in all things Catholic and looks for the best words to share her discoveries. Klemond’s articles have appeared in the National Catholic Register, the Catholic Spirit, St. Cloud Visitor, and other Catholic publications.
PAGE 30
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ST. ANTHONY MESSENGER (ISSN #0036276X) (U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 128, Number 3, is published 10 times per year for $39.00 a year by the Franciscan Friars of St. John the Baptist Province, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-6498. Phone 513-241-5615. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. US POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, PO Box 189, Congers, NY 10920-0189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8.
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POINTSOFVIEW | YOUR VOICE Feedback from a Recent Online Survey
On Our Points of View Columns (I’d Like to Say, At Home on Earth, Faith Unpacked, Editorial, and Faith & Family) • They frequently are eye-openers to things I never thought of before. • They really get me thinking. Sometimes I think, No, maybe I’ll come back to this later if I have time. But then I read the column and am always glad I did! • I like reading about how others feel and what they think about certain topics. I find it very comforting to see that I am not alone. • The columns are written by men and women who witness issues of importance within their families and who may not have all the answers. But, like members of most families, they are doing the best they can to listen, try to understand, be respectful, and work through personal or social issues that come up on a regular basis. • I would like to see more balance in this section. Consider providing two points of view on the same issue to show a diversity of thinking.
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St. Anthony Messenger is the most worthwhile piece of literature that crosses the threshold of our home! The June/July issue addresses real problems that teens and adults face in today’s digital age (“Discipleship in a Digital World: Faith. Hope. Connect.”). Though the issue presents the challenges that teens face in a direct, alarming way, it is so pertinent for parents, teachers, and adult relatives to read. Hoorah for St. Anthony Messenger, its writers, and publisher. I only wish more people would avail themselves of this most valuable magazine. Its contents are outstanding! Barbara Leeman, Monument, Colorado
And the Winner Is . . .
This past June, I was pleasantly surprised when I went to my mailbox and found a package waiting for me from the staff of St. Anthony Messenger magazine. I had almost forgotten that I sent you a caption for the Attention Wordsmiths caption contest from the June/July issue (on the picture of someone painting a pitcher of lemonade).
For many years, I have read your magazine and was always drawn to the Reflection page at the end of every issue. I was the principal of a number of Catholic grade schools in Wisconsin for 40 years, and I can remember taking that page out and posting it in the faculty lounges at the various schools I served. The quotes on the Reflection page gave many of the teachers and staff a meaningful message during their busy days. Thank you! The first thing that came to mind as I saw the picture for the caption contest was, “It’s what’s inside that counts.” My mind went back to my days as a principal, when I led the whole school in prayer every morning over the PA system. I composed a prayer that I used every day to try to keep all of us— myself, faculty, staff, and students—focused on what is important in our lives. The prayer goes like this: “With God’s help, I will hate no one today. I will respect everyone I meet today. May they see the spirit of Jesus in the cave of my heart, and may I see the spirit of Jesus in the cave of their hearts. Amen.” Thank you for choosing my caption for the contest, and thank you also for the book prize you sent. I appreciate your kindness. Peace and all good! Sister Paulyn Vanden Hogen, Manitowoc, Wisconsin
Hold Fox News Accountable
I’m writing in regard to the letter from Anthony Visconti in the May issue (“News Network Cast in Negative Light”). Mr. Visconti’s letter dealt with Sister Rose Pacatte’s review of the movie Bombshell, a film that explores the toxic work environment at Fox News. He objected to Sister Rose’s comments that Fox viewers were being instilled with fear and outrage. I, for one, and millions of others, actually do object to Fox News for their support of an administration that has immigrants caged and separated from their parents. That disregard for the stranger is a denial of a basic pro-life position. Jesus warns us that this type of denial goes against the beatitudes and other biblical teachings. There are too many Catholics who support fearmongering of “strangers” and yet believe themselves to be good Christians. Lucy Protosow, Mount Sinai, New York
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people | events | trends
ARCHDIOCESE RESPONDS TO SEXUAL MISCONDUCT CLAIMS AGAINST CATHOLIC COMPOSER
A women’s rights and health advocate leads a chant at a protest in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on March 25.
Catholic composer David Haas—shown here at a concert in the Philippines in 2016—has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct.
B
F
y a vote of 7–2, the US Supreme Court ruled on July 8 to uphold regulations by the Trump administration giving employers more ability to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage in their health plans, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the decision, stating that the administration had “the authority to provide exemptions from the regulatory contraceptive requirements for employers with religious and conscientious objections.” The case examined if the expansion of the conscience exemption from the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate violated the health care law and laws governing federal administrative agencies. It highlighted—as it has before when the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate has come before the high court—the Little Sisters of the Poor, the order of women religious who care for the elderly poor. Following the decision, Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski of Miami, chairman of the US bishops’ Committee for Religious Liberty, and Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City in Kansas, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities, issued a statement about the case stating: “This is a saga that did not need to occur. Contraception is not health care, and the government should never have mandated that employers provide it in the first place. Yet even after it had, there were multiple opportunities for government officials to do the right thing and exempt conscientious objectors. Time after time, administrators and attorneys refused to respect the rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the Catholic faith they exemplify, to operate in accordance with the truth about sex and the human person.”
ollowing further claims of sexual misconduct against Catholic hymn composer David Haas, the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis announced July 8 that Haas is not permitted to give presentations, workshops, or concerts at events hosted by Catholic entities in the archdiocese, and his music will no longer be used at archdiocesan events, reported CNS. Haas has denied the allegations. According to a press release from the archdiocese, the most recent allegations came after it was announced in June that it had received two reports from another diocese that Haas acted inappropriately with two adult women at an event in another state. Both women complained that Haas’ conduct made them feel uncomfortable. The archdiocese had received an earlier complaint, in 1987, that Haas had made unwanted sexual advances toward a young adult woman. This past May, Into Account, a nonprofit that supports abuse survivors, e-mailed Haas’ associates to notify them that Haas had been accused of “repeated, unethical abuse of the professional and spiritual power he has had in church music circles,” including sexual offenses. The following month, Haas’ music publisher, GIA Publications, announced that it had suspended its “sponsorship and publishing relationship” with the composer. Tim O’Malley, archdiocesan director of ministerial standards, said in a July 8 statement that the situation “illustrates the challenges of responding to allegations of inappropriate behavior by laypersons who work with Catholic groups, especially when they are self-employed. We are committed to supporting anyone who has been harmed by persons of
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CNS ILLUSTRATION/TODD HABIGER, THE LEAVEN
SUPREME COURT RULES ON EMPLOYER EXEMPTIONS TO CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE
By Susan Hines-Brigger
CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: TYLER ORSBURN; RIGHT: ITOPAO, CC BY-SA 4.0
church IN THE NEWS
influence, prominence, or power in our communities. At the same time, we recognize the importance of having a fair and appropriate forum that provides due process for those who have been accused. “However, the complaints about Haas are particularly concerning since they involve offenses against the dignity of the human person and are alleged to have occurred at Catholic events. We are committed to safe environments for all. We offer our support for those who have been harmed to come forward,” the statement noted.
VATICAN RELEASES GUIDE FOR HANDLING ABUSE CASES
CNS ILLUSTRATION/TODD HABIGER, THE LEAVEN
CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: TYLER ORSBURN; RIGHT: ITOPAO, CC BY-SA 4.0
T
he Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has published an instruction manual for bishops and religious superiors to consult when seeking the truth in cases of clerical sexual abuse of minors, reported Vatican News. The 17-page document, called the “Vademecum,” offers a step-by-step guide for how bishops, religious superiors, and canon lawyers are supposed to handle accusations of alleged abuse by clerics against minors. There is nothing new in the document, and it does not reflect any change to current Church law. It is meant to present clear and precise directions and procedures, as well as attitudes Church leaders should have toward victims, the accused, civil authorities, and the media. Cardinal Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, said the handbook came at the request of bishops and superiors of men’s and women’s religious orders “to have at their disposal a tool that could help them in the delicate task of correctly conducting cases regarding deacons, priests, and bishops when they are accused of the sexual abuse of minors.” The cardinal said the handbook is subject to future updates and will be adapted to any eventual developments of canon law as well as to “respond to new challenges that experience will offer to the juridical treatment of the cases in question.” Professor Myriam Wijlens, a canon lawyer and member of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, told Vatican News that the document “is a major step forward in the whole process.”
ANNUAL AUDIT SHOWS MORE THAN 4,400 ALLEGATIONS OF CLERGY ABUSE REPORTED
T
he US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Secretariat of Child and Youth Protection recently released its annual report on the implementation of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. According to the report, more than 4,400 allegations of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy were reported during the year ending June 30, 2019, an increase from the previous year. The increase, according to the report, is in part due to the additional allegations received as a result of lawsuits, compensation programs, and bankruptcies. The report was prepared by StoneBridge Business Partners, a specialty consulting firm headquartered in Rochester, New York, which provides forensic, internal, and compliance audit services to leading organizations nationwide. A survey on allegations conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) is also included as part of the report, which is available on the bishops’ website (usccb.org). In the preface of the report, Archbishop José Gómez, president of the US bishops’ conference, noted: “What this report shows, once more, is that the Church’s commitment to this vital work of safeguarding our children, youth, and vulnerable adults is working. On behalf of my brother bishops, I would like to extend my gratitude to the many priests, lay staff, volunteers, and consultants for their dedication to this effort. Again, I want to express the bishops’ deep sorrow for our past failures and the damage that was done to victims and their families. I pray that, together, through our continued efforts, we can continue working toward the goal of ending the scourge of child sexual abuse, not only in the Church but in the wider society.” Other notable findings in the report: • Thirty-seven allegations were made by current minors. Eight were substantiated, seven were unsubstantiated, six were unable to be proven, 12 were still under investigation, three were referred to religious orders, and one was referred to another diocese. • In 2019, over 2.6 million background checks were conducted on clergy, employees, and volunteers. In addition, in 2019, over 2.6 million adults and 3.6 million youth were trained on how to identify the warning signs of abuse and how to report those signs. • The Diocese of Oakland was found noncompliant with Article 13 for failure to evaluate the background of a visiting priest; the Ukrainian Archeparchy of Philadelphia was found noncompliant with Article 2 due to a nonfunctioning review board during the audit period; and the St. Thomas Syro-Malabar Catholic Diocese (Chicago) was found noncompliant with Article 2 due to a nonfunctioning review board. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 7
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people | events | trends
POPE BENEDICT’S BROTHER DIES
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n July 8, a funeral for Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, the brother of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, was held in the Regensburg Cathedral, reported CNS. Msgr. Ratzinger passed away on July 1 at the age of 96. Pope Benedict followed the Mass via live streaming, reported the German Catholic news agency KNA. Pope Benedict XVI greets his brother, A letter that the retired pope had written to his deceased Msgr. Georg Ratzinger, in 2009. brother was read at the ceremony by Archbishop Georg Gänswein, Benedict’s personal secretary. Remembering his “dear brother, Georg,” Pope Benedict wrote, “May God reward you for everything you have done, have suffered, and have given me.” In a letter dated July 2, Pope Francis told his predecessor that he was praying for his brother, hoping he would be rewarded in heaven for being among the “faithful servants of the Gospel. And I am also praying for you, Your Holiness,” he wrote. In June, Pope Benedict made a surprise visit to Germany to visit his ailing older brother.
INDIANA PRIEST SUSPENDED FOR DEROGATORY REMARKS ABOUT PROTESTERS
A
pastor in Carmel, Indiana, has been suspended from public ministry after he referred to Black Lives Matter protesters as “maggots and parasites” in a Sunday bulletin, reported CNS. Bishop Timothy L. Doherty of Lafayette, Indiana, announced the suspension in a July 1 statement. The statement noted that the bishop “expresses pastoral concern for the affected communities” and said that the suspension offers an opportunity for pastoral discernment “for the good of the diocese and for the good of Father [Theodore] Rothrock.” The article, which appeared on the website for St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel, has been removed and replaced with a “response and clarification” from the priest, saying it was not his intention “to offend anyone, and I am sorry that my words have caused any hurt to anyone.” The Indianapolis Star reported on June 30 that Father Rothrock had written in the bulletin regarding protesters
that “the only lives that matter are their own, and the only power they seek is their own,” referring to protesters and the recent unrest. “They are wolves in wolves’ clothing, masked thieves and bandits, seeking only to devour the life of the poor and profit from the fear of others. They are maggots and parasites at best, feeding off the isolation of addiction and broken families, and offering to replace any current frustration and anxiety with more misery and greater resentment.” Bishop Doherty said “various possibilities” for Father Rothrock’s continuation in public ministry are being considered, but that he would no longer serve as pastor at the church. An administrator has been appointed to tend to the parish.
