Spring 2023 Glenmary Challenge

GLENMARY.ORG SPRING 2023

Bringing the Church to Them

BECOMING CATHOLIC A POLARIZED WORLD

Witness of missioner brings conversion

New book shows way forward

We are a Catholic society of priests and brothers who, along with numerous coworkers, establish the Catholic Church in small-town and rural America. Founded in 1939 by Father William Howard Bishop, Glenmary is the only religious community devoted exclusively to serving the spiritually and materially poor in the rural U.S. home missions. Today, supported entirely through freewill offerings, we staff missions and ministries throughout Appalachia and the South.

Glenmary missioners serve in areas where frequently less than one percent of the population is Catholic, a significant percentage have no church affiliation, and the poverty rate is often twice the national average.

Glenmary is known for respecting the many cultures encountered in the home missions. Our missionary activity includes building Catholic communities, fostering ecumenical cooperation, evangelizing the unchurched, social outreach and working for justice.

GLENMARY CHALLENGE

Our quarterly magazine has three goals: to educate Catholics about the U.S. home missions, to motivate young men to consider Glenmary priesthood or brotherhood, and to invite all Catholics to respond to their baptismal call to be missionary by partnering with Glenmary as financial contributors, prayer partners, professional coworkers and/or volunteers.

Glenmary Challenge is sent to all donors, to U.S. diocesan clergy and to anyone who requests it. (To begin receiving issues, use the contact information below.)

Small Things

FROM THE EDITOR / John Stegeman

Have you ever been overwhelmed with problems? Sure you have. It’s part of the human condition.

The problems of our own lives can be a challenge. Even relatively simple things like a project deadline, a loved one’s health, or needing new tires on the car, can build up within us to cause stress.

Then there are the bigger picture problems. Much of the world doesn’t seem receptive to hearing the Gospel these days. There are divisions in politics like never before, and even divisions within the Church. There is homelessness, food insecurity, unemployment, etc. What can we do in the face of all this?

A quote attributed to St. Teresa of Kolkata, better known as Mother Teresa, has an answer to these problems. “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.” For the average Christian, that means loving our neighbor. It means offering the stress of work and family to God. It means listening to what God is asking of us, big or small, and responding, “Yes!”

For those called to religious life, like Glenmarians, this means responding to God’s call to live the charism of one’s community. Father Vic Subb can’t improve work conditions for every immigrant in Tennessee’s farm camps, but he can visit them, bring toiletries and food, and pray with them.

Brother Curt Kedley can’t feed every hungry family in Bertie County, North Carolina, but through the Good Shepherd Food Pantry, he can help a few hundred. Each missioner is addressing giant problems through smaller steps of faith with great love.

This is how we go forward. Identify needs, do what we can and trust God with the rest.

GLENMARY HOME MISSIONERS

P.O. Box 465618 · Cincinnati, OH 45246-5618

513-874-8900 · 800-935-0975 · challenge@glenmary.org

ON THE COVER: Glenmary Father François Pellissier celebrates Mass most often in prisons or at Retrouvaille marriage ministry events. He brings the Church to people where they are. Photo by Katie Camario.

© 2023, Glenmary Home Missioners. Reprint permission granted upon request.

Publisher: Father Dan Dorsey

Editor: John Stegeman

Asst. Editors: Omar Cabrera, John Feister

Art Director: Cassie Magnotta

Bringing the Church to Them

Father François lives the Glenmary way of life through his own unique gifts. You’re more likely to find him visiting prisons, or leading marriage retreats than in a parish setting.

page 8 ∙ by john stegeman

becoming catholic

Megan was searching for an authentic witness to the Gospel. She found it in the Catholic Church, through Glenmary.

By John Feister

14

The community has its largest formation class in over a decade. Vocations from East Africa are leading the way.

By Omar Cabrera

11 16

glenmary is growing a polarized world

Father Aaron Wessman has written a book that answers an important question: What is the Church’s mission in a society full of division?

By John Stegeman

Planning-Review Board: Lindsay Braud, Br. Craig Digmann, Br. David Henley, Chris Phelps, Lucy Putnam, Fr. Kenn Wandera, Fr. Aaron Wessman

In parts of rural Tennessee, the skies come alive at night. With new technology and new perspectives, we can see things we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Exploring the Mission Universe

FROM THE PRESIDENT / Father Dan Dorsey

Right now, there is a remarkable event happening a million miles from Earth. The James Webb Telescope (JWT) is transmitting photos of the universe that show things from billions of years ago. As one enthusiastic scientist observed, “We have specific questions we plan to try and answer, but even more exciting to me is we will learn things we haven’t even dreamed of yet.”

