April 2016

THE 33-DAY PAPACY

ST. ANTHONY APRIL 2016 • $3.95 • FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

Nepal’s Earthquake Survivors A Marriage Renovation Admitting Anger with God Hand-Me-Down Prayer

Messenger

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ยฉ2016

CONTENTS

ST. ANTHONY Messenger

❘ APRIL 2016 ❘ VOLUME 123/NUMBER 11

ON THE COVE R

28 Nepal’s Earthquake Survivors

Out of the rubble, the Nepalese are rising with a sense of determination and hope. Despite the struggle, there are still moments of joy, as shown in the faces of these three survivors.

A year after the destruction, these heroic people are rebuilding in hope.

By Dr. Mike Gable

Photo by Joe Thaler, MM

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 The Power of Hand-Me-Down Prayer

2 Dear Reader 3 From Our Readers

A family Bible, a prayer card, a saint medal—all these things provide a spiritual legacy for future generations.

By Maureen Pratt

4 Followers of St. Francis Michael Della Penna, OFM

6 Reel Time Eddie the Eagle

20 The 33-Day Papacy Though brief, Pope John Paul I’s papacy had far-reaching influence on future Church leaders.

By Mo Guernon

14

The Boonies

10 Church in the News 13 Year of Mercy

34 Angry with God

An Oasis of Mercy

A vibrant relationship with God requires us to own our emotions—even anger. Just ask Job and Abraham.

By Richard B. Patterson, PhD

40 A Marriage Renovation For this couple, an unfinished summer cottage becomes a symbol of their marriage.

By Nancy Grilli

8 Channel Surfing

26 Editorial Rise of the Nones

45 At Home on Earth

20

The Realities of Resurrection

50 Ask a Franciscan Praying to the Saints Only?

46 Fiction: Bags

52 Book Corner

She found peace in the water.

By Joan Sauro, CSJ

The Nones Are Alright

54 A Catholic Mom Speaks Less Can Be More

56 Backstory

34

DEAR READER

ST. ANTHONY M essenger

St. John Lateran In the spring of 1206, Francis of Assisi made his first pilgrimage to Rome. Popes then lived at the Lateran Palace next to this fourth-century basilica, later rebuilt and enlarged several times. Popes started living at St. Peter’s only in the 15th century.

As the cathedral of the bishop of Rome, St. John Lateran is considered the “head and mother” of Catholic churches throughout the world. Its dedication is celebrated on November 9.

Francis did not meet Pope Innocent III during his 1206 visit, but three years later he returned with 11 friars to seek papal approval for a new way of gospel living. Pope Innocent reportedly had a dream in which his cathedral was in danger of collapsing, but a scruffy man (later identified as Francis) emerged to prop it up.

One of Giotto’s frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis portrays that dream. In 1926, Mussolini had a series of statues erected at the edge of the cathedral’s piazza. Viewed from the proper angle, St. Francis is still holding up the building.

Friars Minor have served as multilingual confessors there since 1569.

Publisher/CEO Daniel Kroger, OFM Chief Operating Officer Thomas A. Shumate, CPA Editor in Chief John Feister Art Director Jeanne Kortekamp Franciscan Editor Pat McCloskey, OFM Managing Editor Susan Hines-Brigger Associate Editor Christopher Heffron Assistant Editor Daniel Imwalle Editorial Assistant Sharon Lape Advertising tammy monjaras

Click the button on the left to hear Father Pat’s further reflections on St. John Lateran.

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(U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 123, Number 11, is published monthly 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.

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Member of the Catholic Press Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright ©2016. All rights reserved.

2 ❘ Apr il 2016

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

FROM OUR READERS

For Theologians Only I have been a subscriber to St. Anthony Messenger for many years and have continuously been inspired and enlightened. This is my first letter to “From Our Readers.” It was motivated by Joe McHugh’s article, “What Ramadan Taught Me about Lent.” I found this article to be totally inappropriate for your publication. The “passing over” and “passing back” process the author described would interest perhaps a few theologians and almost no one else. The lessons to be learned are scant indeed.

Fred J. Rudolph Jensen Beach, Florida

Pope Francis: A ‘Gold Standard’ I’m writing in response to the letter entitled “The Pope’s Courage Was Needed in Cuba,” from the February

What’s on Your Mind?

Letters that are published do not necessarily represent the views of the Franciscan friars or the editors. We do not publish slander or libel. Please include your name and postal address. Letters may be edited for clarity and space.

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issue. Regarding the comparison of Popes John Paul II and Francis: I cannot believe the reference to Francis as lacking the brilliance and charisma of John Paul. Our present pope has become a papal gold standard. His charisma is stunning to watch. This man is a people magnet—especially for disaffected Catholics.

I worked at the papal Mass in Philadelphia, and I can attest that he is mesmerizing in action. Making comparisons about brilliance between two educated men is ridiculous. The letter writer makes judgments based on her opinion of political situations that are totally unrelated to either man’s charm or intelligence. As for the bravery of Pope Francis, he has taken a brutally frank position on the issue of clergy sexual abuse, far and above what his predecessors took.

Jim Finnegan Rockledge, Pennsylvania

Look to Jesus, Not Dictators The letter from the February issue entitled “The Pope’s Courage Was Needed in Cuba” prompted me to write a response. I am constantly bemused not only by the conservative antipathy to Pope Francis, but by its motivation. The ideal leader for conservatives is a man of power, one who will scold, wag his finger, dictate, denounce, and condemn: an authoritarian. Francis doesn’t conform to the pattern. He’s not the strong man—the Caesar. For him, power is replaced by service, authority by humility, scolding and judgment by modesty and mercy.

Poor Francis, where did he find such a wimpy model? “The meek shall inherit the earth.” “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” “I am among you as one who serves.” “Let him who is sinless among you first cast a stone.” These

are the words of Jesus. And there are more like them throughout the New Testament. Do conservatives read the New Testament, understand it, or take it seriously? The chief objects of Jesus’ scathing denunciations were the self-righteous, the smug, the powerful—the Pharisees. Francis is not the hoped-for potentate. His model is Jesus. And the more Christlike Francis is, the more hostile the conservatives become.

Peter Farley Brooklyn, New York

Balance Understanding with Discipline I found Susan Hines-Brigger’s column “A Catholic Mom Speaks” in the January issue to be a bit disturbing.

I think the author, in trying to be understanding of teenage behavior, is more accepting of what I see as insolence, discourtesy, and a dismissive superior attitude on the children’s part, as described in the article. Any parent knows that when puberty—with the accompanying flood of hormones and new discoveries—invades our children’s lives, we absolutely have to ask the Lord for his wisdom in knowing how to handle the changes that take place as a result; we must back off and let them sort out their growing up.

At the same time, they must not be allowed to be so wrapped up in themselves that they lose sight of who they are—and who their parents are. My wife and I have five children, grown adults now, who throughout their teenage years faced the same angst that all teenagers have faced over time. We balanced discipline with understanding and love, but we would never put up with the type of crass behavior that I see many parents today accept as normal. Discourtesy should never be accepted.

Thomas Tebbens Center Moriches, New York April 2016 ❘ 3

F O L L O W E R S O F S T. F R A N C I S

A Father Figure to Hundreds

R

oughly 30 minutes east of Guatemala City, set against a backdrop of lush forest and rolling hills, the Valley of the Angels Orphanage is a home and haven for 211 children. Despite the abundant natural beauty, the rural area is rife with poverty and crime. “We are in what’s called a ‘Red Zone,’ where the police will not go because of all the gang activity. The homes surrounding our school are basically shacks comprised of makeshift roofs and miscellaneous materials,” says Father Michael Della Penna, OFM, director of the orphanage.

Since taking over as director in 2008, Father Michael has had some big shoes to fill. The Valley of the Angels, a ministry of the Franciscan Friars of the Immaculate Conception Province, was the dream of Father Rocco Famiglietti, OFM. He founded the orphanage in 1993, after having served in Guatemala for 40 years.

Originally from Boston and a Franciscan since 1991, after years of teaching and directing retreats, Father Michael felt God calling him to Central America and to poverty. “I had studied, preached about, and vowed poverty, but never experienced it

Michael Della Penna, OFM

firsthand, living in or ministering in the reality of poverty,” he explains. At 89 years old, Father Rocco was finally ready for retirement, and Father Michael was brought in to carry on the work of the orphanage. Assisting him in his work are two other Franciscan friars, three Franciscan sisters, and a steady flow of volunteers from the United States and Canada (many of whom are from Catholic high schools and universities).

The children receive more than shelter and an education at Valley of the Angels.

Faith formation plays an important role in their daily lives, including saying prayers of gratitude after waking up each morning and praying the rosary after dinner. Art, music, and exercise also figure in to the daily routine at the orphanage. The grounds are carefully tended, helping to nurture a positive environment.

“It is a beautiful place that was specifically designed to remind the children of their own inherent goodness and value, while highlighting the beauty of God’s creation and care for them,” Father Michael says. The children take frequent nature walks, soaking in the splendor around them.

STORIES FROM OUR READERS Learn more about St. Anthony and share your story of how he helped you at AmericanCatholic.org/ Features/Anthony.

PHOTO FROM INGIMAGE

50-Dollar Answer

4 ❘ Apr il 2016

On a cold, rainy Sunday morning, I joined three of my religious community sisters for a hot brunch. The local restaurant was humming with the noise of crowded tables and clanging dishes.

The waitresses were moving rapidly in every direction with food trays and coffeepots. As we were enjoying our eggs, I asked the waitress for coffee. In great distress, she said, “Please wait, I just lost a customer’s bill and his 50 dollars.”

We immediately bowed our heads, prayed to St. Anthony for the recovery of the item, and then spent another moment in private prayer. One sister could see the frantic waitress going through a trash container in the kitchen. About 15 minutes later, she rushed to our table waving the 50 dollars and then happily poured our coffee. That cup of steaming brew tasted better knowing that she was so relieved.

—Sister Mary C. Carroll, SSSF, Hales Corners, Wisconsin

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Click here to visit the Valley of the Angels Orphanage website.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Knowing Christ Crucified In 2 Celano LXXI, we read that once when Francis was very ill, one of the friars volunteered to read to him from Scripture. Francis thanked the friar for the offer but replied, “I have already taken in so much of Scripture that I have more than enough for meditating and reflecting. I do not need more, son; I know Christ poor and crucified” (2 Cor 2:2).

Thomas of Celano tells us that Francis had three main devotions: the crib, the cross, and the Eucharist. Each one reinforced the other two. –P.M.

PHOTO BY RON RACK

The inspiration of St. Francis of Assisi is at the heart of the orphanage’s mission.

“Francis not only went out to those who were pushed aside and forgotten and showed them love, but he chose to live with them and like them in solidarity,” Father Michael observes. “We, therefore, promote the virtues he espoused: fraternity, love of creation, reconciliation, and humility.”

Another Francis motivates Father Michael’s call to be with the poor. “Pope Francis’ antidote to our getting so caught up in our own interests and concerns is cultivating a missionary spirit that breaks through our culture of prosperity, which deadens us to the plight of the poor,” he says.

Success stories of Valley of the Angels alumni abound. Just this year, a number of students were offered scholarships to a local Jesuit university. Father Michael beams about one former student, named Gladys, who is in her third year of discernment as a Franciscan sister. “I can truly say I feel like a father here at Valley of the Angels. It’s more than a school: it is a family.”

—Daniel Imwalle

tal Digi as Extr

To learn more about Franciscan saints, visit SaintoftheDay.org.

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April 2016 ❘ 5

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REEL TIME

W I T H S I S T E R R O S E PA C AT T E , F S P

Eddie the Eagle

© 2015 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX / PHOTO BY LARRY HORRICKS

SISTER ROSE’S

Favorite

Political Films

Meet John Doe The American President Lincoln All the President’s Men Dave

6 ❘

April 2016

Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman shine in the inspiring Eddie the Eagle, based on a true story.