CALIFORNIA MISSION GETS PAPAL UPGRADE
On July 15, 2020, Pope Francis elevated the Mission San Buenaventura—located in Ventura, California—to the rank of minor basilica.
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his past July, it was announced that Pope Francis has elevated the California Mission San Buenaventura, which was founded in 1782 by Franciscan St. Junipero Serra, to a minor basilica. The move, which was reported on the mission’s website, makes it the sixth minor basilica in the state of California, and the 88th in the United States. During a special Mass following the announcement, Los Angeles Archbishop José Gómez explained, “When the pope designates a basilica, it means this is holy ground, that something beautiful and important in the history of salvation happened here.” The designation is a recognition of the church’s importance in the pastoral life of the local Church, often because of its historical significance, its status as a shrine, or the presence of major relics of a saint or of a notably venerated sacred image. The Mission San Buenaventura was founded on Easter Sunday, March 31, 1782, by Junipero Serra. It was the ninth and last of the historic missions founded by the Franciscan saint.
CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: VATICAN MEDIA VIA KNA; RIGHT: KAMILO BUSTAMANTE/COURTESY ANGELUS NEWS
church IN THE NEWS
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CNS PHOTOS: LEFT: VATICAN MEDIA VIA KNA; RIGHT: KAMILO BUSTAMANTE/COURTESY ANGELUS NEWS
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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS | ASK A FRANCISCAN
By Pat McCloskey, OFM
Understanding Sins of Omission
I realize that I can sin by some action (for example, murder or theft), but I have never understood how someone can sin by inaction, by not doing something. How is that possible? es, sins of commission (such as the examples you cited) are pretty easy to recognize. A sin of omission can easily slip under a person’s radar because “That’s just the way life is” or “Nobody else took action in that situation.” On November 22 this year, the Gospel for Christ the King Sunday will be Matthew 25:31–46 (Jesus separating the sheep from the goats at the Last Judgment). Those condemned (the goats) are not identified by deliberate actions against people who are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick, or in prison. Instead, those who are condemned have only one thing in common: one or more sins of omission, a failure to recognize women, men, and children in great need as people also loved by God and intended to share eternal life with God. If that story were longer, we might hear the condemned people asking: “Who knew they mattered?,” “Everybody suffers at some time,” or “Life is always rough.” The prophet Amos denounces the Israelites who reclined on ivory couches, ate well, “but are not made ill by the collapse of Joseph” (6:6b). The prophet Isaiah speaks for God in saying, “Trample my courts no more! To bring offerings is useless. . . . Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow” (1:13a, 17b). In the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus read from Isaiah 61:1 about bringing glad tidings to the poor, proclaiming liberty to captives, and bringing recovery of sight to the blind and release to prisoners. The rich man in Luke 16:19–31 was not deliberately cruel to Lazarus, but he ignored a very needy man at his gate. James 2:14–16 tells us that responding to a hungry person needing clothes by saying, “Goodbye and good luck! Keep warm and well fed,” while making no attempt to address those needs indicates a lifeless faith. The overall sin in all these examples—and Scripture offers many more—is deliberately making invisible someone in great need. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
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What Is the Kingdom of God?
Please explain in simple language the concept of the kingdom of God. hat Jesus means by the expression the kingdom of God is accepting God’s values as trustworthy and enough, not needing any “improvements,” as we often describe them. Unfortunately, many of Jesus’ critics during his lifetime were like the Statler and Waldorf characters in The Muppets, the two grumpy old men who sit in the balcony and freely offer critiques about everyone else’s work. Those critics live on today. C.S. Lewis once observed that some people would rather be Jesus’ critics than his disciples. Accepting the kingdom of God means being wide open to God’s grace, being content with any place at the heavenly banquet, and rejoicing
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Pat McCloskey, OFM
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in whoever is across from me or next to me. When the kingdom of God has taken deep root in a person’s life, there is no sense of “If only I had X, then my life would be complete.” God is enough for those who accept God’s values and the kingdom that these promote.
Who Wrote the Gospel of John?
I was surprised to read in an earlier “Ask” column that John the Apostle did not write the Gospel of John. Who did? e are not entirely sure. First, I should point out that only around the year AD 125 were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John first identified by Papias as the authors of the Gospels. Some Gospels presumed to be written by other prominent Christians were not accepted into the Bible—the Gospel of Thomas, for example. A distinct Johannine community of faith is linked to the Gospel of John. In the New Jerusalem Bible Commentary, scholar Pheme Perkins writes, “[T]he importance of the community’s history of faith in shaping the Johannine tradition makes preoccupation with a single Johannine author inappropriate today.” We are naturally curious about many questions that the Bible does not answer definitively. Are we sufficiently ready to accept the answers it offers about how we are to live, as well as how we see ourselves, God, and other people?
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How Is a Pope Elected?
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nce a pope dies or resigns, all the cardinals come to Rome, if they can travel. Then they meet for several days in general congregations, discussing their views on the current needs of the Church and collectively making decisions about the upcoming papal funeral (if there will be one) and the conclave. The dean of the College of Cardinals leads these meetings that are held twice a day over a week or so. Cardinals over the age of 80 may participate. Only cardinals under the age of 80 can enter the conclave and vote. A twothirds majority is needed, but a pope can decline his election. Each pope can modify the rules about the election of his successors. To date, Pope Francis has not done that. At the conclaves in 2005 and 2013, cardinals lived in the Domus Sanctae Marthae inside the Vatican—without access to outside media.
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When a pope is elected, ballots are burned with a chemical to produce white smoke. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 11
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SPIRITOFST.FRANCIS “Live so as not to fear death. For those who live well in the world, death is not frightening, but sweet and precious.”
—St. Rose of Viterbo
FRANCISCAN WORLD
By Pat McCloskey, OFM
House of Bernard of Quintavalle
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AT THE AGE OF 15, Rose of Viterbo (1233–1251) tried and failed to establish a women’s religious community. Viterbo was one of the cities where medieval popes had a summer residence to escape malaria in Rome. When Rose and her family sided with the pope during a city conflict, they were exiled. A Secular Franciscan, she was very prayerful, penitential, and generous with poor people—all from her family home. She was canonized in 1457. Her feast is September 4. —Pat McCloskey, OFM
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ST. ANTHONY STORIES
Prayers Answered during Quarantine
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always seem to be losing things—especially earrings—and St. Anthony has always helped me find them. Six years ago, I lost a special lucky charm necklace my grandchildren got me for Christmas. I searched everywhere with no luck and continuously prayed to St. Anthony. With the coronavirus pandemic and quarantine going on, my granddaughter convinced me to clean out my closet, which I had been putting off for quite a while. I was ready to take some jackets to Goodwill when my daughter stopped by. She asked if she could have one of the jackets I was going to donate. When she got home, she noticed something on the floor that fell out of the jacket and realized it was my long-lost necklace. It took a while, but St. Anthony once again answered my prayers. —Susan Bradfield, Altoona, Pennsylvania
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PHOTO COURTESY FATHER MARTIN HARUN
She always made a place in her life for God’s grace, which never failed her.
LEFT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; TOP RIGHT: MC KOZUSKO/SAM; BOTTOM RIGHT: ANDREY POPOV/FOTOSEARCH
ROSE OF VITERBO
veryone in Assisi took notice when Francesco Bernardone renounced his inheritance and his future as a merchant, right? Wrong. The decision by Bernard of Quintavalle, a member of the nobility, to join Francis’ brotherhood probably attracted much more attention because it was a clearer challenge to the status quo in Assisi. According to The Legend of the Three Companions (27–29), two years after Francis’ conversion, Bernard of Quintavalle admired Francis’ work in restoring churches and the austerity of his life. Bernard invited Francis to dinner at his home. Bernard said he was ready to give up all his possessions and live the Gospel as Francis did. Francis, Bernard, and Peter Catanii went one day to the Church of San Nicolo and opened its Book of the Gospels three times. The passages were Mark 10:21 (sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor), Luke 9:3 (take nothing for your journey), and Matthew 16:24 (deny yourself if you wish to follow me). Bernard’s house (pictured on the right)is on a Bernard—a canon and civil lawyer—joined Francis in 1208, traveled with him to street that bears his name. Spain, served as the provincial minister there, and died in Italy in 1241.
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FOLLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS
ST. ANTHONY
‘Brotherhood with All Creation’
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PHOTO COURTESY FATHER MARTIN HARUN
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duced him to St. Francis of Kristoforus Pudiharjo, OFM Assisi. During postulancy in Central Java, Brother Pudi grew corn in a community garden that had been seen as too dry to yield any crops. He continued to get his hands dirty during novitiate in West Java, where he studied with Father Agatho Elsener, a Swiss Capuchin who ran an organic garden there. Since 2010, Brother Pudi has been tending the teaching farm on the northern slope of the Gede Volcano in West Java. His visitors include students from nearby Muslim boarding schools; he has helped 14 schools develop natural fertilizers and high-quality seeds, getting better prices for their produce. “Working together to restore our common home is an excellent means of interreligious dialogue,” says Brother Pudi, noting that Christians and Muslims share a desire to protect the environment. Brother Pudi also visits farmers to help them determine which plants are best suited for their land and which biomass can be used for fertilizer. His newest endeavors include using social media to pioneer digital smart farming and growing organic coffee beans. For Brother Pudi, working the land stems from the Franciscan values that attracted him to the order. “Organic farming is indeed a spirituality,” he says. “All beings are accepted as brothers and sisters, allowed to live together and work together.” That includes not only doves, rabbits, and deer, but also the less lovable creatures like Brother Snake and Sister Ferret. “Coarse grass [and] rats have a role to play in this collaborating community of creatures,” he says. “That is what I learn from Francis.” —Patricia Mish
FRANK JASPER, OFM
im to
t. Francis of Assisi is often depicted bathed in sunlight, holding a white dove, and surrounded by adorable forest creatures such as deer, sheep, and rabbits. These images beautifully portray Francis’ love of all creation, but it’s likely his day-to-day reality was more like that of Franciscan Brother Kristoforus Pudiharjo, OFM. A leading proponent of organic farming in Indonesia, Brother Pudiharjo is often seen wearing rubber boots and muddy work clothes. He tends a 6-acre plot that has become a teaching farm where he shares his knowledge of organic methods with farmers, students, and other visitors— Christian and Muslim alike. “Many people stop by to learn something,” says Brother “Pudi,” as he is known in the region. “They’re either farmers whose land has already been devastated by chemicals or whose businesses went broke because of the high costs of superior seeds, chemical fertilizers, and pesticides.” Brother Pudi teaches them how to process organic fertilizers from biomass such as grass and crop residues. He offers them a healthy, cheap alternative to pesticides, encouraging them to “combine forces with existing predators such as snakes, ferrets, cats, and owls.” On the densely populated island of Java, many farms are controlled by corporations that sell costly seeds, pesticides, and fertilizers, he says. “[The farmers] suffer from constant debts. Organic farming is a way to free them from these shackles, restore their land, and get better and healthier products.” Born and raised in a rural area in Central Java, Brother Pudi studied social communication and worked for the government in the capital city of Jakarta as a young adult. He joined the Franciscans at age 36 in 1994, after he met a Javanese Franciscan who intro-
BREAD s
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:
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mAil poStAl communicAtionS to:
St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498
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StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 13
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POINTSOFVIEW | I’D LIKE TO SAY
By Patrick Carolan
Patrick Carolan
CatholicClimateMovement.global
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COVID-19 Can Lead Us to a Better World
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y good friend and former pastor Father Tom Lynch would often say, “Life turns on a dime.” He was generally saying this in reference to Matthew 24:42: “Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Father Tom talked about how your life could be humming along, most things going smoothly, when something happens—a death, illness, loss of job, anything—and your life is turned upside down. We have all experienced positive and negative events that have changed us. Two years ago, while I was working in Washington, DC, my wife received a phone call from the Savannah, Georgia, police telling us that our son had been shot and was in critical condition in a hospital. Thankfully, my son survived, but our lives were changed. How we react to these life-changing events defines who we are. This is true not only for us as individuals but also for society as a whole. As a result of the COVID-19 crisis, our world has been turned upside down. Everything has changed. We now use terms like “shelter in place,” and we practice social distancing. Stores ration hard-to-find items. Parents have learned how to be teachers. Children have virtual birthday parties, weddings are canceled, and we are forced to remotely mourn our loved ones who have passed. Previously, I traveled across the country on a bus going from state to state as part of Vote Common Good. Now we organize online events. Our lives have indeed turned on a dime.
WHAT IS NORMAL?