Ponder that: “We will learn things we haven’t even

dreamed of yet.”

We’re able to look deeper into the universe, because the JWT is able to capture infrared light, invisible to the human eye.

JWT’s discoveries offer a metaphor for Glenmary’s missionary activity.

Father William Howard Bishop, Glenmary’s founder, envisioned a future of mission here in the United States through the lens of what we might call the GHM telescope. He wrote, “Our quest for the neglected and forgotten takes us out beyond the boundaries of where the Church is at present established and obliges us to enter new lands where the Church is unknown, to settle down in these new lands and to build up Catholicity from the ground.”

Think of the infrared light that JWT sees, applied to our own human experience. There is much that remains invisible to human beings, but with God’s grace we can see his creation with a new vision. We capture the infrared light or, perhaps better stated, we capture the divine light in our neighbors and in creation. In

Photo by Stephen Ellis

doing so, we too can learn things we haven’t even dreamed of yet.

Let me share three examples, three images that the GHM Telescope recovered during a recent visit to Glenmary’s North Carolina missions:

Care of Creation: Since arriving in Williamston in August 2022, Father Chet Artysiewicz walks daily through the streets. He gets his exercise, but he also picks up cans. So far, he reports recycling 200 pounds of cans! He jokes, “As I like to say, ‘Cleaning up Williamston, one can at a time.’”

“When I was sick you looked after me”: Each day, Brother Curt Kedley checks in on an elderly homebound parishioner whose wife recently died. The man now lives alone with no family in the area. Brother Curt often spends the night sleeping in the spare bedroom to ensure his safety.

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Mt 5:4): Father Richard Toboso and Father José Carlos Miguel López reached out to a family who had recently lost their sister to liver disease. To be with others in a moment of trauma and loss is an image to remember and a work of mercy. The two missioners stood with the grieving family and said, with their words and presence, “We cannot know the pain you must be suffering now, but we are here with you.”

In our sacred encounter with our neighbor we see the face of God. We see what the naked eye often cannot see, that is, the Divine Presence. Maybe best of all in this encounter, we learn things about God that we haven’t even dreamed of yet!

glenmary news & notes

Smith County mission in new home

growth / First Mass celebrated in permanent location

On Palm Sunday a year ago, parishioners of St. Peter the Apostle in Smith County, Tenn., celebrated their first Mass on their own property, albeit in a temporary setting. With renovations mostly complete, they celebrated Christmas Eve in their permanent home.

The Mass was a joyful occasion, though rustic. The lights above the sanctuary had yet to be installed, necessitating a lantern and other temporary lighting for the priest and lectors to read.

“Our second building had been a hall, but it had a vaulted ceiling. We decided that would make a much better church than the build-

ing [we were in first,]” said Carl Rasmussen, who does maintenance work at the church. “We’ve tried as much as possible to turn it into a Catholic church.”

The completed church has seating for 115. Their previous space sat 80. That building, where Mass had been celebrated, is being converted into a parish hall.

St. Peter the Apostle began in January 2021, when Glenmary sent Father Don Tranel to Smith County, which had never had a Catholic church. By May, Father Don had gathered a community, and on June 24, 2021, the parish celebrated the first public Catholic Mass in the county’s history.

ABOVE: Father Bruce Brylinski presided at St. Peter the Apostle’s first Mass in its new permanent space on Christmas Eve. Eager to move in, the Mass took place before all the lighting could be installed, necessitating lanterns and lamps.

Photo by Brother Corey Soignier

Priest, 93, still providing sacraments

sacraments / Father Pete increases Mass attendance

For vowed religious, ministry often continues long past when most people would retire. Father Gerald “Pete” Peterson, the oldest living Glenmarian at age 93, continues to provide sacramental access in his golden years by celebrating Mass at Maple Knoll Communities, a retirement home near Glenmary Home Missioners headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio.

A Glenmary Home Missioner for more than 70 years, Father Peterson’s pastoral career included assignments in seven states. He moved to his retirement community in 2021, and immediately volunteered to assist the Spiritual Life Department.

Maple Knoll Village Chaplain Reverend Nancy Villaboy-Allphin said Father Peterson’s Mass attendance continues to grow. Roughly 10 people attend his Tuesday Masses, but sometimes more than 20 are present on Saturday evenings. He celebrates Mass privately the other weekdays, and worships with the Glenmary community at headquarters on Sundays.