From the time he was a child in a leg brace, Eddie Edwards (Taron Egerton) wanted to be an Olympian. When he failed to qualify for the British ski team in 1984, he set his sights on the ski jump. His dad, Terry (Keith Allen), is a plasterer who wants his son to become one, too. His mother, Janette (Jo Hartley), the more supportive parent, helps Eddie with money when he decides to go to Germany to learn how to ski jump.

The jumpers from Norway and Finland mock Eddie, but he finds a reluctant friend in Bronson Peary (Hugh Jackman), an alcoholic and former member of the USA Team, who now runs the local ski jump. Like everyone else, Peary thinks Eddie is crazy at first, but agrees to coach him. Peary has his own burdens, such as disappointing his former coach (Christopher Walken) years before.

When it comes time to qualify for the team for the 1988 Calgary Olympics, the British committee members change the rules, making it almost impossible for Eddie

to jump the distance required. But he overcomes every obstacle to achieve his dream.

For Eddie, it’s about the effort, not about winning. He becomes a folk hero and the media dubs him “Eddie the Eagle.”

This is an inspiring, entertaining, and unique sports film about a young man of great character. Eddie is a persevering underdog and such an improbable hero that you cannot help but root for him. Watching the film was like being at a sporting event: the entire audience was cheering. Taron Egerton embodies Eddie very well. Jackman, whose character is fictional, is an appealing rascal.

A-3, PG-13 ■ Mature themes and peril.

Hail, Caesar!

Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest comedy steps back into Hollywood’s golden years of the late ’40s to give us a look at how studios dealt with the morality of their films and the behavior of their stars. Eddie Mannix St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

CNS PHOTO/UNIVERSAL

George Clooney is an A-list actor kidnapped by Communists in Joel and Ethan Coen’s funny, if flawed, Hail, Caesar!

Where to Invade Next In this documentary, Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore “invades” various countries to plant an American flag and bring back their best ideas for social harmony. After all, as many people tell him, these principles are outlined in the US Constitution.

In Portugal, Moore interviews three policemen who tell him that all their training is rooted in the idea of human dignity, and that decriminalizing drugs is one of the Fr anciscanMedia.org

COURTESY OF WHERE TO INVADE NEXT

(Josh Brolin), a Catholic who is constantly going to confession after lying to his wife about his smoking, is a studio “fixer.” When DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson), the starlet, becomes pregnant out of wedlock, it’s up to Mannix to find a moral bent to it, before the movie magazines get ahold of the story.

Mannix also brings together representatives from the Legion of Decency to make sure the theology of the studio’s latest Bible epic (think Ben-Hur) is acceptable. When the film’s star, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), is kidnapped by a secret Communist group, Mannix must come to the rescue—again.

Hail, Caesar! starts off as a look at the dimensions of Hollywood morality and immorality, but filmmakers wanted to make sure George Clooney got enough screen time as the dialogue-challenged actor. It is neither a successful satire of religion and Hollywood, nor a great comedy—but it was an enjoyable enough look at Tinseltown’s history.

L, PG-13 ■ Some sexuality, language, and violence.

best things the country ever did. In Sweden, he visits a maximum-security prison for men, where four unarmed guards keep watch over the prisoners and assure him that rehabilitation is their ultimate goal.

One of the women who ran the only bank in Iceland that did not collapse in 2008 says she would never live in America because individuals come before the community.

From a Catholic perspective, the only disappointment in this otherwise excellent documentary was holding up Tunisia as a model state, where abortion is seen as a triumph for women’s rights. And though Moore obviously esteems Italy’s paid parental leave and vacation policies, he neglects to mention that the country is practically broke because many won’t pay taxes.

Of all of Moore’s documentaries, Where to Invade Next is the most compelling because it avoids sarcasm and shows a simple strategy for America to become great again. It made me feel good.

Not yet rated, R ■ Language, brief nudity, images of violence.

Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore’s Where to Invade Next takes a look at our country in relation to other nations.

Catholic Cl assifications A-1 A-2 A-3 L O

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

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The Catholic News Service Media Review Office gives these ratings. See usccb.org/movies.

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For additional film reviews, go to americancatholic.org/movies.

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CHANNEL SURFING

WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

UP CLOSE

Tuesdays, 9 p.m., National Geographic Channel Solitude and spirituality often go hand in hand. St. Francis is a good example: the poor man of Assisi was known to seek refuge in caves for quiet and prayer. But 21st-century life, with our smartphones chiming at every tweet or text, rarely allow for that kind of detachment. But could you give it all up?

National Geographic Channel’s new reality series The Boonies showcases five individuals who have. Part survival series, part sociological glimpse into the perks and pitfalls of chosen isolation, The Boonies is a revealing examination of people against the backdrop of a harsh landscape.

The show follows five who have chosen to live on all sides of the grid: Joe Ray lives in the caves of Arkansas’ Ozark Mountains, Bear Claw resides on the hilltops of Idaho, Doc and Jeanny Leverett occupy a small treehouse in the forests of Washington State, and Dan Burton lives on the remote Beaver Island in Michigan.

The Boonies can be brutal viewing—fair warning. These folks kill what they eat and wear. Gritty, unapologetic, and altogether absorbing, this series shows how modern living isn’t desirable for everybody.

“In America, you’ve got choices,” Burton says, rather bluntly, “and this is my choice.”

For these five, the road less traveled has made all the difference.

Trisha’s Southern Kitchen

© NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS/ PHOTO BY PAUL TAGGERT

Saturdays, 10:30 a.m., Food Network There was a time when Food Network’s lineup involved four or five mainstay chefs hosting various programs, and all of them following the same recipe: prepare, cook, and serve. And while their culinary artistry was indisputable, even enviable, audiences wanted more diversity in both the recipe and host. Enter Trisha Yearwood.

Yearwood, the Grammy-winning country music artist, may seem like a strange fit for Food Network, but naysayers are eating their words. Not only is Trisha’s Southern Kitchen one of the most popular programs on the network’s roster, but the host won an Emmy for her efforts.

The fun and funny cook follows the same formula as such non-chef contemporaries as Ina Garten and Ree Drummond: she invites friends and family into the kitchen with her. The interplay is fun and informative without ever distracting. Yearwood’s recipes, Southern to be sure, are easy to follow for food-loving channel surfers.

But pay close attention to Yearwood herself.

With her innate warmth and lightning-fast comedic reflexes, she assembles her dishes in a fresh, manageable way. Points deducted for working a few too many country tunes into some episodes, but that’s a minor complaint. Yearwood has a gift that some seasoned chefs on the network do not: you actually want to spend time in her kitchen.

Doc and Jeanny Leverett, subjects of the docuseries The Boonies, have found happiness in the treetops of Washington State.

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© 2015 TELEVISION FOOD NETWORK / PHOTO BY RAY KACHATORIAN

The Boonies

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

Pope Addresses Social Issues in Mexico

Pope Francis touches the original image of Our Lady of Guadalupe after spending about 20 minutes in silent prayer before the image in Mexico City on February 13.

During his visit to Mexico in February, Pope Francis addressed a wide range of issues affecting the country, such as drugs, violence, and immigration issues, reported Catholic News Service (CNS).

The pope arrived in Mexico City on February 12 and hit the ground running, telling government leaders, “A hope-filled future is forged in a present made up of men and women who are upright, honest, and capable of working for the common good.”

Unfortunately, he said, today the common good “is not in such great demand.”

The pope then challenged Mexico’s bishops to confront the drug cartels and organized crime by raising their voices, developing pastoral plans, and “drawing in and embracing the fringes of human existence in the ravaged areas of our cities.” He told the bishops, however, that they need to work together in order to tackle the issues.

Later that day, Pope Francis cele1 0 ❘ Ap r il 2016

brated the first Mass of his trip with about 12,000 people inside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Another 30,000 participated in the basilica’s outer courtyard. In his homily, the pope said that, like St. Juan Diego, Christians are called to be Mary’s ambassadors and console those who are overwhelmed by trials and sufferings.

After the Mass, Pope Francis fulfilled his wish to silently pray before the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe. After laying a bouquet of yellow roses before the image, the pope sat in silence for about 20 minutes before he stood and placed his hand on the image before leaving the room.

During the trip, the pope made a number of stops, including a hospital, a prison, and a neighborhood on the northern edge of Mexico City known internationally as a hunting ground for girls to be forced into prostitution and for boys to enlist in the drug trade. Pope Francis urged

residents of Ecatepec to work together to “make this blessed land of Mexico a land of opportunities,” saying it should be a land where there is “no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.”

After spending most of his trip addressing societal issues, on the second-to-last day of his visit, the pope turned his attention to speaking on the importance of families. At a Mass in San Cristobal de las Casas, the pope said, “I prefer a wounded family that makes daily efforts to put love into play to a society that is sick from isolationism and is habitually afraid of love.”

The next day, in a much-anticipated event, he celebrated Mass with thousands watching from El Paso, Texas, and nearby Sun Bowl stadium.

In his homily, the pope called for compassion, change, and conversion on migration issues.

“The human tragedy that is forced migration is a global phenomenon today. This crisis, which can be measured in numbers and statistics, we want to measure instead with names, stories, and families,” he told the tens of thousands gathered.

Prior to the Mass, the pope blessed a large cross in memory of all the people who have crossed the frontier.

He said nothing, but clasped his hands tightly and bowed his head in silent prayer. He left flowers on a table in front of the cross.

On the flight home, Pope Francis once again held an impromptu press conference with reporters. He St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

CNS PHOTO/ PAUL HARING

N E W S B R I E F S N AT I O N A L A N D I N T E R N AT I O N A L French, said bishops are not obligated to report accusations of abuse to authorities.

The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith mandated in a 2011 letter that in every nation and region, bishops should have clear and coordinated procedures for protecting children, assisting victims of abuse, dealing with accused priests, training clergy, and cooperating with civil authorities. Describing sexual abuse of minors as “a crime prosecuted by civil law,” the doctrinal congregation said bishops should follow local laws that require reporting cases of sexual abuse to police. Not all countries mandate the reporting of abuse cases to police, however.

The Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors reaffirmed that beyond the mandates of civil law, all members of the Church “have a moral and ethical responsibility to report suspected abuse to the civil authorities who are charged with protecting our society.”

Pope Francis has called for a moratorium on executions during the Year of Mercy, reported Religion News Service. The plea came on February 21, just prior to an international conference against the death penalty, sponsored by the Community of Sant’Egidio.

“The commandment ‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty,” the pope said.

The US Bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs announced on February 8 that it is launching a new National CatholicMuslim Dialogue. Chicago Archbishop Blase Cupich will serve as the dialogue’s first Catholic cochair. For more than two decades, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ecumenical and interreligious committee has cosponsored three regional Catholic-Muslim dialogues, but Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts, chairman of the committee, said it is time to begin a national dialogue.

Despite reports to the contrary, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi says a talk given to new bishops during a Vatican-sponsored course “is not in any way—as someone erroneously interpreted—a new Vatican document or a new instruction or new guidelines for bishops” regarding the Church’s response to abuse against minors by religious. Some media outlets reported that a talk by French Msgr. Tony Anatrella, given in

responded to questions about contraception and the Zika virus, the recently publicized letters between St. John Paul II and a woman philosopher, the clergy sex-abuse scandal, and the reaction of Ukrainian Catholics to the declaration he signed with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow February 12 in Cuba. The topic that received the most attention, though, was when a reporter asked about presidential candidate Donald Trump’s proposal to extend the wall separatFr ancisca n Media .org

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Francis held a historic meeting in Cuba on February 12. During the two-hour meeting, the two discussed concrete proposals for working together, and signed a joint declaration that emphasized the things the two Churches have in common. For over 25 years, Russian Orthodox patriarchs have refused to meet a pope because of what the Moscow Patriarchate claims is “proselytism” on the part of Ukrainian Catholics, one of the Eastern Churches in full union with Rome. It was the first meeting between leaders of each Church since the Great Schism of 1054.