As we spend more time socially distanced, we hear people say they cannot wait for things to get back to normal. But what exactly is normal? For many of us, it is working, having friends over, maybe going out for dinner or a movie. We might regularly attend church or volunteer at a food pantry. Normal means settling into a comfortable routine not really affected by the suffering of the poor and marginalized. But for many others it is a different story. For young black men like my son, “normal” is frequently being pulled over for driving while black and fearing that they may be shot. For women, “normal” often means making less money than men for doing the same work and being sexually harassed or assaulted. For some immigrants, it means fleeing violence and death in your country only to have your children taken away from you at the US border. For schoolchildren, “normal” is having drills in case an active shooter should come to their school. “Normal” is giving tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting programs to feed the poor. It is the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, where the wealthy can spend a million dollars on a car and poor families are trying to make sure there’s enough food on the table and praying that no one gets sick because they cannot afford health care. “Normal” is 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty and 10,000 children dying from hunger every day. It is ignoring the
UPPER LEFT: COURTESY PATRICK CAROLAN; TOP: IQONCEPT/FOTOSEARCH
Patrick previously served as executive director of the Franciscan Action Network. He is also a cofounder of the Global Catholic Climate Movement. He currently serves as director of Catholic outreach for Vote Common Good. He is a recipient of the 2015 White House Champions of Change Award and is personally dedicated to social justice through individual and societal transformation.
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damage we are doing to God’s wondrous and beautiful creation while nearly 2,000 different species go extinct every year. Is this really the normal we want?
UPPER LEFT: COURTESY PATRICK CAROLAN; TOP: IQONCEPT/FOTOSEARCH
COME TOGETHER
Do we want to go back to the same “normal” of inequality, discrimination, and separation? Or do we follow Pope Francis and work to do better?
If there’s one lesson we have learned from the current pandemic, it is that we are all connected to each other. What happens to one of us affects all of us. I believe this is the message that Jesus is teaching us in Matthew 25:40: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.” Jesus’ early followers understood this. In the first days of the Church, disciples “devoted themselves to . . . communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. . . . All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” (Acts 2:42, 45). Their vision was not of a Jesus who died on the cross so an avenging God might forgive a sin that was committed thousands of years ago. Rather, as Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan write in The Last Week: “His protest was against a domination system legitimated in the name of God, a domination system radically different from what the already present and coming kingdom of God, the dream of God, would be like.” We know that this ideal community didn’t last long. We hold on to this vision, hoping that it may again be realized. Someday we might do as Jesus told us in Mark 8:34: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny [themselves], take up [their] cross, and follow me.” Instead, we have built a theology around separation and individualism, where we are here only for the sole purpose of “getting to heaven.” Something is good only if it serves the purpose of getting us to heaven. Instead of taking up the cross as Jesus told us to, we created a theology around worshipping the cross. This theology is called substitutionary atonement—the idea that the cross was necessary and required as an atonement for original sin. In his Easter message, Pope Francis said, “I hope that this time of danger will free us from operating on automatic pilot, shake our sleepy consciences, and allow a humanist and ecological conversion that puts an end to the idolatry of money and places human life and dignity at the center.” COVID-19 has demonstrated the power of our collective will when we agree on what is important. Pope Francis encouraged political leaders to “work actively for the common good.” St. Francis viewed the earth and all nature as God’s creation, a place of continual incarnation. St. Bonaventure tells us that how we choose and what we choose make a difference—first in what we become by our choices and second in what the world becomes by those same choices.
CHOOSE WISELY
At some point, this crisis will end. A vaccine will be developed; the shelter-inplace and the safe distancing measures will be lifted. Then we will have a choice: Do we want to go back to the same “normal” of inequality, discrimination, and separation? Or do we follow Pope Francis and work to do better? We can come through this with a better appreciation of all of God’s creation. We can choose to live simply and full of gratitude as St. Francis taught us. Knowing how fragile life is, we can live more intentionally. We have the opportunity to come together with God to create a new normal, one based on the interconnectedness of all creation. But first we must rethink who we are. We need to change our paradigm; as Mark says simply, “No one pours new wine into old wineskins” (2:22). But if we are to create a new normal, we must first throw away our theology of substitutionary atonement, a theology that Jesus was born because God demanded a sacrifice, a theology of separation. We need to reclaim the theology and message of Jesus, a message of peace, hope, and love—a message that, together with God and all creation, we can build a new creation, a heaven on earth.
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OUR MISSION is to spread the Gospel in the spirit of St. Francis in ever-widening circles through new media. With joy and with purpose, we seek to follow in the footsteps of our founder and share the grace of our loving God. We are blessed to join with generous partners like you to grow our circle of friends and multiply our efforts. Your gift will support critical new initiatives that share powerful messages of hope, inspiration, and purpose for our lives. For more information please contact Ray Taylor at:
(614) 495-7378 or RTaylor@FranciscanMedia.org StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 15
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POINTSOFVIEW | AT HOME ON EARTH
By Kyle Kramer
Stop. Listen. Learn.
EarthandSpiritCenter.org
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arlier this year, I adopted a “sit-spotting” nature meditation practice, which I wish I’d started doing a long time ago. Every other morning, before dawn, I hike back into the forest behind our rural home, to a secluded spot where a spring-fed stream tumbles down layers of exposed limestone. I sit there for about half an hour, watching a small stretch of the stream and listening to the sounds of the water and the woodland. I journal for a bit, then I hike back home. Even though—or maybe because—I take the same route every time and sit in the same spot along the stream, I encounter something new every single outing. It never ceases to amaze me how all the trees, water striders, crawdads, turtles, salamanders, deer, raccoons, and other creatures I see on these ventures know exactly how to live in their place. They need essentially nothing from me, save that I leave them and their woods in peace. As these months of the coronavirus pandemic have unfolded and shown us how vulnerable human life and human society really are, I feel that I have a lot to learn from these welladapted fellow earth dwellers. LESSONS FROM THE PAST
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Lately, like most of us, I’ve been preoccupied by our country’s renewed reckoning with our sinful history of slavery and racism. I find myself thinking back to the early centuries of European colonization of the Americas.
Whatever romantic stories we may tell ourselves about the colonial period, it’s undeniable that Europeans came here for bareknuckled economic reasons: to extract wealth from the land for investors back in Europe. When the founders of Jamestown, the first permanent European settlement, arrived in 1607, they encountered the indigenous Powhatan tribes and an economy that was utterly different than what they knew from England—totally opposed to the profitdriven directives they had from the Virginia Company that had sent them. They could not or would not learn from or emulate the Powhatan ways of subsistence in that land. Within a short while, the colonists who were not yet dead were sick and starving, and were soon at odds not only with the land, but with the Powhatan as well. “Why,” Chief Powhatan reportedly asked the English colonial leader Captain John Smith, “should you take by force that from us which you can have by love? Why should you destroy us, who have provided you with food? What can you get by war?” We know the rest of the story: The colonists chose war. Through enslavement, violence, and disease, the colonists committed genocide against the indigenous Americans. Alongside those atrocities, colonists soon began to import Africans to supply slave labor for their agricultural economy. And, of course, in order to do all this, they had to convince
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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.
LEFT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; RIGHT: JAMES WHEELER/FOTOSEARCH
Kyle Kramer
themselves that the Native Americans and Africans were not fully and equally human. Although our country has made much progress, these original sins and this deep collective trauma are still playing out.
FREELANCE BOB/FOTOSEARCH
LEFT: COURTESY OF KYLE KRAMER; RIGHT: JAMES WHEELER/FOTOSEARCH
IN SEARCH OF SOLUTIONS
As I’ve pondered the difficult history of our country since its colonization, I find myself thinking that the fundamental cause of our struggles—that we could not or would not learn how to live here in a sustainable way, choosing instead profit and the exploitation of land and people—is actually still very much true. Unless we also address that core economic problem, I suspect we’ll just keep repeating the cycle of exploitation and violence, only with new victims, including the land itself, which has been a victim since the first Europeans arrived. So, as if healing past and current wounds of racism weren’t challenging enough, we also have to create a sustainable economy at the same time because addressing one without the other will leave the root of exploitation and violence undisturbed, ready to grow new shoots. If there’s any good news, though, I think it’s this: Since these challenges are so interconnected, it’s likely that they may share a solution too. We pragmatic Americans tend to rush to solutions-based thinking, and there is clearly much we can and should do right now. But if I’ve learned anything from these months of sitting idly by a woodland stream, it’s the crucial importance of deep, sustained, and open-hearted listening and watching. “Learn,” encouraged Jesus in his sermon on the mount, “from the way the wildflowers grow.” I’d like to think we can read that not only as a metaphorical point about faith and trust, but also quite literally: The wildflowers and all of the other inhabitants of the land can be our teachers for how to live peaceably in our places if we but humble ourselves enough to listen. Had the first colonists been able to truly listen to and learn from the land and its native peoples, who knew how to live with it sustainably, so much misery and conflict could have been avoided. I believe that the same attitude of patient listening and learning can also be a first step for white people who want to understand racism and the experience of people of color in this country. It’s true that much healing work needs to be done in terms of racial equity, but if white people jump to quick solutions without grounding such action in genuine listening, the attempt to “solve” racial challenges will almost surely take on a similar kind of destructiveness that the early colonists inflicted on indigenous peoples and the land itself. But if all of us, from all racial backgrounds, learn to listen and listen to learn, whatever actions we end up taking will stand a much better chance of actually being helpful. And maybe then we truly could, together, foster a beloved community with God’s creation and all of its diverse, beautiful peoples.
HELPFUL
TIPS1
OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN
In addition to the “sit-spotting” I describe in this column, another great nature meditation is shinrin-yoku, the Japanese practice of “bathing,” or taking in the atmosphere of a forest during a leisurely walk.
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One helpful exercise for racial healing is to start recognizing what advantages white people tend to have in American society, compared to people of color. This learning can happen through direct conversation with people of color and also from reading books such as I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness, by Austin Channing Brown.
StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 17
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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH UNPACKED
By David Dault, PhD
Embracing Our Imperfections
David hosts the weekly radio show Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith. He also cohosts The Francis Effect podcast with Father Dan Horan, OFM. He lives with his family on the South Side of Chicago.
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MORE THAN JUST A STRAND
This unexpected turn of emotions has caused me to move a bit more carefully in the world. I used to just go about fixing things in my life because I thought that was what I was supposed to do. Now, instead, I take a moment to imagine before I act. I think about what I might feel like if that little imperfection was suddenly gone from the universe. Will I feel more complete or like something has been lost? It might sound funny, but this little moment with my beloved grey sweater has made me more careful about being a parent. As you may know, there is a really strong internal voice that grabs hold of you as a parent and pushes you to want to “fix” things in your children. Whether it’s a particular behav-
ior, how your child chews food at the table, or some aspect of the way he or she dresses, it becomes very easy to focus on the little strand in the weave and try to pluck it out. Ten years into being a dad, with the teenage years on the horizon, I am rethinking this strand-pulling strategy. I realize that, to really love my children, I cannot simply love their put-together, well-behaved, cosmetically appealing aspects. I have to love all of them. That means loving them in their moments of failure and their imperfections. I need to love them as they are, where they are. I know this because, as I learned with that little strand in my sweater, when I am too zealous in rooting out the little imperfections in my kids, I discover—after they have been “fixed”—that I end up feeling worse, not better. I feel as if something that made the world fuller is missing. MORE THAN OUR FLAWS
I still love my sweater, but I was too zealous to make it “perfect” and in the process it lost something that made it mine. God, to me, is a mystery, but in my better moments, I feel fairly sure that God loves us in the way I am trying to love my sweater, and the way I love my kids. That is to say, I think God looks at us and sees the beauty of who we are, and that beauty is not a result of our being perfect. It’s a result of our being a whole, unique mess—the good and the bad together. God delights in our discolored strands. I am learning to do the same.
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CNS PHOTO: DAVE HRBACEK/THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
David Dault, PhD
ast year, I got a sweater from my wife as a birthday gift. It’s a simple grey sweater made of a linen blend, and I immediately fell in love with it. When it got cold, it became my go-to sweater to ride out the bitter Chicago winter. Something to know about linen is that it is a somewhat coarse material. Garments woven from linen are earthy, and they contain minor imperfections. In my case, my sweater has a few off-color strands of plant material at various points along the weave. One of these off-color strands sat about mid-chest, and I saw it whenever I looked down. For a few weeks, I just took it for granted. But then one day, I was sitting in a meeting, and I reached down and gave the strand a little tug. The thread pulled free from the sweater, and voilà, the imperfection was gone. But the strangest thing happened. Just as soon as the strand was free from the sweater, I suddenly realized I missed it. Yes, I had “improved” the sweater by removing the imperfection, but in the process I had made the sweater a little more like every other sweater in the world. More than this, I quickly realized that there was no way to put the little strand back. My attempt to “fix” the sweater was a one-way ticket that could not be undone. And I had to admit, that made me sad.