“A special moment that stands out was when one of our residents wanted to be baptized,” Villaboy-Allphin said. “Father Pete met with her to prepare, and her adult children were able to be present when their mother received the sacrament of baptism. Father Pete has been and continues to be a blessing to many of his neighbors and staff at Maple Knoll Communities.”

“I value the Mass, and if I can, I want to celebrate it,” Father Peterson said. “It’s always meant a lot to me, and it still does.”

ABOVE: Father Gerald “Pete” Peterson delivers access to the sacraments more than 70 years into his career. RIGHT: Glenmary Director of Ecumenism Nathan Smith speaks

Efforts at unity

ecumenism / Getting together

Glenmary Director of Ecumenism

Nathan Smith says the exchange of testimonies is a powerful tool. That’s precisely why a group of Catholics, Baptists and Church of God leaders gathered this winter in Atlanta, Ga.

“What that does is kind of changes our perceptions of other Christians on almost a tacit level,” Smith said. “There cannot be ecumenism without a transformation of the heart.”

The gathering followed the model of the Global Christian Forum, a group of representatives from different Christian denominations who strive for unity.

“We had a few plenaries [larger discussions] and then we spent most of the day in small roundtable discussions ... and we worshiped together,” Smith said.

Ecumenism is important to the mission of Glenmary, he added. Catholics are a minority in Glenmary mission areas, and a high percentage of people do not affiliate with any church.

Photo Courtesy of Cathedral of Christ the King Comm. Dept.

at a Global Christian Forum event in Atlanta, Ga.

Photo by John Feister

Toppa Joppa gets new prayer space

spirituality / Stations of the Cross installed at volunteer site

A new prayer experience has been added to the Glenmary Volunteer Program in Grainger County, Tenn. In January, the staff installed a bilingual outdoor Stations of the Cross display.

“The Stations of the Cross seem to fit in with the retreat-like nature of the place,” said Joe Grosek, volunteer director. “I thought the stations would reflect well with the younger volunteers who served.”

The stations at the volunteer program site came from a gift by Michael and Jacinta Mergler, in memory of their parents, Ralph Anthony & Charlotte Theresa Mergler, and Norbert Jude & Sylvia Mae Ferry. The staff purchased the set of stations in English, and a group of young people from Glenmary’s St. Michael the Archangel mission in Unicoi County, Tenn., decorated them and translated them into Spanish. Adult volunteers helped finish the project.

The new stations are located on a wooded hillside near the main volunteer house. They have traditional imagery, but also vibrant decor and inspirational text. For example, on the ninth station “Jesus falls for the third time,” a note reads, “God never gives up on his people.”

The volunteer site, known colloquially as Toppa Joppa due to its location atop Joppa Mountain, hosted more than 250 volunteers in 2022. The groups of high school, college and adult volunteers do service projects in the community during the day, and in the evenings often participate in spiritual exercises.

For more information on the Glenmary Group Volunteer Program, visit Glenmary.org/volunteer.

ABOVE: Thanks to generous donors and the artful additions made by the youth group at St. Michael the Archangel mission, Glenmary’s volunteer site on nearby Joppa Mountain, Tennessee, now has an outdoor Stations of the Cross.

• St. John Paul II mission in Grainger County, Tenn., teamed up with the Lions’ Club of Knoxville in late February to offer an eye clinic to parishioners and members of the local community who lacked vision insurance. As a result, 25 people received new glasses at no cost.

• Holy Family mission in Macon County, Tenn., participated in an Ecumenical Revival the week of January 18-22, which was also the week for Prayer for Christian Unity. At least five Christian communities participated, with Glenmary Father Samuel Mungai delivering remarks at the Assemblies of God church. Holy Family hosted the final night of the revival.

• Serving Our Neighbor (SON) Ministries of Maria Stein, Ohio, a crew of construction volunteers, visited Glenmary’s Holy Family mission in Early County, Ga., to provide extensive repairs and maintenance on the church building. While in town, they partnered with C-Hope Ministries to remodel four transitional houses that are used to help recovering addicts get back on their feet.

• Fathers Richard Toboso and José Carlos Miguel López, of St. Joan of Arc mission in Washington County, N.C., joined other local ministers this winter for a service week. Local volunteers and members of Islamic Relief USA participated in repairing a trailer for a family in need. Afterwards, the group engaged in respectful dialogue and faith sharing.

Photos by Joe Grosek

Photo by Clarisa Chavarría

Father François Pellissier is living the Glenmary charism and mission, but in a different way than many of his confreres. Based in Georgia, his primary works are prison ministry and marriage ministry through a program called Retrouvaille (pronounced retro-vi).