For more Catholic news, visit AmericanCatholic.org.

ing Mexico and the United States.

“A person who thinks only of building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, isn’t Christian,” the pope said. Trump has said that Pope Francis is a politician and is being used by Mexicans.

Justice Scalia Remembered for Love of Faith, Country During the funeral Mass on February 20 for the late Supreme Court Justice

Antonin Scalia, his son Father Paul Scalia heralded his father’s dedication to his faith, family, and country, reported CNS. The previous day, thousands of people passed through the Great Hall of the Supreme Court building to pay their respects to Scalia, whose body lay in repose.

Father Scalia, a priest of the Diocese of Arlington, Virginia, served as the main celebrant and homilist at his father’s funeral Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Nearly 100 A p r il 2 0 1 6 ❘ 1 1

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CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

CNS PHOTO/TYLER ORSBURN

Minors voted that one of its and chief executive officer of the members—a survivor of abuse National Association for People and victims’ advocate—take a Abused in Childhood, take a leave of leave of absence and consider absence to think about other ways to other ways to contribute to the help the commission externally. advisory body, reported CNS. Saunders told reporters, however, Pope Francis established the that he would not leave his position commission in 2014 to recomon the commission. mend better ways to protect “I was appointed by His Holiness minors and vulnerable adults Pope Francis, and I will talk only and how best to promote with him about my position,” he “local responsibility in the par- said February 6. ticular churches” concerning Saunders has been openly critical abuse perpetrated by members of Pope Francis and other top-level of the clergy.

Church leaders and of the slow pace US Cardinal Seán P. O’Malof the commission’s work when it ley of Boston—president of the came to bishops’ accountability in commission and one of the acting upon suspected and known pope’s top cardinal advisers— instances of abuse by priests. He told said in a written statement, the Associated Press that the comCardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington, DC, in “Peter Saunders has been asked mission members concluded that red, departs the Basilica of the National Shrine of to advise the commission on they could not trust him to stick to the Immaculate Conception after the funeral Mass the possible establishment of a the commission’s mandate to serve for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. victim survivor panel to work as a purely advisory body. with the commission.”

Father Lombardi told reporters on priests and bishops concelebrated Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father February 8 that it was clear the comthe Mass and were joined by about Federico Lombardi confirmed Februmission’s “course of action is not 36 deacons. The congregation of ary 8 that the 17-person commission undertaking a discussion, investiga3,300 people included Catholic “approved unanimously with one tion, judging individual cases” of laypeople and women and men reliabstention” that Saunders, founder abuse or lack of accountability. A gious, as well as guests of many different faiths.

Washington, DC, Cardinal Donald Wuerl welcomed Justice Scalia’s family members and friends and the dignitaries to the Mass.

In his homily, Father Scalia said, “God blessed Dad with a deep Catholic faith, the conviction that Christ’s presence and power continue in the world today through his body, the Church.” He added that Relics of St. Padre Pio, St. Leopold Arrive his father “loved the clarity and in Rome for Jubilee coherence of the Church’s teachings.

He treasured the Church’s ceremonies, especially the beauty of her At the request of Pope Francis, the mortal remains of St. Padre Pio ancient worship. He trusted the and St. Leopold arrived at Rome’s Basilica of St. Lawrence on Februpower of her sacraments as the ary 3, where they will remain throughout the Year of Mercy. Thoumeans of salvation, as Christ worksands of people waited hours outside the church to glimpse the ing within him for his salvation.” remains of the two Capuchin Franciscans, according to CNS. Capuchin Father Clayton Fernandes, the order’s secretary general, said, “There is one precise reason why Pope Francis wants Padre Pio Papal Commission Votes and St. Leopold [at the Vatican for the jubilee]. It’s because they are for Member to Take missionaries of mercy, and mercy as encountered in confession. These Leave of Absence are two friars who spent the big part of their life in the confessional.”

Members of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of

YEAR OF MERCY

❘ BY MARY DURRAN

An Oasis of Mercy The Corporal Works of Mercy ■ Feed the hungry ■ Give drink to the thirsty ■ Clothe the naked ■ Shelter the homeless ■ Visit the sick ■ Visit the imprisoned ■ Bury the dead

CNS PHOTO/ALICIA CABEZAS

The Spiritual Works of Mercy ■ Admonish the sinner ■ Instruct the ignorant ■ Counsel the doubtful ■ Comfort the sorrowful ■ Bear wrongs patiently ■ Forgive all injuries ■ Pray for the living and the dead Paulina Gongora Chim (left) and Elias Chin, whose mothers have HIV, live at Oasis San Juan de Dios in Conkal, Yucatán, Mexico. Oasis started in 1990 and has helped thousands of people with the disease.

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“It’s not enough to hand out condoms,” Méndez said. Education is essential in combating the disease. “Young people need to be taught about sexuality, and how to practice it responsibly, and couples also need to be taught about how to prevent HIV and stay healthy.” A

tal Digi as t Ex r

Click here for a longer version of this article.

Mary Durran is a freelance correspondent for Catholic News Service. Her work has also appeared in America magazine.

POPE FRANCIS ON MERCY “Encounter with God in prayer inspires us anew to ‘descend the mountain’ and return to the plain, where we meet many brothers weighed down by fatigue, sickness, injustice, ignorance, poverty, both material and spiritual.”

—Angelus, March 16, 2014

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CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

hen a man living in Mérida, Yucatán, became sick with AIDS and could no longer work, his landlords literally threw him out. A group of Servants of Mary sisters and some Catholic laypeople rented space nearby and started to care for him. The group became aware of more cases and started to rent apartments and houses to care for the sick.

From that case in the 1990s was born Oasis San Juan de Dios, which today houses 24 people. It grew to a movement that has won considerable battles in terms of access to drugs for the 6,400 people living with HIV in the Yucatán. Oasis staffers take a multipronged approach, including instructing people about what spreads the virus.

Carlos Méndez Benavides, Oasis director, explained the high incidence of HIV in Yucatán by the prevalence of cultural sexual practices among Mayan men and the lack of a state-sponsored education and prevention campaign. There is no sex education in state schools in Yucatán.

PHOTO FROM INGIMAGE

The Power of Hand-

staggeringly great wealth transfer has been happening for more than a decade and will continue for the next 30 to 40 years. From the greatest generation to baby boomers to the generations after them, it’s estimated that more than $42 trillion will change hands! But, besides tangible assets, there is the giving of another legacy, one whose value cannot be told in dollars and cents, or appraised worth. It is the legacy of prayer.

This spiritual legacy’s value might not be obvious at first. A scuffed and battered Bible or a crinkled cardboard box containing a jumble of rosaries, scapulars, and religious medals all might not look like objects worth keeping.

But those scribbled notes in the margins of a Bible might reveal clues to an ancestor’s per-

A A family Bible, a prayer card, a saint medal—all these things provide a spiritual legacy for future generations.

B Y M A U R E E N P R AT T

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Me-Down Prayer A prayer book? I thought. I have several already and don’t need another. Why is my mother giving this one to me?

“It belonged to my grandmother, my mother, and then me,” she said, her hand suspended over the tiny volume. “Now it’s time for you to have it.”

Suddenly the humble little book took on a profoundly personal meaning, and the gift went from puzzle to precious. No longer just an old volume of antiquated vintage, the prayer book became an unbroken link connecting three generations of strong, faithful women to me. I eagerly accepted it, tucked it into my carry-on, and embarked on a journey of discovery and delight.

The Tertiaries Companion: A Prayer Book for the Members of the Third Order Secular of St. Francis of Assisi opened the door to faith traditions and practices that my grandmother and great-grandmother had enjoyed, but that I knew nothing about. Both were members of the Third Order Secular, and both had clearly taken good care of the fragile volume, but I

A simple item, such as this prayer book the author received from her mother and grandmother, can connect the faith of generations.

sonality. Mass cards might mark important dates of birth and death that might otherwise be lost. Scapulars and saint medals reflect particular devotions and can tell of a relative’s prayer focus and faith journey. A childhood book about saints might rekindle faith that was once lost.

Truly, it is the story behind these items that holds worth and, often, connects us to family faith history that would otherwise be lost.

Increasing in Faith

Fr anciscanMedia.org

PHOTO BY MAUREEN PRATT

Just before I left Illinois to return to Los Angeles after Christmas vacation, my mother gently pressed a small, old book into the palm of my hand. It weighed next to nothing, and I could see that the black leather cover was smooth from constant use.

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Click the button above to hear an interview with an artist who creates saintly dolls for children and adults.

Telling and Living the Story As I explored the book and its context further, I discovered that others, too, are coming into

items related to family history and faith. Sometimes, the religious items left behind by family members might seem completely foreign to those who inherit them, but that makes them no less important to family faith traditions.

Joan Voss cannot even read the prayer book left to her by her grandmother, but she has a vivid memory of an experience that tells her everything she needs to know about how precious it is. Voss, director of liturgy and music at Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California, saw firsthand how fiercely her grandmother Bernice protected the book when other hands wanted to take it away.

“My grandmother was born in Poland in 1902,” Voss tells St. Anthony Messenger. “She moved to the United States in 1920, and she and my grandfather were devout Catholics.”

Voss’ grandmother went to Mass regularly, but she was not fluent in English.

“She always carried a Polish-language prayer book,” Voss remembers.

Eager to learn more about her Polish family roots, Voss convinced her mother and grandmother to make a trip to Communistcontrolled Poland in 1977, the year Bernice turned 75.

“It was a tough trip,” Voss says. “We didn’t

PHOTO BY MAUREEN PRATT

Even a language barrier cannot diminish the power of the Polishlanguage prayer book Joan Voss inherited from her grandmother.

had no recollection of this growing up.

As I settled down with the book after a long flight home, my mind was full of questions.

What was the Third Order Secular of St. Francis? What did my ancestors do as members?

How might this impact me?

As so many journeys of faith do, I started with prayer, beginning with the section called “Evening Prayers.” As I worked my way through four pages of specific praise and humble supplications, I imagined my greatgrandmother cradling the book after a long and physically arduous day of chores. I thought of my grandmother turning the feather-light pages as she sought comfort and inspiration.

I remembered my mother’s gentleness as she presented me with the volume.

I could almost hear each of these women’s voices as I prayed, and felt uniquely blessed, connected not only with God, but also with the faith and prayer carried through my family.

It was one of the most powerful prayer experiences I’ve ever had, and I couldn’t wait to do and learn more.

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go on a tour; that’s what made it so difficult.

We had to jump through a lot of hoops just to get there.”

But as soon as they arrived at the Warsaw airport, they had more trouble. Unbeknownst to Voss and her mother, Bernice had tucked her Polish prayer book into her purse, carrying it into restrictive Communist Poland.

“I remember when we arrived in Warsaw being startled that there were armed guards in the airport,” Voss says. “The authorities took Busia [a Polish term of endearment for “grandmother”] to a separate line. When we got through customs, we didn’t see her. We were quite frightened.”

Time passed. Voss and her mother waited, growing more nervous by the minute. No one would tell them where Bernice was, or what had happened to her.

“Finally she came toward us, teary-eyed,” Voss says, “and carrying the prayer book.”

Voss learned that the authorities had interrogated Bernice about the prayer book.

“They were holding her,” says Voss, “asking her, ‘Where did you get this prayer book?’

‘How long have you had this?’ ‘Why did you bring it with you?’”

A possible reason for the interrogation was

that the prayer book’s copyright date was after 1920, when Bernice immigrated to the United States. The Polish authorities might have suspected she had defected and was now trying to get back into the country.