FAR LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICAGO SUNDAY EVENING CLUB/KHIEM TRAN; FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: TOP LEFT: LISAFX; TOP RIGHT: PERFECTLAZYBONES
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POINTSOFVIEW | EDITORIAL
By Susan Hines-Brigger
Be Pro-life. Wear a Mask. hen the majority of people hear the term pro-life, they immediately equate it with the issue of abortion—full stop. The reality, though, is that the pro-life issue is much broader than that. Saints, popes, and the US bishops have all addressed the issue and said so. These days, as we face down the challenges of COVID-19, we have to adjust our way of thinking and living. What being pro-life looks like right now is taking precautions to protect those who are most vulner“Do to others able. And one of the easiest whatever you ways to do that is by wearing would have a mask. them do to you.” Yet doing something so —Matthew 7:12 simple and selfless has somehow turned into a hot-button political issue with people crying out that being asked to wear a mask is infringing on their civil rights. But what about human rights, such as a person’s right to life? Isn’t that the tagline of the pro-life movement? It’s time for us to move from a me-centric view to a more we-centric one. JUST THE FACTS
CNS PHOTO: DAVE HRBACEK/THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT
FAR LEFT: PHOTO COURTESY OF CHICAGO SUNDAY EVENING CLUB/KHIEM TRAN; FOTOSEARCH IMAGES: TOP LEFT: LISAFX; TOP RIGHT: PERFECTLAZYBONES
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Many people who choose not to wear masks cite reports from early on in the crisis when the World Health Organization, the US surgeon general, and others questioned the effectiveness of masks. Those organizations have since reversed their stances, based on new information. According to an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) “reviewed the latest science and affirms that cloth face coverings are a critical tool in the fight against COVID19 that could reduce the spread of the disease, particularly when used universally within communities. There is increasing evidence that cloth face coverings help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others.” Director of the CDC, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, explained: “We are not defenseless against COVID-19. Cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus—particularly when used universally within a community setting. All Americans have a responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their communities.” We are in unprecedented times and uncharted territory, so we all must allow for some flexibility to learn about the virus and, if necessary, change course. And we must similarly
adapt our roles for the health and safety of all. Right now, that means wearing masks to protect ourselves and others. CALL TO ACTION
In 1971, Roman Catholic pacifist Eileen Egan introduced the “seamless garment” concept as a way to describe a holistic reverence for life in all its stages, incorporating issues such as unjust war, capital punishment, social injustice, and other issues that affect people’s lives. “The protection of life,” she said, “is a seamless garment. You can’t protect some life and not others.” In that same vein, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin often spoke of the “consistent ethic of life.” The issues were individual, he noted, but at the heart of them all was valuing and defending human life. “When human life is considered ‘cheap’ or easily expendable in one area,” he once told a group, “eventually nothing is held as sacred and all lives are in jeopardy.” Even St. John Paul II alluded to this idea in his 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Culture of Life”) when he wrote: “Therefore every threat to human dignity and life must necessarily be felt in the Church’s very heart. Today this proclamation is especially pressing because of the extraordinary increase and gravity of threats to the life of individuals and peoples, especially where life is weak and defenseless. In addition to the ancient scourges of poverty, hunger, endemic diseases, violence, and war, new threats are emerging on an alarmingly vast scale.” Certainly protection of vulnerable people during a pandemic would fit into those philosophies. AN ACT OF LOVE
Do you remember the old acronym WWJD—What Would Jesus Do?—that was so popular in the ’90s? Well, if we asked ourselves that question right now given our current situation, I’m pretty sure the answer would be that Jesus would wear a mask and tell his followers to do so, too, because it’s the loving thing to do. Being pro-life can manifest itself in many different ways, and those ways can change as new situations arise. Now, amid a devastating worldwide pandemic, that means wearing a mask to protect our brothers and sisters. It’s the right thing to do. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 19
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From Grief to H
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o Healing
Pediatric cancer is no longer a death sentence. But for the parents of children who have lost their battle, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital provides a program for processing their grief.
By Stephen Copeland
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (2)
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n August of 2006, Wendy Avery returned to her Ohio home, feeling as if she was trying to jump back onto a spinning merrygo-round. For an entire year, her world had stopped, but everyone else’s kept spinning. How does one simply hop back on? How does one rejoin the dance when the music has been muted? In December 2005, she and her family had been thrown off the merry-go-round with full force when their youngest child, Nick, was diagnosed with leukemia at 14. With her husband’s support, Avery made her home in Memphis, Tennessee, 12 hours away, to be with her son as he fought for his life at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Avery leaned on the St. Jude community of people who understood the horrors and complexities of cancer. She says that she also leaned on God during that time and consistently felt his presence. Once, after bursting into tears upon seeing a pile of Nick’s clothes, she heard an audible voice confidently say to her, “Wait and see what I will do.” Everything had led to this moment, she felt, where God was going to miraculously heal her son and author a story that would lead others to Christ. The family’s previous vacation had included a visit to the hospital, where they had been impressed by its positive culture, infrastructure, and especially the people. Avery remembers Nick innocently and shockingly saying, “If I ever get cancer, this is where I want to go.” Six months later, he was diagnosed with leukemia. The first Day of Remembrance was approved by St. Jude Hospital in 1999. It eventually led to a full program of care for bereaved parents, which has become a model for other hospitals worldwide.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (2)
It was science that brought the cure rate up to 50 percent in a half decade, and that Nick quickly went into remission, and Avery felt that God’s plan of healing was in motion. rate continued to improve. Today the surBut just two and a half months after he vival rate for pediatric leukemia is 94 percent. completed chemotherapy, Nick relapsed and The survival rate for all pediatric cancer at St. returned to St. Jude for further treatment. Jude is 80 percent. Four days after returning to the hospital, he Science made St. Jude a world leader in suffered a sudden and unexpected brain bleed. pediatric oncology. It also created space for After emergency brain surgery, he was admitthe hospital to eventually shift its focus to ted to the ICU. further developing its patient-care compoNow Avery felt that her prayers were met by nent, including spiritual and palliative care. silence, and her presence was met by absence. In 1999, Powell’s idea for the Day of She felt God had betrayed her. Remembrance was approved. St. Jude venNick died that same month. tured into the complicated space of grief Avery returned home to a merry-go-round and loss. Powell calls this complex space of that had not stopped spinning—to someimmense suffering “spiritual distress”— how find the strength to bury her son, grieve, where there is a “broken connection in and move forward while everyone else’s life relation to one’s personal life and the Holy carried on normally. She felt lost. Other,” someone’s perception of Nick Avery in the spring of 2006 At St. Jude, she had at least been God, life, or ultimate reality. When surrounded by families who were there is a trauma, it is only natural going through something similar. to try to assign meaning to it. Avery But now she felt disconnected from that community as well. experienced spiritual distress whenever she was forced to “There was no bereavement care for families, if you can confront the reality that what she had perceived to be God’s believe that, even at St. Jude,” Avery says. “So I went back plan had brought her to a dead end of divine absence. home to Ohio, and I was trying to figure things out myself.” “There are two types of suffering most commonly associHowever, St. Jude did have an annual Day of Rememated with spiritual distress,” Powell says. “One is more exisbrance for bereaved parents to gather, celebrate their tential, and it’s called spiritual seeking. Those are big queschildren’s lives in the very place they had ended, and connect tions like: ‘Why does God allow suffering? Why does God with others who had endured similar traumas. Avery and her allow children to die?’ The second type of spiritual distress is family attended in 2007 and again in 2008. And it was there, more personalized. It creates this relentless rumination about meaning. So, if you’re one of these people who believes that in her second year attending, that Wendy Avery met Brent everything happens for a reason, there has to be a reason Powell. associated with your child’s illness and potentially your SCIENCE AND PATIENT CARE child’s death. It makes you wonder why God is allowing this When St. Jude chaplain Brent Powell first pitched his idea for to happen to your family. I had a mother the other day say to a Day of Remembrance back in the 1990s, he, like practically me, ‘Why does God hate me so bad?’ She just had a second everyone else ahead of his time, was met by resistance. child diagnosed with cancer.” The slogan at St. Jude is “finding cures, saving children.” Without a safe space to process these raw questions, where But Powell’s idea had nothing to do with either of these. In could parents turn? When Avery shook Powell’s hand that fact, it was the opposite: creating a space for parents and day in 2008, that was the beginning of another beginning— guardians whose children could not be cured. when St. Jude went from leading the charge on the frontiers The weight of trauma, death, and grief has always been of science to also leading the charge on the frontiers of the difficult to address, but developing programs around these soul when science fell short. impossible issues was an even more countercultural idea at the time. Why invest in something focused on the messiness HUMAN CONNECTION of grief? The cautiousness of hospitals to create a space for bereaved St. Jude has always had two major components—science parents reflected fear, confusion, and hesitancy. Justin Baker, and patient care—but the former had to evolve more quickly chief of the Division of Quality of Life and Palliative Care because of pediatric cancer’s dismal survival rate. At the at St. Jude, has seen this firsthand. “People are so afraid to time of the hospital’s founding in 1962, pediatric cancer was address that level of potential suffering that it’s just so much essentially a death sentence. The survival rate for leukemia, easier for us, as a society, to plow ahead, put our heads down, the most common form of pediatric cancer, was 4 percent. avoid them in the grocery store, and turn the other direcThe name of the hospital is fitting: St. Jude is the patron tion,” he says. “So there is this notion of, ‘Don’t bring up their saint of desperate situations and lost causes. pain; these people have already suffered enough.’ This con-
PHOTO COURTESY OF AVERY FAMILY ALBUM
GOD’S PLAN
PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (2)
PHOTO COURTESY OF AVERY FAMILY ALBUM
A bereaved parent herself, Wendy Avery was a key resource for St. Jude’s bereavement program.
Justin Baker is chief of the Division of Quality of Life and Palliative Care at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. His mission is to make sure parents who have lost a child are not forgotten.
clusion was really out of a good place, but it was frankly an ignorant place.” The annual Day of Remembrance was a good start, but more needed to be done for bereaved parents. Powell knew it. Baker knew it. Avery knew it. A parent advisory council was formed in 2009 to obtain feedback for developing more focused levels of palliative care. Despite the heaviness of her own pain, Avery agreed to be a part of the council with several other bereaved parents. That group spurred the creation of a specific bereavement program at St. Jude. For a year and a half, Avery made presentations to different departments within St. Jude to raise awareness of this void in palliative care. One morning in 2010, she walked into a boardroom to present the appeal to the four most powerful people at St. Jude, including the CEO at the time, Bill Evans, and the current CEO, James Downing. Afterward, Avery remembers Evans responding, “It seems like we need to make this a priority.” A quality-of-life program now serves families wrestling with the trauma of finality and saying goodbye. Parents like Avery reach out to other parents who have lost a child. For four months in a row, grieving parents receive a call from a fellow parent in the program, helping them return to the merry-go-round of life. If they want a mentor, they are introduced to someone in St. Jude’s mentor program. If they want resources, they are con-
nected with resources in their hometown. In the past decade, St. Jude’s program has become a model for other hospitals around the country and around the world. St. Jude relies on bereaved parents for their educational programming and recently hosted an international symposium to help other hospitals and organizations ensure that
bereaved families aren’t forgotten in the race to find cures and save lives. “No institution has parents integrated into its programming the way that St. Jude does,” Baker says. Christine and Kevin O’Brien lost their daughter, Catie, to a rare form of cancer in 2009. The couple struggled to talk about the grief and trauma their family endured. But when they
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dimensional clock that is broken into pieces. His patient said that his bone-marrow transplant experience “shattered his perception of time.” The image captures suffering and grief—the space in which Powell, Baker, and Avery all serve—where time does not heal and never has. “I recently began to make the connection between my love of photography and what I do as a chaplain,” Powell says. “What I do as a chaplain is locate light. Sometimes that light is wearing scrubs. Sometimes it’s the cashier in the cafeteria. It’s a child’s face. It’s a mother’s tears. But if you think about the concept of incarnation, it becomes the light of God present in the moment.” Next to the sketch of the broken clock in Powell’s office is a wooden art piece featuring a painting of St. Francis surrounded by nature’s symbols, Brother Sun and Sister Moon. Francis, with his arms open, stands upon text that reads: “Make me an instrument of your peace.” This was another gift from a patient back in 1990, days after Powell’s sister was killed when her car was hit by an 18-wheeler. Powell was used to coming to work each day at St. Jude to take care of
COPING AND CARING
Grieving people find different ways to cope with their suffering. Avery has a two-word tattoo on her forearm, with the word Positive stacked on top of the word Negative, symbolizing love built upon suffering. Positive Negatives was the name of a band that Nick and his friends started in middle school. Her tattoo is a replica of Nick’s own drawing of the band’s logo, which she found under his bed after he died. Next to chaplain Brent Powell’s desk is a sketch that one of his 17-year-old patients gave him. It features a three-
St. Jude chaplain Brent Powell, a wounded healer himself, helps grieving people find ways to cope with their suffering. His office contains inspirational artwork given to him by patients over the years.