Bringing the Church to Them

BY JOHN STEGEMAN

Father François delivers the joy of faith to the imprisoned and those in struggling marriages.

“My motto is, if you’re a pastor you invite people to church or the hall,” Father François says. “I don’t invite them to church. I bring the Church to them in subtle ways by being who I am.”

Saintly intercession

Father François was one of Glenmary’s first candidates from overseas. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine on the outskirts of Paris, he came to the United States under temporary oath with the Little Brothers of the Gospel. The brothers sent him to serve in Appalachia, in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. At the time he was a welder and worked in a school as a shop teacher. There he met Glenmary Fathers Bob Bond and Les Schmidt. Brother Francis, as he was known, stayed in touch with the Glenmarians when the brothers sent him to New York for his next assignment. There, an encoun-

ABOVE: Father François strives to be the smiling face of Jesus Christ to those he serves. LEFT: Father François will celebrate 46 years as a missioner this May.

Photo by Katie Camario

Photo courtesy of Glenmary Archives

ter with a potential saint helped him to change the direction of his vocation.

While doing music ministry at a New York parish, he met Dorothy Day, co-foundress of the Catholic Worker Movement and candidate for sainthood. Father François said Dorothy was like a grandmother to the brothers. One day, she encouraged him to pursue the priesthood. He’d felt the call to sacramental ministry before, and this moment reinforced his desire. He chose not to renew his oath with the Little Brothers.

Gaining a home

Recalling his relationship with Glenmary, Father François remembered the enthusiasm and welcoming attitude of the men he’d met in Virginia.

“I was very impressed with the community life,” he says. “The story of Glenmary’s ministry with outreach and door-knocking and welcoming everybody resonated with me.”

Father François made his First Oath with Glenmary in 1978, and was ordained a priest in 1981, just 11 days after becoming a U.S. citizen.

A variety of roles followed. One constant was that Father François always sought to serve the poor and marginalized. At the turn of the century he served in Hispanic outreach, and even spent two years working in Mexico.

Prison ministry

While serving in Claxton, Ga., in the 1990s, Father François began his foray into prison ministry. First, at Smith Prison in Glennville, and later at an immigration detention center in Lumpkin. He’s met detainees from all over the world. Father François brought in Bibles, rosaries and said Mass.

At various stops along the way, he encountered trouble. In one prison, a Baptist chaplain with anti-Catholic bias made things difficult. At another, he faced discrimination for his own French background. Eventually, the COVID-19 pandemic halted his ministry for a time.

Today, Father François visits multiple prisons and detention centers in South Georgia, including in the Department of Juvenile Justice.

“I was working with youth from 12 to 18 years old,” Father François says. “I’m known there as Mr. François. We don’t talk about me being a Catholic priest, but we do church.”

Once, he asked the youths if they knew the prayer that started, “Our Father.” No one did. So, by repetition, Father François taught them.

“It blew my mind. I never presumed that kids would have no exposure whatsoever to the Our Fa-

ther!” he says. “These kids deserve to come to church.”

In the adult prisons, Father François doesn’t find too many practicing Catholic inmates. Sometimes one to three people will attend Mass. But like all Glenmarians, Father François sees all the people as worthy of his attention, not just Catholics. He has participated in the past in Kairos retreats, an interdenomina-

tional prison ministry.

“Life in prison is a whole different life,” he said. “I never thought I would do prison ministry… It became my full time ministry here. One guy said to me, ‘Father, when you don’t come, either because you’re sick or if there is a lockdown, nobody else comes.’ I never

Father François (back row) and Brother Jason Muhlenkamp (right) work among the inmates at Wilcox State Prison in Abbeville, Ga., witnessing the faith to those in need.

“One guy said to me, ‘Father, when you don't come ... nobody else comes.’”

Photo courtesy of Father François Pellissier

forgot that.

“It’s a long-term ministry,” he added. “There’s a lot of intercession, a lot of praying. It’s a ministry that has no perks, no rewards. Ninety percent of the work is to show up.”

Marriage ministry

In the 2000s Father François became involved with Retrouvaille, a marriage ministry that grew out of the Worldwide Marriage Encounter movement. A fellow Glenmarian encouraged him to engage in this ministry. In the past two years, even amidst COVID-19, Fa-

ther François has been a part of Retrouvaille weekends in more than 30 communities. He describes it as similar to Marriage Encounter, but more therapeutic, for couples having serious marital problems.