But no matter how strong the pressure to give it up, Bernice would not relinquish the prayer book.

Click here for more about And now, although the cover other faith-related items. is peeling and the pages are well-worn, Voss would not think of giving it up either.

“Objects carry the weight of the mystery of life,” says Voss, smiling as she turns the pages of a book whose language she cannot read, but whose meaning she takes firmly to heart. “Her life is in this.”

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Virtues and the Visual Besides books, scapulars, rosaries, and religious medals, visual art, especially paintings, can be powerful carriers of family stories and faith heritage. And, for some, their presence can help bridge divides that might occur as life unfolds.

For Catholic author Jean Heimann (Seven Saints for Seven Virtues, Servant Books), childhood exposure to a book about the saints came

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full circle when, as a young adult, she moved away from the Church.

“I came from a close-knit, French American, Catholic home,” Heimann says.

“We prayed together and said the rosary every night after supper.”

Heimann’s mother introduced her to stories of the saints, using her copy of Lives of the Saints, published in 1954.

“When I was young, I looked at the pictures and enjoyed it,” Heimann says. “I’d ask her questions; we’d talk about the different saints and the saints and the art. She wrote her name at the top of one of the pages. It was very special to me.”

As a young adult, Heimann moved away from the Church. Her mother, however, continued her devotion to the saints, particularly Sts. Rita and Anne. She also kept Lives of the Saints in her home, and as Heimann began to come back to the Church, the book was a touchstone for reconnecting with the saints and the faith.

“Part of the reason I came back to the Church was my mother’s intercession to the saints,” says Heimann. “I began looking at this book again when I was at my mom’s. It was a treasure to me when I was growing up. She gave it to me a few years before she died.”

After she came back to the Church, she also received a rosary from her mother, along with other items, includ-

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that Heimann received from her mother is a reminder of her parents’ pro-life convictions.

(Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the prolife movement.) The original image (right) hangs in the basilica in Mexico City.

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PHOTO BY JAN ZATKO/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF JEAN HEIMANN

After Jean Heimann fell away from the Church as a young adult, a weathered copy of Lives of the Saints helped her reconnect with her faith.

ing a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which connects Heimann’s pro-life convictions with those of her parents.

“My mother and father would pray at the abortion clinics,” says Heimann. “They had a strong devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe.”

The picture, she says, reminds her to “pray for the unborn and of my parents’ deep love for human life.”

Sparking and Growing Faith Converts to the Church might not have a familial Catholic heritage, but often discover one or more faith-related objects that help them in their “journey home.”

Catholic radio host Sean Herriott (joe convert.net) became Christian when he was 9 years old and attended a summer Bible school.

Herriott says, “I was an evangelical Protestant most of my life, but reached a point in 2001 when I’d been struggling with my own faith.

One day, I came home from work and saw the EWTN television program The Journey Home. [On that particular program] there were several evangelical pastors who had left their faith communities and what they’d believed was God’s call in their lives. It was so open and positive. It was a turning point for me.”

In 2003, Herriott came into the Church. He began reading the book The Return of the Prodigal Son (Doubleday), in which Henri Nouwen writes about the Rembrandt painting of the same name.

“He’d become obsessed by this portrait,” says Herriott. “He’d found out where the original painting was, in Russia, and he went there and spent about three days looking at it. In the Calvinistic worldview, you focus a lot on your own sin. This picture was the exact opposite. God is not rejecting you; he’s waiting for you to come home.”

A reproduction of the painting hung in Herriott’s office for eight years. When he left his job recently, the painting, and his profound reaction to the parable, went with him.

“It reminds me of the power and the simplicity of the Gospel,” says Herriott. The painting, he says, helps him “get a glimpse of how much God really loves me.”

Passing It On Financial inheritance often becomes a legacy of its own, moving along to the next generation. The same is true of prayer books, Bibles, and other faith-related objects.

Jean Heimann plans to give the items she St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS: PAINTING PHOTO BY HERMITAGE TORRENT; ROSARY PHOTO BY DANIEL TIBI

Rembrandt’s painting The Return of the Prodigal Son conveyed a strong message of love and openness to Sean Herriott when he became a member of the Church in 2003.

received from her parents to other family members, “with a note from me so that they’ll know what each item means.”

Sean Herriott intends to pass his copy of Rembrandt’s The Return of the Prodigal Son to his son, “because I think the most important thing to me in my relationship with him is that he knows I love him regardless of what is going on in his life. I want to love him in that same way that Nouwen is showing how God loves us.”

Joan Voss will give her daughters the prayer books she inherited from her grandmother, and pass along the story of what it means to love in faith.

And as for me? I do not have children but am confident that, when the time comes, God will steer me in the right direction—to someone who will appreciate my prayer book.

For now, I delight in the discovery of new details about the women in my family, and how they lived and prayed. The language of the text might be old, but as I learn more about them and the Third Order Secular of St. Francis (now known as the Secular Franciscan Order), I am finding meaning in prayer that is both familiar and refreshingly new. A Maureen Pratt is the author of many articles, including a number for this magazine. She writes the syndicated column “Living Well,” and her blog, “Good Days . . . Bad Days with Maureen Pratt,” appears on Beliefnet.com. She has also written numerous books, including Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain and Illness (Image) and the newly published Don’t Panic! (Franciscan Media). Her website is maureenpratt.com.

Fr anciscanMedia.org

What do you do with religious items that have been blessed?

Despite strong familial ties, you might not want to keep all of the items left to you by faith-filled ancestors. After you have decided what to keep, here are some suggestions for the appropriate disposal of blessed religious items:

1

Bury or burn (then bury the ashes). Items that have been blessed should not be discarded in the trash, but respectfully

disposed of by burying or burning them and then burying the ashes.

This includes palms left over from Palm Sunday.

2

Donate. Many organizations will accept donations of rosaries, prayer books and Bibles, and other religious items. Missionary

societies, orphanages, homeless shelters, and convalescent facilities are some examples of places that might be able to take those items you cannot keep. Just be sure to verify that these precious, blessed items will be respectfully used by the people to whom you give them.

3

Respectfully repurpose. Perhaps your grandfather’s rosary is beyond repair, but you do not want to part with it. Consider

saving the beads, medals, and other items from it and fashion a new one that you can cherish for its past and present meaning.

Note on items used in worship: Vestments, altar cloths and linens, and other items used in worship should be destroyed. Chalices that are not used for another sacred purpose can be offered to a parish or religious community.

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The

33-Day

Papacy Though brief, Pope John Paul I’s papacy had a far-reaching influence on future Church leaders.

BY MO GUERNON

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the ideal pastoral pope they sought. Benelli knew the essence of the man whose cause he championed. Despite Luciani’s steady rise in the Church hierarchy, he had always considered himself a simple priest and catechist who lived a spartan existence.

Born to a Resilient, Faithful Family Throughout his career as a prelate, Luciani believed the Church should be devoted to the poor. It was a conviction deeply rooted in his childhood. When his father, a manual laborer, gave his son permission to enter the seminary, he advised Albino never to forget those who toiled under wretched and often perilous conditions simply to scratch out a subsistence living for their families. The lesson was seared in the son’s memory.

Albino knew from personal experience of what his father spoke. He was born and raised in a remote village in northeastern Italy now known as Canale d’Agordo. Like most of its neighbors, the Luciani family was intimately familiar with the daily sting of poverty. Nevertheless, Bortola, the matriarch, maintained an unshakable faith. The children were devout and happy despite their meager meals, tattered clothes, and the chronic absence of their father, who could only find work abroad.

The simple community was dominated by the Church of San Giovanni Battista. During St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO COURTESY OF FONDAZIONE PAPA LUCIANI GIOVANNI PAOLO I DI CANALE D’AGORDO

M

ORE THAN THREE decades have elapsed since he departed so abruptly. Somehow I still see him vividly, still hear the tenor of his voice as crisply as on that August day in 1978 when I first glimpsed his radiant smile. For the hundreds of millions around the globe whose hearts he touched and whose lives he inspired with hope, Albino Luciani is an impossible man to forget.

Before August 26 of that year, he had been a relatively obscure figure, as he desired. That all changed when, in one of the quickest conclaves in history—two days—he emerged as Pope John Paul I. His election was as unexpected as it was swift.

Prospective popes are known as papabili.

Few of the major news outlets considered Luciani one of them. When a reporter surprisingly asked the reticent patriarch of Venice about his chances of becoming pope, he insisted that he ranked far down on the “C list” of candidates—“out of danger,” as he wrote to his niece Pia. “You can’t make gnocchi out of this dough!” the cardinal added goodnaturedly.

Luciani, however, was unaware that the influential Cardinal Giovanni Benelli, known as the “Grand Elector,” was discreetly promoting him among the conclave participants as

The morning after his election, John Paul I— known as the “smiling pope”—reminded the College of Cardinals, “We want to recall to the entire Church that her first duty is still evangelization.”

ZAVIJAVAH/ WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

wonder that his calling to the priesthood came so early in life.

Both as a student and then as a teacher at the Gregorian Seminary in Belluno, Luciani earned a reputation for unfailing honesty, selflessness, gentleness, and generosity. Much later, in an encounter with Cardinal Giovanni Roncalli, later Pope John XXIII, “Don Albino” impressed him with his keen intelligence and profound humility. Good Pope John held Luciani in such esteem that some years afterward he insisted on personally consecrating him bishop at St. Peter’s Basilica. He also recognized Luciani’s potential for greater service to the Church in the future. The pope presciently confided to a monsignor, “Watch that little bishop, you will see.”

On to Venice The future pope was born and raised in the remote village of Canale d’Agordo in northeastern Italy. The village now houses a museum in his honor.

the celebration of most Masses, the sun-struck stained-glass windows splashed their dazzling colors within the grand edifice while the dulcet sounds of its mighty organ resounded within its walls. By his own admission, young Albino was entranced as he entered this wondrous new realm where his deprivation temporarily vanished and his devotion flourished. It is no

The faithful of Vittorio Veneto loved Luciani for his accessibility, hopefulness, and meekness.

Upon taking possession of his diocese, he readily confessed, “I am the little one of once upon a time; I am the one who comes from the fields. I am pure and simple dust, and on this dust the Lord has written the episcopal dignity of the illustrious Diocese of Vittorio Veneto.”

He made a solemn promise at his installation,

(Right) Pope Paul VI elevates Albino Luciani to cardinal in 1973. Just five years later, Luciani would be elected pope, taking the name John Paul I—the first pope to choose two names.

PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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“I desire only to enter into your service and to put at your disposal all my poor strength, the little I have, and the little I am.” His episcopal motto was “Humilitas,” the very virtue that defined him as a man, priest, and pope.

More than a decade later, as he was leaving Vittorio Veneto for a new assignment, his flock presented him with a parting gift of some one million lire they had collected from the diocesan faithful. Luciani thanked them for their kindness but convinced them to donate the proceeds to charity instead. He left for Venice with little money and few possessions.

The flamboyant Venetians prided themselves on a centuries-long tradition of welcoming every new patriarch with incomparable pomp, but Luciani never felt comfortable with lavish ceremony. Insisting on a simple arrival, he quickly alienated the city’s leaders, who were insulted at his rejection of their opulent rituals and considered his unadorned comments at St. Mark’s Basilica unworthy of his prominent status.

The relationship did not improve with the passage of time as the patriarch declined virtually all social invitations from distinguished Venetians unless their purpose was to raise money for the downtrodden. Instead, he

devoted his time to encouraging the sick, relieving the loneliness of the elderly with personal visits, and comforting the homeless and the neglected in the city’s alleys.

A Humble Shepherd Pope Paul VI recognized the saintliness of the man who walked the streets of Venice wearing a simple black cassock. In 1972, the pope visited the patriarch. Before a crowd of 20,000, Paul placed his papal stole on Luciani’s shoulders, a cause of acute embarrassment to the diffident bishop.