LOWER RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHEN COPELAND; PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (4)
attended their first Day of Remembrance in 2011, they felt less alone. They found space to process the complexity of their grief with each other. “There, in a room with so many other families, you didn’t have to say anything,” Christine says. “You could just hug them. You could just be with other people where no words were necessary, and when words were spoken, they were completely understood.” For the past seven years, the O’Briens have served on the parent panel with Avery, whom Christine describes as “the beginning of a comet who has blazed a path.” The O’Briens’ journey through the “dark night of the soul” is now a light for others. “Grief has a cost that everybody pays,” Christine says. “I’m really proud of St. Jude. I have watched 10 years of profound growth.” Because of medical advances, pediatric cancer is no longer a death sentence, but programs like these exist to serve the broken souls of families whose children aren’t included in the success stories. Science might serve the 99 sheep, but St. Jude also seeks out the one on the margins—the one for whom science just wasn’t enough. “I think that this gets to this aspect of the Gospel message,” Baker says. “Suffering is not something to be avoided. It is something for us to experience together, come together around, and recognize there is not a solution to it. The solution really is opening your heart and being available. If you are willing to sit in the middle of the suffering with that person and just listen to them, it makes all the difference in the world, for both of you. What a beautiful thing it is to be able to share that.”
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his patients, but during those days his patients took care of him. He says they still do. “The plan is that God incarnates in human flesh,” Powell says. “So we become God. I struggled for a while with whether or not God cares, but then it sort of hit me: Yes, God cares. How do I know that God cares? The answer to that is because I care. Because you care. Because there is a doctor here who cares. There are people who care and who put their lives into this, and that is nothing more than God caring. “So yes, God does care, because I see it being acted out in his people.”
Being willing to enter into another person’s suffering can be intimidating, but Powell says: “When you risk being with the suffering, it involves an intimacy that transcends everyday normalcy. You’re never the same.” Stephen Copeland is an author and storyteller. He is a former staff writer and columnist at Sports Spectrum magazine and has also been published in Christianity Today. Stephen blogs regularly for Franciscan Media and has contributed to St. Anthony Messenger’s Followers of St. Francis column. His article “A Brief Lesson in Holy Foolery” appeared in our November 2019 issue. To learn more about his work, visit CopelandWrites.com.
LOWER RIGHT: PHOTO COURTESY OF STEPHEN COPELAND; PHOTOS COURTESY OF ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL (4)
About St. Jude Hospital
ST. JUDE CHILDREN’S RESEARCH HOSPITAL was founded in 1962 by the late actor Danny Thomas. A devout Catholic, he once threw his last seven dollars into a collection plate at Mass, promising God, “Show me my way in life, and I’ll build you a shrine.” Soon after, he became a successful actor, and he never forgot his promise. Today St. Jude specializes in the treatment of childhood cancer and other catastrophic childhood diseases, including sickle cell disease, immunodeficiency, and blood disorders.
The original building has expanded into a campus covering 66 acres. St. Jude, which treats about 8,500 children every year, freely shares its medical findings and research. Although the average cost to treat a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia—the most common type of childhood cancer—is about $300,000, families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing, or food. As Danny Thomas believed, “No child should die in the dawn of life.” Visit StJude.org for more information. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 25
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CATHOLICS GUN CONT
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Tension surrounds the issue of gun control. Taking a look at what the Bible says and understanding Jesus’ message of nonviolence can provide guidance.
CS NTROL &
By Richard B. Patterson, PhD
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COMPOSITE IMAGES: LADY: BAONA/ISTOCK; CHURCH INTERIOR: BOGGY/FOTOSEARCH
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hen I was in the third grade, our teacher was a kindly old nun named Sister Rosemary. One day she suggested to us that it was sinful to have a toy gun. Even then, for better or worse, I questioned things. As a result, I rejected what sister said, wanting to hold on to my beloved Hopalong Cassidy cap gun. I didn’t have much exposure to guns in the small town where I grew up. Other than Sister Rosemary, guns were not talked about much in religion class or in church. In general, they seemed to be viewed as instruments used in war, by those employed to protect us, or for hunting. I still don’t own a gun and do not have a concealed weapon permit. But I am thinking about it, especially in light of a mass shooting last year in my hometown of El Paso. First of all, let me be clear that there is nothing in our Catholic teaching that says it is wrong to own a gun or even a semiautomatic weapon. Rather, it’s what we do with guns that becomes the issue. Catholic teaching indicates that we have the right, even the obligation, to defend ourselves and our loved ones, even when killing someone is the result. And Catholicism continues to teach that war can be justifiable. Having said that, it should also be noted that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has consistently favored a total ban on assault weapons (19 specific military weapons identified by the US Congress in 1994), better control of firearm sales, and limited access to high-capacity weapons and ammunition holders. Further, in a somewhat obscure footnote to a position paper issued in 2000, they noted: “However, we believe that in the long run and with few exceptions—i.e., police officers, military use—handguns should be eliminated from our society.” REFLECTING ON THE BIBLE
Some would argue that gun control is a political issue, not a moral one. And indeed politicians are visible these days, arguing either for the rights of gun owners or for the right to be safe. Much of it is rhetoric with no significant change. Perhaps the morality exists at a larger level. Perhaps the issue isn’t so much about right and wrong as it is about trying to live a life that is as consistent as possible with Jesus’ message. I believe that, to fully grasp the impact of Jesus’ revolutionary message, we have to read the entire Bible. What one StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 27
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PHOTO COURTESY ®©™THE NON-VIOLENCE PROJECT FOUNDATION (WWW.NONVIOLENCE.COM)
CNS PHOTO: CALLAGHAN O’HARE/REUTERS
nonviolence had been sees working through the Old Testament mistaken. is violence—lots of it! And much of that THE INHERENT violence is not only QUESTIONS OF condoned but caused NONVIOLENCE by God. God is referred What I came to see to, among other things, was that the violence as “Lord of Heaven’s within me was the Armies.” God intervenes very reason for me to time and again to tilt choose nonviolence. the scales of battle on You, I, and most peobehalf of his Jewish ple I know are quite nation. God leads the Memorials for victims of mass shootings, like this one outside a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, capable of violence. Jews to victory in batThe path of nonlast year, have become all too familiar in today’s world. This violence causes people to question tle after battle (except violence means that I their safety and to consider owning a gun for protection. when they doubt or make every attempt to reject him). We cheer David’s killing of Goliath. We rejoice reject violence as a solution. when Esther saves her Jewish people from genocide and the Yet I also know that, if someone were to try to inflict harm bad guy Haman is executed. on my loved ones, I would respond with aggression. And, yes, But in the Old Testament there are also hints of what is I still cheer when Shane shoots and kills Jack Wilson at the coming. Isaiah calls us to reflect on the days to come when end of Shane. I still cheer when Rocky Balboa decks Apollo swords will be hammered into plowshares and spears into Creed. And I definitely cheered when Black Panther returned pruning hooks. Ecclesiastes notes that not only is there a to beat up Erik Killmonger. time for war but also a time for peace. At several points in Am I a pacifist? I’m afraid not. Pete Seeger’s words in his the Old Testament, there is the hint of a future new order. song “Bring Them Home” resonate with me: “One thing I It is only within the context of the violence of the Old will confess/I’m not really a pacifist/If some army invaded Testament that we can fully appreciate the power of Jesus’ this land of mine/You’d find me out on the firing line.” message of love and forgiveness. The focus is no longer on In making my own personal decisions regarding gun payback to our enemies. Jesus suggests something different. ownership, I must first decide to what extent I can embrace the fundamental nonviolence of Jesus’ message. There is A PATH OF PEACE OR VIOLENCE? no way around the fact that he calls us to love our enemy In the late 1960s, many of my fellow students in college and I and turn the other cheek. Furthermore, his Sermon on the were faced with the reality of the Vietnam War and the draft. Mount is a clear invitation to a peaceful lifestyle based on Several friends of mine chose to go the path of conscientious justice and nonviolence. objection. I opposed the war but was not sure I could be a What do I as a Catholic do with that message? Ignore it? conscientious objector. I studied the issue—the Church’s Water it down? Well, surely he didn’t mean I should love the teachings on war, Thomas Aquinas’ analysis of “justifiable neo-Nazis or that white supremacist who shot up the El Paso war.” And yet I kept coming back to one sad fact about Walmart. What did he mean? Was Jesus nothing more than a myself: I had a history of being violent. naive idealist? When I was young, it would take little to provoke me to Those who acknowledge Jesus’ message will nonethebecome aggressive. I won probably as many fights as I lost, less suggest that the message must be weighed against harsh but my fists were my typical reaction to confrontation. So realities. That tension is summed up nowhere better than I faced that hard truth and thought: How can I claim to be the decisions being made about allowing church members to nonviolent given that history? I would be a hypocrite. Instead, attend services armed. I chose the path that took me into the Army for four years. Sadly, some of the most heinous mass shootings in our It was during my preparation for the Army that I fired country have occurred in churches and synagogues. As such, every weapon available, including bazookas, flamethrowers, I have had people admit to me that they now attend church and grenade launchers. I also fired semiautomatic weapons, services armed. Many Church officials are trying to decide which were beginning to make their appearance. I was defihow to respond. Should we forbid weapons at services and, if nitely not a marksman, and I was always aware that shooting so, how do we monitor that? Will I need to empty my pockpractice was enabling me to kill someone. ets and pass through a metal detector before being allowed in It didn’t occur to me until much later that perhaps to attend Mass? Should I carry my weapon, prepared to prothere was some contradiction between all that violence and tect my family and fellow church members if a mass shooter Jesus’ message. I also came to see that my understanding of barges in and opens fire?
WEIGHING YOUR FEAR
As we contemplate our personal decisions regarding gun ownership, we are faced with a parallel spiritual decision: How much power do I give to fear? How many of my decisions (such as purchasing a gun) do I make out of fear? It is not as simple as saying, “Well, I believe the Lord will protect me.” There were people of deep faith who were killed at the El Paso Walmart that August morning. Faith in God is not some sort of bulletproof vest. And yet Jesus talked about fear a great deal, saying again and again to his followers (and to us): “Don’t be afraid. I am with you always.” In the face of torture and execution, many of his followers faced their enemies with love. Our recent history reflects the political power of nonviolent resistance in the works of great leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Were people like Gandhi or King afraid? Did modern saints like Maximilian Kolbe and Dietrich Bonhoeffer have fear as they faced the executioner? Undoubtedly. Yet fear did not make their final decisions. I was faced with a choice in which fear was a major factor in 2001. I was signed up for the New York City Marathon— then 9/11 happened. It was only a week before when the decision was made to let the marathon take place. We were informed that of some 35,000 registrants, over a third dropped out. I understood why. In the terrible days after those attacks, we did not know what to expect. Placing thousands of runners on a bridge would seem to be providing an easy target. I considered dropping out myself but concluded that it was a decision I did not want to make out of fear. My fear, after all, would empower others. I went and completed the run, but not without some moments of fear.
PHOTO COURTESY ®©™THE NON-VIOLENCE PROJECT FOUNDATION (WWW.NONVIOLENCE.COM)
CNS PHOTO: CALLAGHAN O’HARE/REUTERS
WE MUST BE PEACEMAKERS
So it is these days. The fear in El Paso is considerably higher than I’ve ever seen in my 40-plus years living here. We are seeing horrifying public service announcements on television that portray school shootings. And protective legislation is not forthcoming. I heard last week that El Paso churches are considering locking the doors shortly after Mass starts and limiting access thereafter. What came to me was the shortest verse in the Bible: “Jesus wept.” Do I weep with him and pray, hope, and work for a better way, or do I resign myself to harsh realities and say instead, “Lock and load”? I was talking to a young man who believes Jesus’ message has become watered down. The essence of that message is that we are called to be peacemakers. No exceptions. No qualifiers such as “except when.” That calling needs to inform any decision I make regarding owning a gun. Richard B. Patterson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who lives in El Paso, Texas. He has had a number of articles published in this magazine, including “Why Am I Still Catholic?” (October 2019).
Foster Nonviolence
The knotted gun Non-Violence was originally created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd as a memorial tribute to John Lennon after he was shot and killed in New York City in December 1980. The Non-Violence Project Foundation is a nonprofit organization promoting peace and social change through education. For more information, visit Nonviolence.com.
”WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING THAT GOES ON.” —John Lennon
To make any progress toward a safer environment, we need to address several issues: • Assault weapons have no place in a citizen’s armory; neither do high-capacity ammunition clips. • If you decide to carry a weapon to protect yourself and your family, then do so with proper training, and secure your weapons so that children do not have access. • Continue to demand of lawmakers effective legislation to include thorough background checks. Actions you can take in your everyday life to reflect Jesus’ message of nonviolence: • Embrace a nonviolent lifestyle as much as possible. This includes praying for your own enemies—the family next door with their loud Saturday night parties, the driver who not only just cut you off but also flipped you off in the process, the source of a childhood hurt, and the countless others who hurt and offend us. In other words, make your own decision about what Jesus meant when he asked you to love your enemy. • Identify your fears and try to address them spiritually. • Speak out against unjust violence—be it war, abuse of migrants, bullying, veteran suicides, or the many other manifestations of tolerance of violence in our society. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 29
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casting a
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Over the past 40 years, National Evangelization Teams have reached out to more than 2 million youths across the United States and beyond through retreats and personal testimonies. They offer potential “nones” a reason to stay.
W
hen Dani Kuhl was in middle school, she knew about God and her Catholic faith, but she sought fulfillment in other things. A few years later, she met college-aged youth ministry leaders from the National Evangelization Teams (NET) at a retreat and was struck by their fire for the faith. Kuhl, 20, was so inspired that she joined NET herself. She and 11 other young adults spent nine months traveling thousands of miles around the Midwest, Texas, and Louisiana in a 15-passenger van to bring that same fire for God to youth who were searching as she once had. During the 120 retreats they gave at
Catholic parishes and schools during the 2018–19 school year, Kuhl believes she and her teammates planted seeds of faith in the young people they met. At the same time, she’s experienced growth in her own relationship with Christ. “It’s been really cool to see how, in such a short amount of time, the Lord is able to come into these youths’ hearts and make himself known,” says the Hampstead, New Hampshire, native. “Oftentimes you see them walk into the church and come out of the church very different.” As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, NET teams stopped traveling and offering
PHOTO COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES
By Susan Klemond
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PHOTO COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES
NET of faith retreats on March 15. During the last part of NET’s 2019–20 year, 334 retreats were canceled. NET teams will begin offering retreats again this fall. The ministry also is building and testing virtual retreats for locations unable to host in-person events. As Church leaders, parishes, and youth ministries seek ways to stem the exodus of young people from the Catholic Church, each fall, NET Ministries sends vanloads of faithfilled young adults out of its West St. Paul, Minnesota, headquarters to share the Gospel and Catholic faith with middle and high school students. With their youth and zeal, the diverse teams of missionaries have shared their faith with millions of teens around the country over the past 40 years through retreats and the witness of their own lives. Their witness comes at a time when many Catholic youth have drifted away from the Church, some as early as age 10, according to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, a nonprofit research center affiliated with Georgetown University.
The popular culture pulls and confuses young people, distracting them from thinking deeply about life’s important questions, says Mark Berchem, NET founder and president. The weakening family structure and lack of catechesis also are factors in young people leaving the faith, he says. “They’re not leaving because they’re opposed to Church teaching,” says Berchem. “They’re not leaving because of a scandal. They’re not leaving because they’ve had a well-thought-out, reasoned period of time and added the pros and cons and decided it’s not worth it. They’re just drifting.” Many young people haven’t really heard the Gospel, so NET seeks to present it in language they can understand while also witnessing to it in their own lives, he says. “We have to convince people, young people in particular, that God is real and alive and interested in our life and that he loves us, and no matter what dumb, stupid, or wrong things we do, he’ll always welcome us back,” Berchem says.
Young adult volunteers travel in 15-passenger vans to share their fire for the Catholic faith with middle and high school students across the country.
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FROM EXPERIMENT TO ENDURING MISSION
mas and lead small sharing groups. However, some content has been adapted in response to During three weeks in January 1980, the first shorter attention spans and societal problems experimental NET team of 12 young adults that now affect kids at younger ages. traveled around the Diocese of Winona in From September to May each year, teams southern Minnesota and led 18 high school of eight to 14 members either travel through retreats. Other dioceses in the region heard dioceses in different states giving retreats, or about the retreats and requested them. focus on a single diocese or parish as a disciNET has continued to grow and has minpleship team. Most are retreat teams, but NET istered to more than 2 hopes to add disciplemillion young Catholics ship teams to allow team at more than 32,000 members to minister for “Pre-NET, I didn’t really retreats in the United a longer period of time think to go deeper in my States, Canada, Australia, in the same location, faith at all. They definitely Guam, Honduras, Berchem says. sparked that.” Mexico, Germany, NET team members Malaysia, New Zealand, range in age from 18 to —Mitchell Longsdorf, 18 Nicaragua, Uganda, and 29, with an average age Ireland. of 20. In 2018–19, they In the 2018–19 acacame from across the demic year alone, 175 members served on 17 country, as well as Ireland, England, Canada, teams in the United States and Scotland. They and Spain. Their diversity—including distinct led 1,375 retreats in 1,000 parishes, reaching personalities—helps youths from different over 100,000 youth with the Gospel message. backgrounds relate to them and see different “We were just trying to be faithful to a call facets of the Church and the faith, Berchem to evangelize and to use our gifts and experisays. ences to help other people,” says Berchem. That’s been the experience for Francis “Over time, we realized that God’s invitation Shackleton, coleader of a diverse team that and call for us was much bigger than what we served the St. Paul-Minneapolis Archdiocese expected.” in 2018–19. “Everyone is so different in so NET’s mission, message, and retreat strucmany ways,” says Shackleton, a 20-yearture have maintained the same elements since old from Salisbury, Massachusetts, who the beginning, Berchem says. NET teams completed his second year of NET service. present talks, personal testimonies, and dra“Different experiences and different trials that
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES (3)
Dani Kuhl (second from left) joins with the youth who are attending a Confirmation retreat. In the 2018–19 academic year alone, NET Ministry teams led 1,375 retreats in 1,000 parishes.
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things they’ve been hiding.” For young people, participating in NET retreats or parish-based activities can be life changing. Allie Schmitzer, 14, often attends monthly NET events at her parish, St. Joseph in West ‘THEY MADE CATHOLIC COOL’ St. Paul, Minnesota. She finds NET team One thing team members have in common members easy to talk to, especially when they is their youth, which helps them gain teens’ lead small sharing groups. confidence. They understand Their “investing in me has youth culture and retreathad a real impact on me ants’ experiences, fears, and because I want to do the temptations. same for someone else,” says Dani Kuhl recognizes she Schmitzer. Her parents served is almost a peer to the high on NET, and she hopes to school students she meets on serve as well. retreats. Getting to know NET “We’re able to say, ‘Hey, I team members based at his walked in your spot. I know parish, St. Peter in Forest exactly what you’re going through,’” she says. Lake, Minnesota, while he was in middle school helped Sometimes young people Mitchell Longsdorf undershare their hurts. “You’re stand his faith and how to hearing rough situations that live it. Now 18, he joined a are going on either at school NET team in 2019. or in their families,” says Kuhl. “That’s always some“When I was in sixth Mark Berchem, NET founder and current through eighth grade, they thing you don’t want to hear, president of the organization, speaks made Catholic cool,” recalls because you don’t want them at a NET Ministries training event. NET to be hurting like that.” ministers to millions of young Catholics. Longsdorf. “I always wanted to be with the cool kids Francis Shackleton has crowd. Seeing teenagers live out the faith the had similar experiences. “It opens your eyes. You wouldn’t know a lot of them put on way they did was really inspirational for me.” For Longsdorf, it didn’t stop there. “For masks, but dig deep and the Lord allows them them to take a step farther in investing in to open up. You can see all this hurt and these
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES (3)
people face, and you’re all put together on this team for whatever reason you may never know—but the Lord obviously knows what he’s doing.”
NET teams bring together a diverse group of young adults with different personalities and backgrounds. What they have in common is their youth, which helps them connect with teens.
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me really inspired me to dive into my faith,” he says. “Pre-NET, I didn’t really think to go deeper in my faith at all. They definitely sparked that.” ‘COWORKERS IN THE VINEYARD’
NET serves in more than 110 US dioceses at the invitation of the bishop or archbishop and works with youth ministers and parishes. “We’re at a time right now in the history of the Church where we need everyone who’s interested in youth to work together,” says Berchem, who has overseen NET’s growth for over four decades. “The challenges facing
our young people are enormous, and no one diocese, parish, or organization can tackle the challenge by themselves. We have to cooperate, and the diocese and NET really work hard at that.” In its home archdiocese of St. PaulMinneapolis, NET sponsors a monthly outreach event called Lifeline for middle and high school youth. On the first Saturday evening of the month during the school year, buses from within and outside the archdiocese drop off more than 1,000 teens at NET headquarters. The event includes Mass, talks by youth leaders, and fellowship with friends.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES (2)
The eucharistic procession is one of the most moving and memorable experiences at Lifeline, a monthly NETsponsored event for middle and high school youth. More than 1,000 teens participate in the event at NET headquarters in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF NET MINISTRIES (2)
Francis Volkmuth, a high school junior from Faribault, Minnesota, doesn’t miss many Lifelines. The 16-year-old comes to meet friends and learn about his faith, which he says has helped him respond to other students’ faith questions at his Catholic high school. NET’s reach has extended well beyond St. PaulMinneapolis to dioceses across the country. In the New Orleans Archdiocese, NET Ministries has been a source of blessings, according to Archbishop Gregory Aymond. “Not only has their ministry in our parishes and schools brought young people into a deeper relationship with the Lord Jesus, but some of those same young people from our archdiocese have joined the National Evangelization Teams themselves to give back what they received,” the archbishop says. “I particularly appreciate that NET works within our existing parish and school structures to help those places become more vibrant faith communities,” he says. “NET has been both a light of the new evangelization and an example of young people becoming coworkers in the Lord’s vineyard as lay ministers.” NET team members attend five weeks of preservice training, which includes instruction in catechesis and evangelization and helps prepare team members for their life’s calling. Among NET alumni are two bishops, 68 priests, 39 religious sisters, and 10 religious brothers. For team leaders like Dani Kuhl and Francis Shackleton, the opportunity to work with young people and the training they receive have helped them grow in their faith. These experiences also have helped prepare them for the future. Shackleton, who has served as a NET team member for two years, is considering serving on the ministry’s mission staff at NET’s headquarters and discerning a call to the priesthood. “I want to take everything that I learn this year and bring it to my life,” he says. Nor are those life lessons lost on Kuhl, who treasures these months on the road—even when crammed in a van. Living and working together may take team members out of their comfort zones, but they say it helps them learn about selfless love. “Even just being two or three weeks on the road, you know these people really well,” says Kuhl. “You know their tics, their mannerisms; you know what they like and what they don’t like. You certainly become a family.” Traveling from retreat to retreat, or even just working each day with the same parish youth group, NET team members know they won’t always see fruit from their efforts. But that doesn’t take away from each day’s adventure of seeking God, riding in a van, and bringing the Gospel to youth. “What’s been the most fun?” asks Kuhl. “Riding the wave of it. Seeing where the Lord takes us down the river, landing on a beach somewhere and being like, ‘OK, we’re here for the day. Let’s rock it!’” Susan Klemond is a freelance writer from St. Paul, Minnesota. She enjoys writing about the Church—both the institution and its members.
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ANDREA
BOCELLI on Music and Miracles The voice of Andrea Bocelli lifts up the new movie Fatima. But his talent is well grounded in faith. By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP or most Catholics, the story of Fatima is a familiar one. Beginning in May 1917, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to three children in Fatima, Portugal. The visions culminated in the “miracle of the sun” in October of that year. The appearances of the mother of Jesus, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, were deemed “worthy of belief ” in 1930 by the bishop of Leiria-Fatima. Pope Francis entrusted the world to Mary on March 11 this year at the start of the COVID-19 crisis. Now a new movie, Fatima, is scheduled to open August 28. This film focuses on peace, faith, and Mary’s motherly care for us. The music for Fatima is by renowned Italian composer Paolo Buonvino, who composed the two original songs for the film, “Gratia Plena” and “Gloria,” and then asked worldfamous tenor Andrea Bocelli to sing them. It is Bocelli’s first contribution to the soundtrack of a film. I had the opportunity to interview Bocelli by e-mail in May. His answers reflect a man of deep faith and love for Our Lady, the rosary, and the world.