“It’s helping a lot of people in Europe and Asia and Africa and in the United States,” he said. “I like to see

“I like to see the work of God in these couples ... you see miracles, there's no doubt."

the work of God in these couples over three days. You see miracles, there’s no doubt… It saves marriages. It saves families.”

Glenmary’s founder, Father William Howard Bishop, once said, “We are ministering to overlooked and forgotten people. Our quest for the neglected and forgotten takes us out beyond the boundaries of where the Church is at present established and obliges us to enter new lands where the Church is unknown.”

Father François’ ministry shows that those lands include not just the geographical areas served by Glenmary missions, but also the overlooked and forgotten people in different states of life.

Marriage workshops are part of Father François’ ministry. He works with Retrouvaille, a multi-day retreat for people with troubled marriages who are often at risk of divorce.

Photo by Katie Camario

Photo by Pedro Lima

Becoming Catholic

BY JOHN FEISTER

There was a voice in her heart; it was God calling: “I’m here to help you. I’m here to love you. Now come.” Unforgettable, she says, what charity leads to.

Welcome, Megan! Welcome to the Catholic community, where we gather around the Lord’s table together, where we help one another to live the inspiration that God gives us.

Those words sum up what Megan Headley heard from Glenmary’s Holy Family parish community in Macon County, Tenn., during the last few years. She found a caring, faithful community, and felt God calling her there.

For this past year she has been a proud, fully initiated member of the Catholic Church. Megan’s journey into the Church started with an observation. “I was working at the health department doing social work,” she recalls. “And I had a family that needed help paying the rent. I had been calling churches, the

help center, stuff like that.” She was having no luck.

“I saw the Catholic church [on a list of local resources]. It was kind of my last call, and I just remember praying for the first time in forever.” She bargained with God: “I was like, ‘Hey, if you help me with this family, I'll go to Mass this Sunday.’”

She heard the pastor, Glenmary Father Vic Subb, reply, simply, “‘We would love to help you out.’ So, of course, I came to Mass—and I made a good offering,” she adds, with a laugh.

“That was how it started. So I really felt like it was a sign God was saying, ‘I’m here to help and I’m here to love you. Now, come.’ Yeah, that was how it started,” she repeats, slowly. “You might call it a God moment—unforgettable.” She was 30.

It was the charitable witness of Glenmary’s Holy Family parish that brought Megan into Catholicism. She had been searching for an authentic faith community.

Photo by John Feister

Rite of Initiation

Each year at this time, many Glenmary parishes celebrate the reception of new members into the Catholic Church. The yearlong program of preparation and welcome for these new parishioners culminates at the Easter Vigil, the night we begin the Easter season. How people come into the Church, though, starts long before that. And the Holy Spirit works in each one, in his or her own way. The usual process of formation is called the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults, RCIA for short.

dicts, she says. She was trying to fill her void in all the wrong ways. “I was trying to stuff things into my life as a child or adolescent, I guess. I wasn’t a bad kid, but I smoked a lot of pot. I hung out with the wrong people. My life could have ended up very different if I didn’t have good people in my life to support me.” She had dropped out of high school.

“I think that having kids was really the turning point of my void.” She thought, “O.K., you’ve gotta get yourself together now. There’s not a lot of other options.” She thought back on her school experience, on her job as a social worker helping people in the community. She kept pondering: “Now what are you gonna do with all of it? How are you gonna make it make sense?” “And I think that’s when God came in.”

Megan met with a group of fellow catechumens— newcomers praying and being educated in the faith— over the course of the year. In Glenmary’s small parishes, these groups tend to be small as well; Megan’s group was five.

During that time, she reflected on and shared on her life journey, a journey which brought her to the doors of the Church. “I think I’ve spent most of my life realizing there was a void,” she says. Her childhood home was anything but stable. Both of her parents were ad-

She was one of the majority in Glenmary areas who aren’t a member of any church. She started attending Mass, after her encounter with the Church’s generosity. Eventually, Father Vic invited her to join the RCIA group that was forming.

Time of questions

“It was really helpful as far as my decision making,” she says. “And they made it a safe space so I could ask questions without feeling judged if there was something that I didn’t agree with. I was like, ‘Well, why do we do this?’” She felt free to ask hard questions. “Then

Pastor Father Charles Aketch teaches class for newcomers to the Catholic Church. It’s a prayerful consideration of faith, experience, scripture and tradition.

"I was trying to stuff things into my life as a child or adolescent ... I hung out with the wrong people."

Photo by John Feister

I was given explanations that made sense to me, that I could piece together with the Bible.”