Six years later, upon his election to the chair of St. Peter, Luciani startled the College of Cardinals by exclaiming, “May God forgive you for what you have done.” Many electors worried that he would decline the office. Despite his personal misgivings, however, Luciani felt obliged to accept.

Moments after his election, he broke with precedent by choosing the first double name in Church history in honor of his two immediate predecessors. He then directed the cardinals to remain sequestered in the Sistine Chapel until the following day. It was an unpopular decision, for as Genoa’s Cardinal Giuseppe Siri noted, “The place is like a tomb”

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23

He unfailingly wowed the crowds with his infectious grin, “il sorriso di dio” the Italians called it—“the smile of God.”

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April 2016

from which the cardinals were eager to escape.

Despite the murmurs of discontent, Luciani kept his wry sense of humor. When a cardinal suffering from nicotine withdrawal asked the pope permission to light up, John Paul I agreed, “so long as it’s white smoke!”

Even as pope, he regarded himself as “a poor man accustomed to small things and silence.” Consistent with that self-image, he initiated a series of changes that distressed many traditionalists in the high echelons of the Vatican.

Despite the brevity of Luciani’s pontificate— a meager 33 days—he transformed the papacy from a regal office to one characterized by the simplicity of the Good Shepherd. This meek man boldly shattered many time-honored Church traditions, especially by discarding the monarchical trappings of the office. The day following his election, for instance, John Paul delivered his first Angelus, a charming, spontaneous talk in which he used the first person singular pronoun “io” (I) instead of the royal “we” of papal custom. His unscripted remarks were informal, self-effacing, and noticeably free from editing by Vatican speechwriters.

Gianpaolo, as the Italians fondly called him, detested the portable throne known as the sedia gestatoria. He reluctantly relented to its use when pilgrims gathering for his general audiences complained they could not see the diminutive figure as he approached the stage.

At his formal installation, the new pontiff banished the ostentatious papal tiara, opting instead for donning a simple lamb’s wool pallium, the symbol of his status as bishop of Rome.

He unfailingly wowed the crowds with his infectious grin, “il sorriso di dio” the Italians called it—“the smile of God.” (One Vatican official joked that Luciani smiled more in five minutes than Pope Paul VI had in 15 years!)

John Paul’s Wednesday general audiences drew such multitudes that two sessions were held to accommodate all. The pope spoke simply but passionately about Christian virtues. He would call a youngster to the stage “to help the pope” get his message across to the adults.

The exchange between them inevitably delighted the audiences.

Msgr. John Magee, the only man in the two millennia of Church history to serve as personal secretary to three popes, told me that Luciani’s was a pontificate fulfilled because of his indelible imprint on the office. Beyond that, the first John Paul inspired people of various faiths and even the faithless to strive

to lead ethical lives. Patti Smith, the rebellious punk rocker, was so enthralled that she dedicated an album to Luciani.

‘He Passed as a Meteor’ At his last general audience on the day before he died, John Paul spoke movingly about love.

As he was talking, a man interrupted the pope in a booming voice, wishing him a long life.

John Paul put up his hands as if to dismiss the sentiment saying softly, “OK,” before glancing somberly at his hands that he had neatly folded in his lap. It was as if he had a premonition of his imminent death. The next night before retiring to his bedroom, John Paul, as was his custom, visited the sisters in the kitchen to thank them for preparing dinner. To them he uttered his final words, “A domani se dio vuole,” which means “Until tomorrow, God willing.”

Earlier that day, the pontiff had complained of chest pains, and Don Diego Lorenzi, the personal secretary he had brought with him from Venice, asked if he should call the doctor.

The pope demurred. Sister Vincenza, his longtime housekeeper, had medicine that would relieve the symptoms, he assured Lorenzi. The next morning, as part of her daily routine, Vincenza left coffee on a table outside the pope’s bedroom door around 4:30 a.m. When she later returned to retrieve it, she noticed it was untouched. Since Luciani had never before overslept, Vincenza grew alarmed. She knocked on his door, and when there was no answer, she opened it a crack only to discover the pope’s lifeless body propped up in bed.

In a panic, she summoned Magee who quickly dressed and darted to the papal bedchamber. He immediately called Cardinal Jean Villot, the secretary of state, with the shocking news. Concerned that a scandal would erupt if the public became aware that a nun had been in the pope’s bedroom, Villot concocted a story for the press that Magee had found the body. He also insisted that the pope had been reading The Imitation of Christ at the time of his death, when he had actually been reviewing some old homilies. When the truth became public, sinister rumors swiftly circulated. A quick embalming that precluded an autopsy provided further credence to the growing speculation that the pope had been poisoned.

The reality, however, was that John Paul I had not been in robust health. He had been taking medication for circulatory problems.

His doctor back home had instructed him to walk daily to alleviate the pain of his swollen St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO COURTESY OF FONDAZIONE PAPA LUCIANI GIOVANNI PAOLO I DI CANALE D’AGORDO

Due to his gregarious and optimistic personality, people have often wondered what John Paul I’s papacy would have looked like had he lived longer.

ankles. Additionally, Luciani had suffered an embolism in 1975. The official cause of death, according to the Vatican physician, was myocardial infarction—a heart attack.

A priest from Belluno, Silvio Dinard, whose family knew Luciani, has no doubt that the pope died of natural causes. His father, he told me, learned from a member of the Luciani clan that in a two-year period, five cousins died of the same disease. Close family members also dismissed foul play. That, however, did not discourage conspiracy theorists from publishing books (some selling in the millions) insisting that the pope had been murdered.

Notwithstanding the preponderance of evidence to the contrary, the conspiracy theories persist in abundance to this day.

Not surprisingly, the world was shocked and bereaved when learning of his death. In a mere month, Papa Luciani had captured hearts and souls by providing a glimpse of God’s love and mercy in the form of a man who was goodness personified. Distraught mourners felt a fathomless emptiness, a piercing grief at his sudden passing. Luciani’s funeral Mass was held outdoors, despite a drenching rain, a sea of black umbrellas shrouding the assembled masses in the vast piazza. It was, some observed, as if the very heavens were weeping. But at the exact moment the coffin was carried into St. Peter’s for burial in the grottoes below, a rainbow suddenly materialized in all its majestic glory. “He passed as a meteor which unexpectedly lights up the heavFr anciscanMedia.org

ens and then disappears, leaving us amazed and astonished,” Cardinal Carlo Confalonieri aptly observed in his funeral homily.

I was one of those left amazed. At the time of Luciani’s papal election, I was a 26-yearold lapsed Catholic, my life adrift, who found myself mysteriously mesmerized by this entrancing clergyman. In subsequent years, his treasured memory and living words gradually rekindled my faith. I would later retrace the arc of his life during an extended stay in Italy. There I Click here to visit the interviewed most of his closest Vatican’s website for more family members, friends, and on Pope John Paul I. associates. I combed through archives and read about him extensively in both English and Italian so that I could tell his inspiring life story to those who never knew of him.

It is a tale of faith, hope, and charity personified by a self-described “little man,” who, through his saintliness, reminded us that a benevolent and merciful God still watches over this broken world. People of all times have yearned for this message of hope as well as a stellar example of how to live a good life.

Providentially, Pope Luciani’s life lessons continue to be shared in word and deed by popular Pope Francis. A

tal Digi as Extr

Mo Guernon is a freelance writer, consultant, and former columnist from Rhode Island who is writing a biography of Pope John Paul I. April 2016 ❘

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EDITORIAL

Rise of the Nones A major study shows religion declining. But there’s more than meets the eye.

There’s a growing number of people who check “none of the above” when asked about religious affiliation. These are the nones, those who have turned away from organized religion and look for spiritual answers in things less familiar than the churches of their youth.

The migration of many away from institutional religion and toward individual, or noninstitutional, expressions of faith is a sign of the times. It’s a sign that has caught the attention of the Pew Research Center, a 20-year-old nonpartisan think tank that studies various trends in society, including religion. Last year they issued a long study on the religious habits of Americans and have been publishing a series of smaller reports in the months since.

Today’s Trends In “The Religious Landscape Study,” the Pew Center surveyed 35,000 Americans from all 50 states about their religious affiliations, beliefs, and practices, among other things.

They found that about one out of five (21 l percent) of Americans consider themselves a t i Dig as Catholic, among the 70 percent who claim r t Ex Christianity as their religion.

That number of AmeriClick here for a link to the can Christians is declining, Pew study. whereas those who are unaffiliated (the nones), and those who are agnostic, is increasing.

These trends are especially pronounced among Americans age 18-28, but they are true in all age groups, in every state, across ethnic lines.

Pew conducted a previous large study in 2007, so we can track trends: Christianity dropped by about 8 percent, with 35,000 Americans surveyed. One of several statistics that jumps out is that Catholicism is losing more members than it is gaining. Nearly a third of US adults say they were raised 2 6 ❘ Apr il 2016

Catholic; 40 percent of those Catholics have left the Church. Thus, 13 percent of the American population are now former Catholics.

One more trend: the nones are on the rise. They are 19 percent of the adult population in the South, 22 percent in the Midwest, 25 percent in the Northeast, and 28 percent in the West. All of those numbers are significantly higher than they were seven years ago.

Preaching in Deed Major book publishers are spotting this trend and cuing up books to serve it. The latest is San Francisco publisher HarperOne's HarperElixir, a line of books for “the modern seeker . . . they want to answer the call to go deeper,” These trends are according to a recent Huffingespecially proton Post interview with publisher Claudia Boutote. Here’s nounced among a bookseller’s opportunity: Americans age 18-28, the nones increased by 19 million since 2007—now to a but they are true in whopping 56 million people. all age groups.

These nones are seeking; our institutions haven’t figured out ways to find them.

Many, many Catholic parents have seen their grown children take a step or two away from the Church and stay there. What’s a parent to do?

You draw more bees with honey than with vinegar, the adage goes. Stern words and harsh challenges won’t gain us any friends. How can we follow St. Francis’ advice to lead by example? How can we commit inspiring acts of mercy? How can we help those around us understand, without our being pushy, that our faith motivates us to serve? How can we listen, even to difficult criticism?

The Lord is calling these seekers, in ways that we may not see. We should be slow to judge, quick to welcome, inspiring in our actions, loving always. The Holy Spirit is at work in our nones.—JF St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

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Nepal’s Earthquake

Survivors A year after the destruction, these heroic people are rebuilding in hope.

BY DR. MIKE GABLE

N

epal Avalanche Carried Half the Force of an Atomic Bomb.”

This headline from The New York Times accurately described just some of the devastating and powerful effects of a monumental earthquake that struck just a year ago, at noontime on April 25, 2015.

It shook not only the Himalayan nation of Nepal, but also surrounding countries, as well.

For example, one avalanche in the Mount Everest area alone killed 350 people in the popular hiking village of Langtang. Survivors explained they saw boulders the size of cars flying through the air and snow demolishing every building in the mountain village, except for one that had been tucked in under a rocky overhang.

In the journal Science, researchers noted that the 200-mile-per-hour winds blew stone houses from their foundations and “even blew bark off the trees,” said Jeffrey S. Kargle of the University of Arizona. Roads were so badly damaged that it took search teams four months, by land, to find human remains buried in the snow and rubble. Said BBC journalist Justin Rowlatt, coming upon the scene, “I am an emotional man, and I’ll admit I struggled to contain the sense of horror I felt.”

Imagine, then, the horror of Maryknoll Missioner Father Joe Thaler, who has spent much of his life helping people in Nepal build foundations for economic success. Out of the country for a short while, he returned to a shambles in Nepal. In this article I’ll share some of Father Joe’s firsthand reports.