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
F
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GRATITUDE AND GOOD TIDINGS
You sing two songs for the new film Fatima. What are your thoughts about Mary’s message of prayer and peace for us today? The three shepherd children and sacred apparitions are surrounded by a powerful message of love. As Mary was for the children, she is for us an essential and constant presence in our daily lives. Her luminous presence is central, as she intercedes for us—this is a profoundly beautiful and distinct feature of Catholicism. What did it mean to you to sing Paolo Buonvino’s “Gratia Plena” with children who sing in 12 languages? It was a moving experience. Maestro Buonvino is a composer of great sensitivity. I remember when he composed “Gratia Plena,” he asked me to listen to it. I am grateful for his insistence: This is a deep, inspired song of genuine beauty, a perfect match to the two musical pieces [taken from the album Sì] featured in the film. The second song, “Gloria,” is filled with human reality, grace, and gratitude. What does this song mean to you, and how can it inspire people? Gratitude is indeed at the heart of this musical piece. The first part is contemplative, reminding us of the miracle of existence and of what an immense gift life is. The refrain evokes, in a graceful and joyful way, a luminous mantra: The word Gloria represents a celebration, prayer, and fes-
tive announcement of good tidings. The verses encourage a reflection on the beauty and preciousness of life itself, including the pain and tears we shed; on our time on earth; and on the eternal time where Mary awaits us like a loving mother. You were close to St. John Paul II, and you seem to have a special connection to Pope Francis. Can you talk about what Pope Francis and his pastoral agenda mean to you? What hopes for the world do you share? I greatly admire his desire to reestablish the core, founding values of the Church. I believe Pope Francis is a blessing for all of us, a true giant, eager to dedicate himself to others without any reservations and with immense greatness. He is a man of goodwill, capable of simple and profound words. [He is] a man of God [and a] source of hope and inspiration for us all. THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
What inspired you to create the Andrea Bocelli Foundation [ABF]? What do you hope to achieve with the work of the foundation? The Andrea Bocelli Foundation [AndreaBocelli Foundation.org] was established in 2011 by myself and my family to give back after being inspired by the love and positivity received from fans and other partners from around the world. I am proud that the foundation has since grown into
“When music embraces beauty, it soothes us, makes us grow, heals us by directing us toward rectitude. It can also lead us toward a fuller mystical experience.”
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PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI FOUNDATION/LUCA ROSSETTI
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
—Andrea Bocelli
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI FOUNDATION/LUCA ROSSETTI
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
ABOVE: In Haiti, Andrea Bocelli and his family witness the distribution of 24,000 gallons a day of clean water provided by his foundation’s Water Truck Project in the community of Citè Soleil. Bocelli meets future students at the building site of a new primary school in Muccia, Italy.
an independent nonprofit led by world-class professionals who oversee the development of projects in Italy and abroad. The foundation’s primary mission is to empower people and communities in situations of poverty and social exclusion through projects that promote the overcoming of these barriers. Our hope is that our beneficiaries are enabled to express their full potential. Since its inception, ABF has raised over 30 million euros [about $34 million], resulting in key initiatives such as the construction of eight schools in Italy and Haiti that offer daily access to a world-class education to over 3,000 students. How important is it for children to sing, to be introduced to music at an early age? When rooted in the core principles of respecting others and transmitting positive values, education through music and song is an incredibly effective answer. It can be the seed for a journey leading toward a powerful path of self-awareness, transforming both ourselves and our community. This is exactly why many of ABF’s projects are focused on using music education as a tool for empowerment.
Bocelli meets with young musicians from the Music Academy of Camerino, Italy, in 2016.
The foundation has, in fact, developed innovative music education methodologies, which have been proven to be very effective in the development of the young [people] we work with. This programming is currently being advanced even further, thanks to the second phase of ABF’s COVID-19 fundraiser, which aims to create innovative distance-learning platforms to help youth everywhere gain access to quality education. How would you explain what music does for the human heart and soul? Music is like a dear friend, one that never leaves your side. It is a universal language with the strength and ability to affect our conscience, helping us to be better. Music is also a source of spiritual enrichment, which is why knowing its language can be useful for everyone, not just for those wanting to make it a profession. When music embraces beauty, it soothes us, makes us grow, heals us by directing us toward rectitude. It can also lead us toward a fuller mystical experience. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 39
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Lucia, the oldest of the visionaries, tells her parents about the apparitions.
The mayor speaks with the local priest as a military official looks on.
Lucia, her mother, and a friend stand in front of a crowd of onlookers.
T
of the film, Lucia finds a way to obey these two compelling women in her life. Another conflict occurs between the aggressive, atheistic authorities ruling Portugal at the time and the faith of the crowds that grew to 70,000 to witness what would become known as “the miracle of the sun.” Artur Santos (Goran Visnjic), the mayor and provincial administrator, is an atheist caught between his wife’s faith and maintaining his authority in front of his superiors. The film’s color cinematography gives it a historical look, using some sepia tinting at the beginning. It was shot mostly in Portugal, and the terrain resembles the hardscrabble rural landscape of the time. Marco Pontecorvo directs Fatima. He also cowrote it along with Valerio D’Annunzio and Barbara Nicolosi. Nicolosi says: “I asked myself, Why did Mary come? The only answer is because this is what a mother would do. “When I first started writing,” she continues, “I told the producers, ‘Let’s make this about motherhood.’ There is this little girl (Lucia), with a mother distracted by war, and Lucia realizes she will become a mother too. When she’s looking out over the crowd on that day of the miracle of the sun, she has become the mother of the world, called to take on a pastoral motherhood.” For more about the film, visit FatimatheMovie.com.
he story opens in the late 1980s with an American author, Professor Nichols (Harvey Keitel), arriving at the cloistered Carmelite convent in Coimbra where Sister Lucia lives. He knows about the apparitions at Fatima and wants to talk with her about his doubts and her faith regarding them. To his questions, she finally responds with spirit, “I can only give you my testimony; I don’t have answers for everything.” Sonia Braga plays the role of the aging nun. The story of the 1917 apparitions is then told through flashbacks. A “lady more brilliant than the sun” with a rosary in her hand appears to Lucia dos Santos (Stephanie Gil) and her younger cousins Francisco (Jorge Lamelas) and Jacinta Marto (Alejandra Howard). The children must overcome many challenges and obstacles to keep their promise to the Lady to pray the rosary and meet her every month. There is a subtle rivalry between two mothers, the Virgin Mary (Joana Ribeiro) and Lucia’s mother, Maria Rosa dos Santos (Lúcia Moniz). Lucia is caught between them. The children had promised one another that they would keep the Lady’s appearance a secret, but Jacinta lets it out and it gets back to Maria Rosa. She is a strong and proud woman but very anxious because of the war. She insists that Lucia stop this nonsense that is sure to draw the attention of neighbors and maybe the antireligious civil authorities. Over the course 40 • September 2020 | StAnthonyMessenger.org
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PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
The three peasant children kneel in the presence of the Lady.
PICTUREHOUSE/CLAUDIO IANNONE (4) PHOTO CREDIT HERE
Fatima: The Movie
PHOTO COURTESY OF ANDREA BOCELLI/LUCA ROSSETTI
PICTUREHOUSE/CLAUDIO IANNONE (4) PHOTO CREDIT HERE
There are three children in the film, and you have three children. What do you think the role of faith is in raising healthy, well-adjusted children who care about God and others? Faith is what my life revolves around, a gift that I try to cherish and nurture, a daily source of support. Transmitting it to my children has always been a priority, inspiring them by example. I believe faith should be a crucial aspect in everyone’s life, and I am happy to inspire others each time the opportunity arises. I am deeply thankful to my parents—and to the community I have been a part of for many years— who taught me honesty, sacrifice, beauty, optimism. From them, I also learned the importance of respecting others and nature. Their teachings guided me throughout life like a beacon. I am now responsible for passing those same Christian values on to my children.
Duomo in Milan, included “Amazing Grace.” Why did you choose this song? Although this song is not tied to Catholicism, I am very attached to it. I liked the idea of sharing this 18th-century Christian thanksgiving hymn (inspired by the conversion of its author). It is a classic, and its powerful melody can move us deeply. What do you hope the audience will take away from the film [Fatima]? I believe this is a foundational and universal story, even for those who don’t share the gift of faith. The message of love surrounding the three shepherd children, the sacred apparitions, and the Sanctuary of Fatima is accessible to everyone: Love and beauty are inherent in all of what is good. I hope the film will inspire those who have faith toward SIGNS OF FAITH AND HOPE embracing their relationDo you have a special prayer ship with God more fully and that you pray every day? unconditionally. This will keep I have an intense and daily them away from the trap of relationship with prayer. I indifference, a problem that, at believe it represents a powerleast where I come from, needs ful, continuous renewal of our attention. The holy Scriptures life. Faith is not something we have strong things to say about can take for granted: Like any firmly condemning those who other discipline, it requires are tepid and half-hearted in commitment, perseverance, their faith. sacrifice. To grow and nurture If you have one wish, one our faith, we need to comply prayer, for the world right now, with very simple practices. We what would it be? need to “bend” toward prayWe are all invited to ing, quite literally. Known as “the world’s most beloved tenor,” Andrea Bocelli has sold over 90 contribute, making the world What is the role of the we inhabit a better place. million records worldwide of classical and pop music. Madonna in your spiritual life? Everyone can do their part, Does the rosary have a special meaning for you? using the tools they have and the talents they received from Reciting the holy rosary is one of the most intense God. I believe the vast majority of people want peace, believe moments of the day. This devotional practice opens up a in nonviolence, and should be allowed to live with dignity, path full of discoveries, both personal and extraordinary. reaching their full potential. Tangible actions are crucial to As I mentioned, I believe prayer is a fundamental aspect of translate hope into actual change. I trust we can all make a a path of faith, representing a source of constant renewal in difference by offering our small—yet irreplaceable—contrithe life of those who practice it. I am devoted to Our Lady bution, allowing beauty and goodness to triumph. and dedicate part of my prayers to her. I visited Lourdes as a My wish and main prayer for the world is that of peace child and recently went on pilgrimages to Medjugorje. The and global repudiation of war. Peace is the most simple and Virgin Mary is a constant and solar presence in my family’s immediate thing humans should strive for. However, it is life and mine. often undermined by the mystery hiding behind conflicts What role does God play in your artistic life? Your daily life? and disputes. This is a mystery because conflict is clearly an All human talents are gifts from God. I do not hold any intellectual error that unfortunately people can’t seem to personal merit for having a voice with a pleasant and recogunderstand. No matter how intelligent, people are not able nizable timbre. . . . Heavenly gifts are meant to bring beauty to overcome this obstacle. I am optimistic, though, and I and joy to the world. That is, unless humans decide to make hope it will happen soon. an improper or incorrect use of such gifts, out of their own free will, which is the first and most precious gift of all. I Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP, is the founding director of the Pauline Center for have always trusted the divine will, committing myself with Media Studies in Los Angeles and an award-winning film critic for St. Anthony total confidence in his plans. Messenger. She recently received a doctorate of ministry with a concentration in Your “Music for Hope” concert at Easter, sung live from the film and pastoral communication. StAnthonyMessenger.org | September 2020 • 41
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By Daniel Imwalle
L
ike many great adventures, John and Molly Chester’s starts with a seemingly simple problem to solve—in their case, a dog that won’t stop barking. Cramped in a one-bedroom Los Angeles apartment, the Chesters—albeit a bit restless and uncertain where their lives are headed—are happy to both be gainfully employed in a city with a high cost of living. Enter Todd. No, he isn’t a rowdy roommate per se; he is their beloved dog. And though well-behaved when his owners are home, Todd is a nervous rescue who barks incessantly when they’re away, much to the chagrin of neighbors on the other side of the apartment’s thin walls. An unpleasant surprise in the form of an eviction notice sets the Chesters, with Todd in tow, on an unexpected journey. John, a filmmaker, and Molly, a chef specializing in farm-to-table cuisine, take a leap of faith after receiving the eviction notice. They buy a rundown farm named Apricot Lane about 40 miles north of Los Angeles with the goal of turning it into a profitable, eco-friendly business. Not long after making the move, the Chesters realize they are in way over their heads, though Todd is happier than ever and no longer has a barking problem. The couple seek the help of a specialist in
what is called biodynamic agriculture. The idea is intrinsically Franciscan: All the diverse elements of a farm are interconnected, and the health of one facet of the farm affects and is affected by all the others. In many ways, this type of farming is a demonstrable example of the integrity of creation. Even those not versed in agriculture know that healthy soil is crucial to a successful farm. But the way the Chesters go about achieving healthy soil is by fertilizing it with the manure of their sheep and goats. The sheep and goats eat the invasive grasses and shrubs in the fruit tree orchard, which has been pollinated by the many insects and native and migratory birds attracted to the fruit—and so on in an endless cycle of natural rejuvenation. The Biggest Little Farm is beautifully shot, thanks in no small part to John’s career as a filmmaker with a background in nature documentaries. The quiet force of Molly and her dedication to making Apricot Lane a success help keep her husband going when unforeseen challenges come their way. The documentary is beyond a how-to on biodynamic farming: It’s a case study in resilience rooted in both care for creation and care for one’s spouse. The story of this little farm is big in heart and hope.
“On a planet overwhelmed by habitat loss, the Chesters managed to build an ark.”
—Associated Press
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Race in Reel Time
W
e are still reeling from the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor earlier this year. And while the 24-hour news cycle can keep us informed, context is often lost in the telling. Here are six streaming options, available on Netflix or Amazon Prime, that can deepen our understanding of race relations.