Because her experience was at the height of the pandemic, RCIA was via Zoom. This past year it’s been in person again. She admits she is kind of jealous of that, but, on the other hand, it worked well for a busy mom. There was a catechetical textbook that

the group used to work through various dimensions of Catholic faith.

“Anything you could think of, it was talked about [in that book]. I didn’t leave with a lot of questions. Let’s put it that way.” She laughs when she considers how thorough it was!

Then she was baptized last Easter. Alleluia!, the Church surrounding her proclaimed. “It was really exciting! I was really nervous building up to it. I told my godmother, Marge, ‘It’s kind of like getting married, in a way.’ It had that same kind of buildup feeling of this is something that I really want.

“And then when it happens, it’s very fulfilling. I remember feeling just an overwhelming sense of joy. I held it together, but that night when I got home, I cried tears of joy.”

Today, things are different for Megan than they were before that fateful call to Father Vic. “It’s like I found the community that was a missing piece of me, like a puzzle piece,” she says. “I have a sense of completion.”

Every Glenmary missioner’s dream is to share the fullness of the Gospel with people in counties new to the Catholic Church. Eventually, they hope to gather a faith community and establish a permanent Catholic Church. That starts by trusting the Holy Spirit will work, one person at a time. It continues in public witness, proving to the community that you are prayerful, that you and other Catholics are giving and caring in the community. There’s proof in Megan Headley, praying her rosary at the end of the day, work behind her and children asleep. She’s looking forward to Mass this weekend amidst her new community of faith.

The Church lovingly receives Megan at the Easter Vigil. In the light of the Paschal Candle sin is renounced, faith is professed, then Father Charles pours the waters of Baptism.

As the parish grows, the Easter Vigil is not about one person; rather it is about more and more people (or families) responding to God’s call to the community of faith.

Megan, in baptismal white of course, poses with friends and family who have lovingly supported her choice to join the Church. Now, in 2023, she is in the choir, singing a joyful song!

Photos courtesy of Holy Family Facebook Page

“I remember feeling just an overwhelming sense of joy. I held it together, but that night when I got home, I cried tears of joy.”

Threethings struck Evarist Mukama during his first week in the United States after arriving from Uganda. First, the cold weather, typical of mid-January. Second, the very few people he saw on the streets of St. Meinrad, a small community in southwest Indiana, where the Glenmary House of Formation is located.

“In Africa, you find that people are outside, moving. But here, when you go outside, the place is quiet, nobody’s moving,” Evarist said. He left his native Uganda with an average temperature above 70 degrees, and came to experience the low 30s in St. Meinrad.

But the third aspect that impressed Evarist overcomes the other two. “It’s very good being here with Glenmary. The community is welcoming,” he says.

Glenmary Is Growing

BY OMAR CABRERA

“When we are here (at the House of Formation), the good thing is that we are all interacting like brothers.”

Evarist came to the U.S. as a Glenmary student, along with Aloysius Ssennyondo, now his classmate. They are part of a group of 15 men currently preparing to become priests or brothers.

“This is the largest group we’ve had in more than a decade,” says Father Aaron Wessman, Glenmary’s director of formation. “And it is one of the biggest in three decades."

Glenmary began to get a consistent number of vocations in the mid 2000s, after getting very few in the 1980s and 90s, Father Aaron says. “You’d have to go back to the 1970s, I think, until you see larger groups.”

“It’s a big class!” says Father Bruce Brylinski, director of the Glenmary House of Formation at St. Meinrad. That makes him feel “excited,” because “it’s good to know that young men are interested in mission, interested in living the Glenmary way of life. I think it also creates a vitality that they’re willing to share the struggle and the hope that is needed in mission.”

Of the 15 men in formation, eight are from Kenya, three are from Uganda, one was born in Vietnam, and

ABOVE: Glenmary students and Father Bruce Brylinski live in a packed House of Studies. LEFT: Aloysius Ssennyondo, left, and Evarist Mukama, both of Uganda, are two new students.

Photo by Omar Cabrera

Boosted by vocations from East Africa, the society has its largest number of students in more than 10 years.

Photo by Omar Cabrera

three are from the United States. Ten are preparing to become priests and five to become brothers.

The fact that Glenmary has reached its largest number of students in over a decade is “a grace and a blessing from God,” Father Aaron says. “It’s humbling to see God’s sending us people who are saying yes to at least look at our way of life.”

To add to this good news, Glenmary is hoping to accept at least four new students this year. Father Aaron sees this as a confirmation that the society’s decision to accept men from other countries beyond the United States is attuned with God’s will. “If you judge something by the fruit, we can see that, in fact. It seems to be working quite well,” he says.