PHOTO COURTESY OF JOE THALER, MM

“

Maryknoll missioner Father Joe Thaler has devoted himself to building up the lives of the Nepalese. Here he is pictured amid the rubble on the streets of Bhaktapur, Nepal, after the devastating earthquake.

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PHOTO BY JOE THALER, MM

Scene of Destruction Overall, this massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed nearly 9,000 and injured another 21,000.

At least a half-million homes were destroyed or leveled, leaving upwards of three million homeless, especially in the villages of central Nepal, where Father Joe has worked for close to 40 years.

For many months after the quake, thousands of Nepalese homeless had to survive cold nights living in tents during the monsoon season, with mudslides and diseases. In the capital city of Kathmandu, where Father Joe lives, historic landmarks, churches, apartments, and businesses now were devastated.

A typical story there is that of Bindeshwor Tamang, who was shopping on the day of the earthquake with her 6-year-old daughter, Kabita, when she felt the ground shaking.

“Within minutes, the shops and old buildings started falling like a pack of cards,” Tamang told a TV reporter. She became separated from Fr anciscanMedia.org

her daughter in the chaos and lost consciousness. After coming round, she couldn’t find her daughter. “I started screaming her name.

Suddenly, as I saw her stuck under the rubble, I immediately asked for help and pulled her out.”

Little Kabita’s first words were, “I’m hungry,” her mother told the reporter. “I never felt so relieved in my life. I held her tight and immediately checked for any missing limbs, fingers, or toes.” Her daughter had only a fractured collarbone and some cuts and bruises on her face, arms, and legs. She’s one of the lucky ones to have survived.

A man in Bhimtar carefully reconstructs his home with recycled materials left after the earthquake, as well as with additional materials provided by Maryknoll.

Dreaming of a Better Future One of the development projects that Father Joe, along with Gajuri villager Govinda Khanal, has developed and nurtured over the years is a sewing school for those with disabilities in mountain villages, like Govinda himself. Drawing on the spirit of the determined, hopeApril 2016 ❘

29

(Right) Father Joe visits with Govinda Khanal and his daughter Garima in May, in the tent the family was living in after their home was destroyed by the earthquake.

(Far right) Govinda and his family celebrate the Hindu holiday of Bhai Tika in a room above the repaired sewing center where they presently live.

filled Nepalese, Govinda struggled with his disability yet completed his schooling and earned degrees. Then he returned to his village school to be a teacher. In the mid-1980s he met Father Joe who, in Govinda, found a partner in mission.

Father Joe, over the years, has trained a number of Nepalese educational teams to teach brick-factory workers about better nutrition and taught their children how to read and write. These coworkers reached out to Tibetan refugees—displaced by neighboring warfare, struggling to find work and learn new languages. Long before the earthquake, youth and nursing brigades were enabled to set up health clinics in distant mountain villages that rarely saw doctors.

But Father Joe is particularly proud of their sewing training program. “This is one of the few programs in Nepal for the differently abled and the only one that has run consistently for

a number of years now, and has provided over 300 jobs to the differently abled,” he says. During the earthquake, however, some of their past students lost their homes and their sewing machines. Fortunately, none lost their lives.

The Earthquake Strikes “I felt like it was the end of the world,” says Daimaya Tamang, a student who completed the sewing program two years ago and now supports her large family. She was on her way home from church when “suddenly everything started shaking.” She didn’t know what to do but lie down and cry, she says. “My whole village was completely destroyed due to a landslide triggered by the earthquake, and there is no one living there now.

“We stayed in the village for four nights without food or water,” Tamang remembers.

“We were finally rescued by a helicopter and dropped off in a nearby town. As soon as I

(Right) Staff and students of Shree Bhimeshwori Higher Secondary School in Bhimtar greet Father Joe. Maryknoll has helped with school repair and classroom construction, and has provided books and educational materials.

(Far right) People of the Bhimtar village, including teachers and students, pass building materials hand to hand to rebuild three classrooms in Shree Pancha Kanya Primary School.

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CNS PHOTO/JAKE LYELL, CRS

was rescued, I called Govinda and told him about my situation. He told me to come and get some tin sheets for temporary shelter and a new sewing machine because the one I had was destroyed. I am now staying in a new village and have started sewing. I am so thankful to all those who have helped us.”

Shortly after the quake, Govinda and his Nepalese coworkers’ groups were already at work providing rice, lentils, and tin sheets for temporary shelter for earthquake victims, by the time Father Joe returned to the country.

The Nepali government had given their organizations permission to work with local government officials and village leaders in specific devastated areas.

One of those areas is Bhimtar, a village made up mainly of members of the lower caste. The caste system in this part of the world traditionally determines, by birth, what economic opportunities one will have over his or her entire life. People from the lowest caste see a future only of poverty. Part of Father Joe’s mission is to help people imagine their futures differently.

In Bhimtar, three-fourths of the village’s 1,200 houses were destroyed, as well as all seven of its schools. Father Joe and his colleagues decided to first focus on the families with differently abled members, the widows, and the elderly.

Local people formed into groups to support each other. They collected materials like stones, bricks, and door and window frames from their destroyed homes to help each other reconstruct. The people demonstrated their enthusiasm to build the houses, and the building materials from US donors were gratefully received.

Nepal Now

I

PHOTOS BY JOE THALER, MM

Fr anciscanMedia.org

n a country already grappling with severe poverty issues and rapid political changes, the April 2015 earthquake served to further destabilize Nepalese society. “Life for many in the Gorkha region was difficult pre-earthquake. People who were already working hard to provide for their families struggled after the quake to recover both psychologically and materially,” Lorraine Bramwell, Catholic Relief Services’ (CRS) country representative in Nepal, tells St. Anthony Messenger. “Women who had to carry water home from public taps before the quake found their local taps damaged and unusable and their latrines destroyed.”

Following the immediate relief effort, CRS and Caritas Nepal provided corrugated iron sheets, sanitation materials, and cash as transitional support for households to support shelter and basic needs during the monsoon season from June to August. CRS and Caritas Nepal then worked with families to rebuild their houses, using construction methods that make them less vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural disasters.

From August through the end of 2015, including during the monsoon and winter months, the two organizations continued providing families with transitional shelter support and serving market vendors, and distributed cash grants to help 16,775 families in restocking essential household goods. Since the quake, CRS and Caritas have provided these emergency relief supplies to more than 25,000 households—more than 120,000 people. To date, CRS has mobilized more than $15 million in funding for Nepal relief efforts, including more than $11 million in private donations.

“As news about the earthquake fades from international media, people may assume that acute needs are also fading and life is going back to normal,” says Bramwell. “However, full recovery is going to take a long time.” Donating money to CRS and other organizations, she points out, is the best way for people to help in the recovery efforts.

—Daniel Imwalle

(Top) Supplies from Catholic Relief Services surround earthquake survivors near a village in Ghorka, Nepal, last May.

April 2016 ❘

31

(Right) This woman looks for a better life with skills she acquired from Maryknoll’s 10-month sewing program for the differently abled in Nepal.

In spite of the challenges from the earthquake, she graduated December 10.

(Below) Maryknoll is able to supply roofing materials to isolated families in the Kavre District. These materials can be transported by road only so far before being carried by the local people to their final destination.

An Easter Hope

(Below right) Two men place roofing material on a house truss and A-frame provided by Maryknoll in Bhimtar. Maryknoll has pledged to build 900 homes in the village along with toilets and a watermanagement system.

The sewing-school program for the differently abled is being rebuilt from the rubble, too. This Easter, the heartbreaking scenes of hopelessness are giving way to a resurrection atmosphere.

Father Joe reflects, “For years, families have been attempting to work their way out of poverty, where they have lacked basic commodities like cooking gas, fuel, and food. They have been displaced due to war and conflict.

Sadly, the difficult economic situation has

caused and still forces many families to break up.” Younger members migrate out of the area to find work. Even with their hopeful spirit, he says, “they live in a Calvary-like situation each day.”

Yet Father Joe is quick to recall that the Nepalese people have patience and a confidence that is unmatched: “The Nepalese have been a resilient people in this postearthquake period.” The sentiment of one local person sums up the spirit of many still living in the temporary shelters: “Yes, the life is difficult, but we have each other and our animals.”

Father Joe says, “When I think of people like Govinda, they are really shining examples of what it means to live in hope, to be patient, and to maintain an optimistic attitude toward life.” Even though the situation has been difficult, he says, “Govinda gives hope to others.

PHOTOS BY JOE THALER, MM

After further dialogue with the local villagers and engineers, the Nepalese developed a design for trusses and A-frames that are being used to provide a sturdy structure around which to build their new dwellings. Reconstruction continues today, a year after the quake, in various districts.

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(Left) Not long after the earthquake, these students resume their studies in Kavre District.

Maryknoll provided books, as well as a shelter.

Click here for Catholic Relief Services’ efforts in Nepal.

He calls others to have a positive attitude toward all, and continues to give encouragement all the time.”

In the rebuilding of Nepal, Father Joe sees a sign of interfaith hope. “When I witness Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians rebuilding their lives together, I see that the basic guiding principle of love and care for another human being is present in all of these faiths,” he observes. He sees love and care across the board, “lived out in compassion and with right speech and proper attitude toward others in the family, in the workplace, and certainly in social-service works.”

From that Father Joe draws a deeper lesson, one for all of us, on the importance of personal presence. “So often they have so little, but what little they have, they will gladly give to another with no expectation of return. It’s inspiring.”

Laughter can help, too. “Nepalese have a great sense of humor that they can bring into the most difficult of situations,” observes Father Joe. “They can bring on a smile when you think the only response is to cry.” In their own way, from their own faith, they are Easter people. A To support the work of Father Joe Thaler in Nepal, send donations to Father Joe Thaler Mission Account, Maryknoll Fathers, Box 302, Maryknoll, NY 10545-0302.

Dr. Mike Gable is the director of the mission office for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, and an adjunct professor of theology at Xavier University. In early 2014, a year before the earthquake, he traveled to Nepal with a group as part of a mission trip.

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A Land in Poverty

N

epal is one of the poorest countries in the world: nearly half its population lives below the poverty line. The annual per capita income is $1000, or about $85 per month.

The nation is technologically challenged, remote, and landlocked, and it continues to suffer from political turmoil in recent decades.

A recent report of Catholic Relief Services (CRS) notes, “With 25 percent of the population living in extreme poverty and 83 percent of Nepal’s people living in rural areas, the impact of this quake on lives, livelihood, and dignity was immense.” Many are worried that this history of poverty, the civil unrest, and now the devastating earthquake will produce even more long-term challenges: more private and public debt burdens, much higher rental and property costs, more crowded urbanization, greater disease and mental-health issues, further strain on the weak health-care system, downturn of badly needed tourism, and an increase in human trafficking. Agencies such as CRS and other Church organizations seek to help the Nepalese build a better future.

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ANGRY WITH GOD A vibrant relationship with God requires us to own our emotions— even anger. Just ask Job and Abraham.

B Y R I C H A R D B . PAT T E R S O N , P H D

M

Y OLDER SISTER Patricia died of spina bifida before I was born. My younger sister Linda died of spina bifida when I was 3. Given that I was raised in a traditional, stoic, Irish-Catholic family, my sisters and their deaths were never talked about. In fact, I didn’t even know they existed until I was 5 and found their names in our family Bible. “Who are these people?”

I asked my mother.

“They are your sisters”—that was all she said.

As I grew, I thought about them a lot. Eventually, I began to ask my mother why God did this to our family. She said simply that some crosses were heavier to carry than others.

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Somehow that answer and the related resignation didn’t work for me. And so I began to become angry. Specifically, I began to become angry with God. For most of my youth, I felt this anger was wrong, sinful. Yet it didn’t go away. I encountered more and more suffering that did not make sense. A friend lost both his parents by the eighth grade. A very good priest dropped dead of a heart attack. The brother of a friend died in Vietnam.