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man
IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967)
On the surface, it’s a mystery about a murdered industrialist in a sleepy Mississippi town. But peel a layer back, and the real story is unveiled. Sidney Poitier is a brilliant homicide investigator passing through town. Rod Steiger is the bigoted town sheriff. Both men must overcome their own biases to solve the crime. Five decades have not withered the film’s potency. In the Heat of the Night is still a powerful cinematic experience.
Emmanuel Acho
F
DO THE RIGHT THING (1989)
It wasn’t Spike Lee’s first film, but it was his first great film. A pizzeria on a sweltering Brooklyn day serves as the hub of racial unrest that simmers along the periphery. When tempers finally explode, the violent conflict between whites and blacks is almost biblical. Though Do the Right Thing is over 30 years old, the visceral anger that it captured is timeless—and was reflected in the faces of Black Lives Matter protesters this year. EMMANUEL ACHO: 8 DEGREES PR; IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT: UNITED ARTISTS; DO THE RIGHT THING: 40 ACRES AND A MULE FILMWORKS/UNIVERSAL PICTURES; OJ: MADE IN AMERICA: ESPN FILMS; I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO: VELVET FILM/AMAZON STUDIOS; WHEN THEY SEE US: HARPO FILMS/NETFLIX
g&
By Christopher Heffron
OJ: MADE IN AMERICA (2016)
Perhaps the least interesting component to Ezra Edelman’s eighthour opus to the disgraced sports hero is his football career. OJ: Made in America excels when it meticulously recounts the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman, and the salacious trial that followed. But the Oscar-winning documentary soars when it recounts, in painful detail, the generations of systemic racism African Americans have faced at the hands of the LAPD. Unforgiving and unforgettable. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO (2017)
“I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually,” James Baldwin once wrote. Apart from his almost peerless talent as a writer, it was Baldwin’s righteous anger toward the infrastructure of American racism that will be his legacy. Director Raoul Peck’s Oscar-nominated documentary on Baldwin is a fitting homage to the writer, his lifelong activism, and his quest for racial equality. WHEN THEY SEE US (2019)
Director Ava DuVernay helms this unflinching dramatization of the Central Park jogger case in 1989, in which five innocent young men of color were convicted of raping a white woman. When They See Us brilliantly captures the race-fueled witch hunt that set a series of injustices in motion, as well as the psychological damage the five men endured in and out of prison.
WHEN THEY SEE US
ollowing the death of George Floyd this past May, the topic of race relations and the long-standing tension reached a breaking point. Enter Emmanuel Acho, a sports analyst and retired NFL player. Acho sat down and addressed some of the questions he says his white brothers and sisters have, but which they are too afraid to ask. That initial video has garnered millions of views. So, Acho began his YouTube series Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (UncomfortableConvos. com) to “provide a free space for curious white people to answer the questions they’ve always had but have been too nervous to ask.” Acho says that if we want to move forward, white people are going to have to educate themselves and be open to engaging in some uncomfortable conversations. Some of the issues and questions Acho has addressed include interracial relationships, the role of the broken black family, how to talk to kids about racial issues, white privilege, and the hurt African Americans are feeling today. Guests on the show have been actor Matthew McConaughey, Chip and Joanna Gaines and family, and gold medalists Lindsey Vonn and P.K. Subban. In November, a book with the same goal and name as the series will be published.
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CULTURE
By Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
Sister Rose Pacatte, FSP
FAVORITE FILMS
about
HOPE
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Hidden Figures (2016) Silver Linings Playbook (2012) Eddie the Eagle (2016) Troop Zero (2019)
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S
omewhere in rural eastern Europe, a young boy (Petr Kotlár) is living with his aunt, Marta (Nina Sunevic), on a farm as World War II breaks out. They raise chickens and the house is comfortable, but the land is barren. It won’t be for long, Marta tells him. He writes a message on a piece of paper and attaches it to a little boat he made and sets it down the river. It says, “Come and fetch me.” The elderly Marta dies, leaving him alone. He drops a lamp near her body that sets the house on fire. The boy wanders into a village where the people beat him because he is a stranger. The local medicine woman, Olga (Alla Sokolova), says he is responsible for all the bad things happening, but she buys him so that he can work for her. Then he and many villagers become sick. She buries him up to his neck in a field to sweat out the fever but abandons him. He escapes from attacking crows and finds refuge with an older man, Lekh (Lech Dyblik), who keeps birds. One day, the man paints the wings of a small bird and tosses it into the air to join the birds circling above. But the birds attack and kill the little bird and it falls to earth. The boy is stunned at Lekh’s cruelty. The boy is trying to find his way home, and it is a tragic journey because of the terrible things that happen to him. A priest (Harvey Keitel) is kind and gives him a cruci-
fix to wear, letting us know what we suspected: the boy is Jewish and must hide in plain sight. The priest places him with a farmer (Julian Sands), not knowing he is a child molester. When the boy is captured by Germans, Hans (Stellan Skarsgård) is sent to shoot him but lets him escape. The Painted Bird is directed by Václav Marhoul, but any accolades for this cinematic dissertation on human misery belong to cinematographer Vladimír Smutný. Filmed in black and white, the stark landscape scenes are masterpieces of minimalism that evoke feelings of isolation and loneliness; the closeups are compelling still portraits. The balance of narrative and image is in perfect tension. This film, at just under three hours, is not for everyone. The depiction of human cruelty is too intense for most. Christians in the film are at once religious and superstitious, kind, but mostly cruel, even to one another. However, the ending sequence of events, where we finally learn the boy’s name, is a blessed reprieve. Not yet rated • Bestiality, explicit sexuality, offscreen child abuse, cruelty to people and animals, and war violence.
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REBUILDING PARADISE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FILMS (2); GREYHOUND: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC/NIKO TAVERNISE
Sister Rose’s
THE PAINTED BIRD
LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; THE PAINTED BIRD: COURTESY OF IFC FILMS (2)
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.
REBUILDING PARADISE
GREYHOUND
REBUILDING PARADISE: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC FILMS (2); GREYHOUND: SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT INC/NIKO TAVERNISE
LEFT: COURTESY SISTER ROSE PACATTE, FSP/MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS; THE PAINTED BIRD: COURTESY OF IFC FILMS (2)
O
n the morning of November 8, 2018, a fire broke out that consumed the town of Paradise, California. Called the Camp Fire, 85 people died, 95 percent of the town’s structures burned to the ground, and 50,000 of the town’s citizens were left homeless. This new documentary from National Geographic is harrowing to watch. The first 20 minutes are a montage of cell phone or newsreel footage of people fleeing, flames towering over cars, bursting transformers, and people calling for help as the flames threaten their lives. The Camp Fire was the worst in California history and the worst fire in the United States in a century. At just the right moment, Academy Award-winning director Ron Howard switches to the town’s recovery. He frames the rebirth narrative of Paradise by looking at the schools and the town hall. Even though many thousands of families lost their houses, Paradise is their home. FEMA brought in trailers, and people found places to stay with family and friends or in motels in neighboring towns, though some left and never returned. The principal and her team found alternative classrooms so children could return to school while property owners struggled with new construction regulations for rebuilding. At the center of the drama is PG&E, which had to admit fault for failing to maintain electrical lines and equipment. This is a powerful film, but I thought Howard went soft on this notorious company that has a history of choosing profit over the health and well-being of its customers—just as we saw in 2000’s Erin Brockovich. On the other hand, the people of Paradise shine through with hope and love for their town. Rebuilding Paradise is streaming on NatGeo. Not yet rated, PG-13 • Peril, corporate disregard for human life. 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
D
uring World War II, the United States provides a naval lifeline to Great Britain, bringing in desperately needed supplies. During one transAtlantic crossing, a convoy of three dozen Allied ships and four escort ships must cross what is known as the “Black Pit,” where they will be out of range for Allied air coverage to protect them. Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks) leads the convoy with the destroyer USS Keeling, code name Greyhound. For three days, they identify and dodge attacks from German U-boats while navigating heavy seas. Although Krause has served in the Navy for many years, this is his first command. Greyhound is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C.S. Forester. Because the human interaction takes place in one space on the ship and the dialogue is mostly coordinates shouted from one level of the ship to another, this film fails in maintaining interest. I love Hanks, but this is an example of a book that does not translate well to the screen. A-3, PG-13 • Peril, war violence, and drama.
Source: USCCB.org/movies
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POINTSOFVIEW | FAITH & FAMILY
By Susan Hines-Brigger
A Tale of Chronic Anxiety
Susan welcomes your comments and suggestions! E-MAIL: CatholicFamily@ FranciscanMedia.org MAIL: Faith & Family 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202
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TOP RIGHT: A DOGS LIFE PHOTO/FOTOSEARCH; PETE & REPEAT: TOM GREENE
Susan has worked at St. Anthony Messenger for 26 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.
MC KOZUSKO/SAM
Susan Hines-Brigger
have been writing this column for 19 years, I have tried to explain what one of my and I have covered a lot of topics and panic attacks is like. The best analogy I can chronicled many of the aspects of my and my think of is a train. You’re going along with life, family’s lives. I have addressed difficult topics and then something happens to cause you such as death and sex abuse, and I have also anxiety or worry. The train starts picking up written about gentler, everyday topics such as speed, which leads to more worry and more faith, marriage, and the various adventures speed. Before you realize it, worries—rational of raising four kids. But one topic I have not or not—are flying at you fast and furious. You addressed head-on—or at least as strongly as I are barreling down the track at breakneck could—has been mental health. speeds. When you grab the brake to try to This year, with all of its unsettling issues— stop yourself, it snaps in your hand, and your COVID-19, race relations, the upcoming elec- mind tells you a massive, and probably deadly, tion, and a whole host of other stressors—has crash is inevitable. created a perfect opportunity for anxiety and Best-case scenario: You use all the tools other mental health issues to flourish. you’ve collected over the years and breathe or According to the National pray yourself to a stop. WorstAlliance on Mental Illness case: You end up at the ER. (NAMI), anxiety disorders In the aftermath can lie “And when you are the most common mental the embarrassment of feeling health concern in the United that people are looking at me cannot stand it, States. Over 40 million adults as if to say: “Get it together. God will bury you in the United States have an Everyone’s stressed.” True. But in his arms.” anxiety disorder. there is nothing I/we can do —St. Francis de Sales about it. It feels very real to us. It’s biology. Just as I would call TELLING MY STORY my neurologist if I had an MS I have always sworn that, relapse, I will check in with my doctor about whenever possible, I would use my own this. My anxieties/panic are no less clinical experience to help others. So, in that spirit, and real than my MS. I’m going to share a bit of my story to put a face on chronic anxiety and panic disorder. I’m writing it in the hopes of letting some AN ONGOING PROCESS Above my desk at home hangs a prayer attribpeople know they are not alone in struggling with this and helping others understand what uted to St. Francis de Sales. I don’t remember they don’t. where I got it or when I put it up there, but I A few months ago, I suffered a panic do know that I rely on it often. Two lines, in attack. It was not my first one. Some are worse particular, have become my mantras when than others, and this was one of those Do I I’m feeling anxious: “And when you cancall 911, because I think I’m having a heart not stand it, God will bury you in his arms” attack? But I don’t want to do that and go to the and “Be at peace, and put aside all anxious hospital because then I could get COVID-19. So thoughts and imagination.” Sometimes the words work; other times they don’t. Anxiety is I’m probably going to die either way types of panic attacks. unpredictable. Most of them follow a similar narrative. It’s Again, I write this in hopes that it might always hard to pinpoint what starts the ball help one person or someone they love underrolling because I could pick from a wide range stand the chronic anxiety that many of us of things that haunt me daily—just like most are struggling with. Maybe it’s you or maybe of us. Those fears—many irrational, I (we) it’s someone you love. Whoever it is, be kind, know—are always lurking just beneath the be patient, be loving, and remember that as surface, building up, waiting for the one thing imperfect and broken as we may feel or seem, that will make them burst through, spewing we are all made in the image of God and, panic and fear into the open. therefore, perfect.
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reflection
“Before the reward there must be labor. You plant before you harvest. You sow in tears before you reap joy.”
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AWARD-WINNING MAGAZINE!
The Catholic Press Association (CPA), established in 1911, is an association of publishers and communicators. Every year, the CPA holds an awards program to honor published works that inform and promote the mission of the Church.
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Magazine of the Year, National General Interest: St. Anthony Messenger Best Reporting of Social Justice Issues: Welcome Home: Life after Prison (February 2019) Best Short Story: A Greater Peace (July 2019)
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Personality Profile: Brother Marinus: War Hero and Selfless Monk (March 2019)
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Backlist Beauty: Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr
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Thank you for your continued support and dedicated readership! We strive to share stories that inspire and inform your faith, all in the spirit of St. Francis.
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