HOME MISSION PRAYER

Lord Jesus Christ, who, for the salvation of all people, founded your Church in the Blood of Sacrifice, look with mercy on this land of ours where your truth is unknown to many for whom you endured your passion and death.

We commend to your Sacred Heart the work of carrying your gospel to the mission regions of America.

Raise up holy and zealous apostles to bring your words of salvation to souls now thirsting for the truth.

Have mercy on them, Lord, and send shepherds to lead them into your one true fold. Amen!

Father Bruce Brylinski directs life at the House of Formation, which includes frequent celebrations of Mass in Our Lady of the Fields Chapel.

Br. Erick Orandi

Jude Smith

Fredrick Ochieng’

Philip Langford

Br. Willy Kyagulanyi

Ferdinand Aliet

Cavine Okello

Raphael Kavita

Br. Thomas Nguyen

Evarist Mukama

Alex Omari

Joseph Maundu

Aloysius Ssennyondo

Br. Corey Soignier

Hugh Palapala

This prayer excerpt by Glenmary Founder Father William Howard Bishop is still recited today, including the call to "raise up holy and zealous apostles."

Photo by Omar Cabrera

The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World

by john stegeman

Father Aaron Wessman had the unique opportunity to study and live outside the United States from 2014 to 2017. When he came home, he was confronted with the reality of a significantly more polarized atmosphere than when he left. Soon enough, his personal interest in the topic transformed into his debut as an author with The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World.

Challenge staff sat down with Father Aaron to discuss the project.

How did this book come about?

I didn’t anticipate writing a book. I gave a talk at St. Meinrad Seminary in 2019. In that talk, I began to outline the ideas that would begin to infuse the book which exists today. It’s kind of surprising in a sense, how God works. I had a lot of people come up to me after that talk and they said, ‘I’m really interested in that theme. Can you point me in the direction of other resources? Can you give me suggestions on how to approach that topic?’ I realized that there was somewhat of a lacuna existing addressing specifically the challenge of polarization from a Christian perspective.

Who is the audience?

I’m trying to speak to the Catholic world, trying to speak to a Protestant Evangelical Christian world. Then I’m also trying to speak to the world of folks who maybe don’t believe in Christianity, but do have a concern for what is happening in the American context. I would say first and foremost, the audience is anybody who is concerned about the polarized climate that exists in the United States. I think that it’s a book that’s accessible.

Were there any challenges in writing this book?

It’s a unique experience to write a book in which, while one is writing, the author himself is being challenged to transformation, and to look at my own life and ask, how have I been affected by polarized culture in the United States? How is it undermining my own discipleship? And how might I better conform my life to Christ in order to respond to the time in which we’re living? I provide some very practical tools for people to use.

It seems many people immediately label others based on these “culture war” issues. Is that something you address?

I do that too. I do that with my brother Glenmarians. I do that with family members. I do that in my ministry. I was really saddened sometimes when I was writing the book, because I said, ‘that’s me, right?’ That’s me struggling to live in the culture that exists in the United States. In a sense, the book was kind of me seeking a life raft in the flood.

How is the book structured?

The first third of the book looks at the theme of polarization based on sociology, political science, psychology, philosophy and theology.

The middle part actually serves as a kind of examination of conscience. I provide actual questions which people can consider in their own lives, looking specifically at the Christian demographic. What are we called to? How are we called to live in the Church? How can polarized culture tend to undermine that? And how might we be personally being called to change our lives to kind of conform ourselves to Jesus?

A Glenmarian has written a new book that is gaining national attention. It’s about overcoming what divides us.

Then the latter part of the book is really about how we should respond to polarization. I go through looking at the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and I articulate a theology of crossing over. The idea is that Christians are being called to be in conformity with the way in which Jesus lived his life. We’re called to leave our tribe, to leave our polarized group, not necessarily losing our identity, but to cross over to the outgroup, to the other, to cross over to even perhaps the other tribe in order to be in solidarity with them, to listen to them, to enter into conversation with them.

Has the Church been part of the problem in building a polarized culture?

With all humility, the Church, and in some cases other Christians, have adopted the metaphor of war to inform their missionary endeavors rather than adopting Christ as the image which forms their missionary endeavors. The consequences of that are evident…. I’m not excited to have to hold up something in which, first of all, I’m guilty of, but that I know is part of the Body of Christ, which is something that I have given my life to.