As I began my work as a psychologist, I would touch on spiritual matters with my clients. I found that I was not alone in my anger. Worse, I met people whose explanations for tragedy were heartbreaking.

One woman, for example, believed that her St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTOS FROM ISTOCKPHOTO (L-R) © EYETOEYEPIX; DUNCAN1890 OF AN ILLUSTRATION BY GUSTAVE DORÉ

prayers for a dying daughter did not work because her prayers were “not worthy of God’s attention.” Even my own father, as he dealt with a series of strokes, told me they were “punishment for my sins.” As I heard such struggles, I felt more and more that, because of anger, I was bound to grow away from my faith. Then I read the Book of Job.

Job: Not Merely Silent Suffering Given that the Catholicism of my youth did not include a great deal of biblical study, I knew very little about Job other than the phrase “the patience of Job.” When I read this marvelous book, I realized among other things that Job was hardly patient. In fact, like me, he was angry!

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The story of Job begins with a bet. Satan is arguing with God, saying that faith is easy when everything is going well in one’s life, but that people tend to lose that faith when times are tough. He then brings up Job, pointing out that Job has great faith but is also very comfortable and successful. But suppose, suggests Satan, that Job falls on hard times: Will he then be so faithful? God gives Satan permission to take away everything of Job’s but not to harm him. Satan does this, but Job holds on to his faith. So Satan ups the ante by asking God to let him harm Job directly.

And so Job ends up homeless, penniless, and afflicted with horrible skin diseases. He begins to seek an explanation from God. In fact, Job demands an explanation!

(Opposite) When tragedy strikes, we may come to the uncomfortable realization that we’re angry with the God we’re supposed to love.

(Above) Perhaps the greatest example of biblical figure who struggled with his anger toward God was Job, whose faith was tested vigorously.

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Have you ever felt that your prayers have gone unanswered? The frustration that comes out of this experience may have you asking, “Why, God?” PHOTO © VALENTINRUSSANOV/ ISTOCKPHOTO

Job’s friends show up and offer standard explanations for his troubles. “You must have sinned,” suggests one. “You haven’t prayed hard enough,” says another. And yet Job continues his outcry, ultimately demanding that God show up and explain himself.

And God shows up! Granted, God tends to put Job in his place and never really answers Job’s “Why?” question. But the important points are that God shows up and that he never punishes Job for his outcry.

But Why, Lord?

Click the button above to hear an interview with a woman who brings a message of forgiveness despite losing a child to violence.

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I think the Book of Job is there to encourage us to embrace our outcries, not suppress them; and to struggle with the “Why?” question, not dismiss it. And so, somewhat timidly, I began to allow myself that anger.

It soon became clear to me that I needed to explore my anger at several levels. The most immediate level was the “Why?” question that was a large part of my youth. As I began to read, I found out that the “Why?” question has in fact given rise to a specific area of theological study called theodicy. Specifically, theodicy examines the issue of how an all-good, all-loving God can permit evil.

As I explored my anger, I came across the book May I Hate God? by Pierre Wolff. Despite its provocative title, this is a very gentle-spirited book that reminds us that God is a loving parent; and that loving parents, upon learning that their child is angry with them, want to

hear about the anger—not necessarily condone it, but hear about it. This opened up to me the awareness that, when I am angry with God, my tendency is to express that anger in the same way I do at a human level. I shut down and use the “silent treatment.”

Novelist Joseph Heller put it another way in his novel God Knows. King David is reflecting on whether he is angry with God and concludes, “I’m not angry with God. We’re just not speaking to one another.” So it was with me and the God of my understanding.

In any case, Wolff’s book helped me to accept my anger. But I still struggled with the “Why?” question. Other thinkers offered helpful insights. Viktor Frankl did not answer this question, but he observed that, while we don’t always have a choice over what happens to us, we always have a choice regarding how we face it. Similarly, Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his well-regarded When Bad Things Happen to Good People, offered what for me was a novel idea—that perhaps God wasn’t responsible for some of the bad things that happened to us.

At first, Kushner’s notion was comforting.

Maybe God wasn’t behind my sisters’ illnesses or children with cancer or senseless random shootings. Maybe those things just happened.

Somehow that thought made me fear God less. Yet the thought that perhaps God wasn’t behind all bad things that happened created another question articulated by Annie Dillard, who wrote in For the Time Being, “If God does St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

not cause everything that happens, does God cause anything that happens? Is God completely out of the loop?”

My anger at God brought me to wrestle with some important issues. It challenged me to reexamine my image of God. Did I see God as punitive, misreading the Old Testament?

Did I see him as loving, as in many New Testament stories? Did I see him as uninvolved, caring for the big picture and leaving the details to us, as the Oh, God! films suggest?

My anger also brought me face-to-face with my struggles about prayer. Does God answer prayers? Clearly not all prayers. It’s been said that there are many unanswered prayers at deathbeds. If God doesn’t answer all prayers, to follow Dillard, does he answer any prayers?

These struggles have been productive, prodding me toward a more mature understanding of God, as well as a more clear appreciation for prayer. But I still come face-to-face with my anger.

A Personal Encounter with God

PHOTO BY EUGENE PLAISTED, OSC

Over the past few years, I have read the entire Bible three times. It has been a truly enlightening experience. I saw clearly that Job wasn’t the only one to argue with God. Abraham did it; Moses did it; even Jesus did it! I was in good company.

I saw, too, that David’s Psalms were at times outcries. Within the poetry, one can hear the oppressed poet yelling out to God, “Do something!”

Fr anciscanMedia.org

I’ve learned from my many clients who sit and try to understand tragedies in their lives.

In asking these great teachers, “Are you angry with God?” I’ve heard many instructive answers. One woman wrestling with a lifethreatening illness said, “Of course I’m angry with God! But he’s God. He can take it!”

Another very spiritual young woman observed, “No, I’m not angry. But I sure would like to have a peek at his operations manual.”

Harold Kushner recently published a piece on the Book of Job titled The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person. It is a literate and scholarly book that offered me a new note of comAngry with God? Click fort. Kushner suggests that Job tal Digi as here for ways of dealing is comforted and consoled not Extr with it. so much by God’s explanation but by the encounter itself. Job deeply experienced God’s presence and took comfort in that meaningful experience. I found a note of personal truth in this thought. I realized that, yes, I’ve had meaningful encounters with God in nature or in the world of great art or in the sound of my grandchildren’s laughter.

But I realized that I have also encountered God in my anger in a way that has been profound. As I voice that anger, I feel God in a manner as profound as, albeit different from, my experience of God in nature.

The story of this journey of anger has a more recent turn to it, one with which I am still dealing. I recently saw an episode of The West Wing, a program from the early 2000s starring Martin Sheen as a fictional president.

Prior to this episode, the president had lost a much-loved secretary in a senseless car accident. After the funeral, he stands alone in the National Cathedral and unleashes an anger that shocked me. As an example, his character (Left) “My God, my God, why have you forsaken refers to God as a “vengeful thug.”

I felt I’d long validated the importance of me?” Even the Son of God anger in my relationship with God, yet I found cried out in anguish to his myself uncomfortable with the intensity of Father when all seemed to President Bartlett’s anger. But, upon reflection, be dark and hopeless.

I understood it. My anger is more than annoyance or disappointment—at times it is rage.

Yet, out of fear, I withhold that rage and instead, like David in Heller’s novel, stop talking to my God or at least temper my feelings.

Yet, when I allow myself to approach that rage, I find God waiting for me.

And so I come face-to-face with the God of my understanding. Is that God a vengeful parent who will not tolerate my anger and will punish me for speaking up? Such was the God April 2016 ❘

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POETRY Church Bell

—Mary C. Hoeft

Three Birds On a telephone wire higher than the house three birds, small and dark, pause and gaze north as if in prayer till some impulse lures them and they flitter away into the sky like the grace notes of a morning hymn.

—Patricia Schnapp, RSM

PHOTO FROM IINGIMAGE

The dense form clangs its net over the sky.

Each note recites poetry, not in a whisper.

If you linger and listen it will travel through the yard, down the street.

It will touch you.

The bronze tongue of the bell speaks sharper, clearer words than a couplet or villanelle.

This forceful vessel, steeple bound, peals a song of contemplation daily, when the sun rises, looks down or says good-bye.

Like any healthy relationship, the one we have with God should be passionate. However, passion is a double-edged sword, and we may find ourselves quarreling with our Creator. of my youth. Or is the God of my understanding a loving God willing to wrestle with me, willing to accept my vented rage in the name of open, ongoing dialogue and genuine encounter? And do I have the courage to fully embrace this understanding of God and remain in dialogue in the midst of my rage?

The great Jewish scholar Abraham Joshua Heschel once wrote, “God stands in a passionate relationship with Man.” Anyone who has lived in a longterm, passionate relationship learns that passion is a package deal. You can’t have the joy and ecstasy unless you also accept and embrace the anger and alienation. I’ve dealt with several couples who say they don’t fight. But they are in my office because their relationship is stagnant. Without the struggle, there is no passionate intimacy.

Cumulus Clouds

The Path of Relationship

a gallon of rich country cream hand-whipped into stiff peaks flung from the beater into dollops across the blue oilcloth

I realize at this point that, for me to have a joyful, peaceful, vibrant relationship with the God of my understanding, I must also embrace the rage.

Not just annoyance, but rage!

And so, as I struggle, I return to reflect on my mother’s faith in the face of tragedy. I see that her faith was not some passive, shoulder-shrugging, “Oh well, it could be worse” type of faith.

Throughout her life, she believed not only in the power of prayer but also

—Sheryl L. Nelms 38 ❘

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in the persistence of that prayer. Like the woman in the parable seeking justice, she would not quietly plead or go away. Rather, she would “storm heaven with prayers.” Nor did she let tragic loss engender cynicism: on her deathbed and with absolute certainty and joyful anticipation, she said, “I’m going to see my girls.”

And yet I know my path is one of wrestling and arguing. It occurs to me that perhaps within the mystical body of Christ, we both play a part. People like my mother indeed inspire me to not lose hope and to continue to believe that understanding God’s mysterious way is possible.

But perhaps people like me—the questioners, the wrestlers—help others not to lapse into passive, depressed resignation. Perhaps in encouraging others to “fight back,” we help them experience real encounters with God. Perhaps we wrestlers help others to hope that our pain and anguish do matter. And perhaps together we can link arms and sing those words of Job offered not as an answer but in hopeful expectation: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!” A Richard B. Patterson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist from El Paso, Texas. He has had numerous articles published, including “Wounded Healer” in the May 2015 issue of this magazine.

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A Marriage For this couple, an unfinished summer cottage becomes a symbol of their marriage.

BY NANCY GRILLI

I

THINK I WILL GO OUT to the cottage on Saturday and start closing things up for the season,” my husband, Anthony, said as he finished his last bite of apple pie and leaned back in his chair.

“I guess you may as well,” I answered, somewhat sadly at the thought of another summer fading into memory. “But if you don’t mind, I don’t think I’ll go.”

“That’s OK,” he smiled knowingly. “I didn’t really think you would come now that the weather has turned chilly.”

After 30 years of marriage, we knew each other well. We enjoyed an intimacy and an easy understanding in our marriage which allowed even the most mundane parts of life

“

LI PHOTO FROM NANCY GRIL

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Renovation

PHOTO © POLARICA/ ISTOCKPHOTO

to elicit a happy and contented feeling. But there was a time when I would have described our relationship as neither happy nor contented—a time when our goals differed and neither of us cared to compromise.

A Dream Unfinished In the early years of our marriage, Anthony’s mention of working a day at the cottage would have been the beginning of an argument. I never had any desire to join him, no matter the weather, because the cottage was merely an unfinished structure with a roof and windows: no interior walls, doors, or finished flooring, and nothing as exotic as running water or bathroom facilities.