Some have said, ‘this is one of the most meaningful things that I’ve heard,’ and other people have gotten extraordinarily upset with me. They’ll say, you don’t understand. It’s so bad today that we need the war metaphor to form our response, because these people are the enemy. My response is always, I agree that there are challenges that the Church is facing today. However, we cannot let the challenges of our time force us to become something Jesus does not call us to

Father Aaron Wessman is an emerging voice in national Catholic thought. He serves on Glenmary’s Executive Council as First Vice President. The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World is his debut work as an author.

be. The war metaphor does impede us from living the message of the Gospel.

Can you expand more on how the war language isn’t helpful?

In essence, I create you as my enemy. When you’re my enemy, then war means I can bomb you, destroy you. I can put up security against you, put up bastions between you and me. I do not have to come close to you. I don’t have to talk to you. I don’t have to listen to you. in that sense, there’s just no way to share the Gospel with another person when we’ve done that. Jesus is so clear. Like, even if a person is our enemy, we’re to bless them and to pray for them, not destroy them. Love your enemies. It’s at the very heart of it. I admit it’s hard.

How does this book relate to Glenmary’s ministry?

Glenmary lives a theology of crossing over. This theme is central to the argument of the book. There are very specific references to the types of ministries done by Glenmarians that truly bring about unity. I refer specifically to Brother Craig Digmann, and his work in ecumenism, and to Father Steve Pawelk, and his work in a parish. Though unnamed, Brother Curt Kedley was the inspiration for some of the other examples.

The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World, published by New City Press, is available for $24.95 in paperback or $18.95 for the Kindle digital version. The book is available at NewCityPress.com, Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble and various Catholic bookstores.

Photo by John Feister

letters

COMMITTED TO GLENMARY

My wife Sally and I have supported different Catholic organizations around the country over the years. We’re especially attracted to Glenmary because of its commitment to building up the Church here in the United States. To our knowledge, Glenmary is the only group of its kind with that specific focus. We also appreciate how honest and genuine each of the Glenmarians we have had the opportunity to talk with are. We feel we can trust that the organization prioritizes being good stewards of our contributions. We know that we are supporting a group that is committed to bringing the Catholic faith to places in our own country that have not had access to it before. We hope that the Glenmary community receives many more vocations and is able to expand

to new mission areas so in need of Glenmary’s unique charism and ministry. I also love reading each issue of the Challenge magazine. It is very well laid out and easy to read. The stories are very genuine and not seeking to butter up or embellish the story. Much like the Glenmarians themselves, what you see is what you get—an authentic depiction of all the good things Glenmary is doing in its mission counties. Keep it up!

Jack Sauter • Rancho Mirage, CA

CHRISTIAN LOVE

You have brought Christian love to those in the southern areas you serve, undulled by divisions and denominations. Jesus grew up in a tradition and extended that with a few Golden Rule teachings. Your work reflects this uncompromising devotion and brings out the kernel of our Lord’s teachings.

John Williams • Flushing, NY

TELL US YOUR STORY!

We love getting your letters! We appreciate the compliments and even the critiques about the magazine. But don’t think it’s limited to that! We’d love to hear about how Glenmary has touched your life. Did a priest help you in a difficult time? Was one of our brothers there for you when you needed guidance? Did you have a great experience at our volunteer program? We would love to read these stories and share them with the greater Glenmary family. Thank you, and God bless!

John Stegeman • Editor

we want your feedback ! Send to: Editor, Glenmary Challenge, P.O. Box 465618, Cincinnati, OH 45246. Email: challenge@glenmary.org. Comments are printed at the discretion of the editor and may be edited for clarity and space. Please include a postal address with your letter.

We love Ash Wednesday in the missions! Throughout the entire year we in Glenmary encourage the people of our missions to witness publicly to their faith. We speak about the fact that all people are called to be missioners. This public, missionary witness is never stronger than on Ash Wednesday. Jesus, help us to rend our hearts and increase our capacity to love you this Lent!

Youth from Glenmary's St. John Paul II mission in Grainger County, TN recently had the opportunity to meet Joan Constance Browning (second from right). Ms. Browning was a Freedom Rider and civil rights activist known for participating in non-violent protests in the southern US in the 1960s. We give thanks for her dedication to the marginalized in our mission areas, and her willingness to share with our youth.

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May the light of the Holy Spirit shine brightly upon you. You can make a difference in rural America. Learn more at glenmary.org

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Glenmary Home Missioners

Brother Joe Steen carefully removes faceted-glass windows crafted in Lewis County, Kentucky. The windows, once at the Glenmary Farm chapel, are being relocated.

Photo by John Feister