And even though we always said the cottage Fr anciscanMedia.org

was on the lake, it really wasn’t. It was on a long, narrow channel with access to the lake only by boat—a far cry from the big, knotty pine cabins surrounding pristine sand-bottom lakes where I had spent my girlhood summers.

Those cabins were tucked deep in the fragrant Northwoods, enveloped by pines and ribboned with sand trails where wild blueberry bushes snuggled under clumps of white birch trees.

In contrast, our nearby lake area was past its prime as a vacation spot 30 years ago. The lake itself was shallow with a mud bottom, which made the water cloudy and uninviting for swimming. Most of the shoreline was dotted with dilapidated 1930s cottages, while a few hole-in-the-wall eateries punctuated its neighborhoods. However, a prescient entre-

(Left) After his family’s cottage sat neglected for years, Nancy’s husband, Anthony, took on the task of bringing it back to life.

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Even unfinished walls didn’t deter visitors, such as Nancy’s sister and brother-in-law, from stopping by for a visit.

PHOTOS FROM NANCY GRILLI

The task of chasing five kids, all under age 12, around the site of the cabin did not elicit positive feelings from Nancy toward the renovation project.

Click the button below to hear an interview with a counselor and family therapist on the sacrament of marriage.

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preneur, who felt a renewal in waterfront property was inevitable, bought a few hundred acres of farmland that abutted the lake, dug some connecting waterways, plotted it out, and called it Holiday Harbors.

Anthony’s father, a carpenter by trade, bought one of the first lots, hoping to build a little retirement bungalow in his spare time. But soon after starting the work, he contracted cancer and all too quickly passed away.

For half a dozen years, the unfinished cottage sat neglected—the ghost of my father-in-law’s dream.

Carrying on That Dream Occasionally on a Sunday afternoon, our little family would drive out to the lake to check on the property. I always uttered a sigh of disappointment as we pulled into the short gravel driveway with the faded board-and-batten cottage looking as dusty and drab as an abandoned bird’s nest in the heat of summer. It seemed, however, that I was the only one who viewed the property this way. Our children were always excited to run through the empty structure or throw stones in the water and watch the concentric circles ripple toward the opposite bank. Anthony would fantasize about installing the plumbing and finishing the interior, but with two small children and another on the way, we did not have

the extra money to hire tradesmen to finish the work.

“I know I could do the majority of the work myself,” he would say.

“I just need to scrape up the materials.”

And once the idea was planted in his mind, Anthony began to do just that—embarking on a scavenger hunt for building materials. When word got around to our families that he was willing to pick up any castoff home-improvement supplies, the cottage interior soon bulged with construction miscellany: lengths of pipe, electrical conduit, sheets of plywood, old kitchen cabinets, and bathroom fixtures. A born tinkerer, he found the back room at the local Sears an “as-is” wonderland. At the beginning, I actually found his foray into the building trade exciting, but when I realized the glacial pace of one-man house construction, I didn’t find it fun at all.

A Source of Contention As our family grew, I began to resent the time Anthony devoted to the cottage. His determination to spend most weekends working at the lake was the impetus for many arguments. I wanted him home on the weekends to help me with the kids—shuttling them to ball practices, swim lessons, and summer activities. I wanted him to do repair work on our house, which was now all but ignored from April through October. I wanted to go to a movie or out for pizza on Saturday night, but all Anthony wanted to do was work on the cottage. His father’s dream had morphed into his own dream—but it certainly wasn’t my dream.

“Come out with me today,” he would say. “We can grill up some burgers, and you can enjoy the afternoon.”

But I knew the day wouldn’t play out that way. Anthony would continue working all day, and I would be roughing it with five kids under the age of 12, lugging seven-gallon water containers, using an indoor portable toilet, and caring for babies in diapers before disposables were commonplace. No, it was more than I was willing to suffer.

Anthony might have envisioned the St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

cottage as a retreat our family would enjoy, but I saw it as rustic camping in a large shed.

Work of the Spirit?

In early spring on one of those Sunday drives to check on the cottage, I stood at the edge of the porch and looked at the rutted ground. I am the gardener in our family and I should be working on this yard, I thought to myself. But since grass had never been planted following construction, the unleveled yard developed deep furrows where rainwater cut into the soil and all manner of weeds flourished. I sighed once again thinking, This cottage seems a metaphor for our marriage—we started with a good, solid foundation and idealistic dreams, but things are beginning to erode.

I had to face the truth—Anthony had his furrow and I had mine. And all along the furrows grew the weeds of resentment. Both of us allowed them to take hold and crowd the joy from our family. I resented the cottage, Anthony’s love for the lake, and his indifference to my point of view. He resented my Northwoods snobbery, my lack of vision, and my reluctance to embrace his dream.

Resentments, left unresolved, grow in the mind and wrap their tendrils around our spirit. They can set buds of self-pity, which often bloom into anger. Once this weed has taken hold, it is difficult to eradicate. And just as I realized I didn’t know what to do with the yard at the cottage, I realized I didn’t know what to do with our stressful marriage, either.

But in my hubris, I felt sure that Anthony was the one who needed to change. In desperation I turned to prayer, but I didn’t go in supplication asking for a solution to my unhappiness. Rather, I began praying a very specific daily prayer: “Dear God, please plant some sense in my husband.”

I was persistent in my prayer for I truly wanted a good marriage and a happy home.

And then, although not immediately apparent, something changed. Like the early spring crocus that pushes through the frozen ground, there was a stirring within me that I couldn’t ignore, yet Fr anciscanMedia.org

couldn’t identify. The gentle call of God’s grace was prompting a response, but what was it? What are you asking of me, Lord?

One warm Saturday afternoon while Anthony was working at the cottage, the thought came to me to pack a picnic to surprise him. I hurriedly made up some sandwiches and piled the kids into the car. As soon as I pulled the car into the cottage driveway, the kids bounded out and ran off to the open fields. Anthony proudly showed me his progress on the interior, and later we all sat with our feet dangling over the edge of the porch eating our sandwiches and chips. We hung around until dark and then drove home.

I now believe that picnic supper was the prompting of the Spirit, and the simple decision to look beyond myself and embrace the opportunity had adjusted the course of our marriage.

Gaining a Fresh Perspective It wasn’t long before a family caravan to the cottage began each Saturday morning that summer, with Anthony’s pickup truck full of materials and my car full of happy kids. I joined in the scavenger hunts scouring garage sales for extra dishes and cookware, used bikes, and outdoor furniture. Before I knew it, I was working throughout the week at home with an eye toward leaving for the cottage as soon as Anthony got home from work on Friday. Since the amenities were still rudimentary, I planned everything as one would for a campout—meals were planned, groceries purchased, coolers iced down, and play clothes and church clothes packed in the car.

With a shared goal, we scraped up the money to have a well dug and plumbing installed. Kitchen cupboards and appliances soon followed; and while everything may have been secondhand, it was pure gold to us.

The kids learned to have fun catching grasshoppers and minnows, gathering field flowers and water lilies in late summer, swimming in the channel in front of the cottage, and paddling a canoe down to the edge of the main lake, only to turn around and paddle back. We played board games and card

Click here for more resources on marriage.

tal Digi as Extr

ANSWERS TO PETE AND REPEAT 1. A red bird now rests on the branch.

2. The hole in the cloud is lower.

3. A bird has disappeared from the sky.

4. A sprout has emerged from the soil.

5. A patch of grass has appeared.

6. The water in the can is lower.

7. Pete’s shirt collar is now white.

8. A furrow has disappeared from the soil.

So that his work might continue...

Please remember

FRANCISCAN MEDIA in your estate plans Our legal title is: Franciscan Media LLC 28 W. Liberty Street Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 For more information, call: 1-800-488-0488

April 2016 ❘

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lenge, but they were laced with love and contentment, the sparkle of sun on the water, the tinkle of wind chimes, and the praises of the psalms.

PHOTOS FROM NANCY GRILLI

A Happy Ending

What was once a source of contention is now a gathering place for Nancy and Anthony, as well as for their children and grandchildren, including their grandson Luke, seen here.

games each night, and then snuggled into sleeping bags or cots in the two little bedrooms. There was no TV, no telephone, no backyard gym set, no friends in the neighborhood, and no organized sports to worry about.

Although Anthony still worked constantly toward finishing the cottage, Saturday evenings were set aside for boat rides on the lake and trips to the local ice-cream parlor for scoops of homemade ice cream. Each Sunday morning we drove to the lakeside church for Mass and then returned to the cottage for a big breakfast. The summer weekends were still a chal44 ❘

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Years later I would look back on this time as my “summer of slack water.”

Slack water is a turning point in the tide as the competing forces of ebb and flood pause momentarily, and the tidal stream begins to reverse. During this period, swimming requires less effort, and the tendency to drift off course and lose sight of one’s focus— be it boat or shore—is minimized.

I had been fighting against the stream summer after summer and was in danger of losing my focus of a good marriage and a happy family. However, during that summer of slack water, I paused long enough to realize I could enter into life’s ebb and flow, and not lose myself in the process.

The cottage weekends are a big part of our family memories, which I almost missed because I was too angry to join in Anthony’s dream. I wanted our marriage to be my dream—the one with the perfect family and the trips to the zoo—and I wanted to control it.

Instead, God offered me a chance to rough it in a shell of a cottage where the local lake, with its worn cottages, was a letdown rather than the idyllic summer retreat it eventually became.

God offered me focused time with my children and, once they were tucked in for the night, an opportunity to sit on the porch in the hushed darkness with my husband, discussing the day and sharing our dreams for the next.

Strong marriages are built on compromise. They are built on love and shared experiences. They are built on prayer. They are decimated by anger, resentment, and control. Sometimes when I am thanking God for my wonderful husband, I am reminded of the summer I prayed an exasperated prayer to change him. Then with a smile, I remember just how God managed to answer my prayer. He started with me.

A

Nancy Grilli is a freelance author based in Columbus, Ohio.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

AT HOME ON EARTH

❘ BY KYLE KRAMER

The Realities of Resurrection

C

Like a never-ending pattern, it’s true on every level. As individuals, new life comes at the cost of the many personal deaths in our lives: of careers, of dreams and expectations, of health, even of loved ones.

On a global level, the death and resurrection pattern is the only reliable guide Ways to Embrace through the difficult decades Suffering that lie ahead for the whole world. The human race has Learn more about the become such a powerful enviPassionists: their religious ronmental force that we’re charism includes reflecting destroying coral reefs, rain on God’s love in the sufferforests, countless other creaing of Jesus. tures and entire species, and even fellow human beings.

Try this prayer: with every The destruction now has so in-breath, allow yourself to much momentum that it feel the suffering of others will, scientists tell us, get (human and nonhuman) in worse before it gets better. We your heart; with every outare living through an age of breath, send them God’s death. healing love.

Until we take this seriously, until we understand and grieve and accept the magnitude of these losses, our hope for the future will be either cheap, death-denying optimism or a world-denying fantasy of escape to a disembodied heaven. Neither is the way of resurrection.

For us Christians, the Paschal candle can light the way through this dark valley. Its flame is the gritty Gospel promise, echoed in the waking green world, that love is the source, sustenance, and summit of our existence. The love that raised Jesus raises us and all creatures, always and forever. A

1

2

Kyle Kramer is the executive director of the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

It is through the lens of suffering that we are able to witness the glory and beauty of new life.

Fr ancisca n Media .org

tal Digi as Extr

Click here to explore further resources on this topic. Click the button on the right to hear an interview with Kyle.

April 2016 ❘ 45

PHOTO FROM INGIMAGE

© NATALIA KLENOVA/INGIMAGE

hrist is risen! It is the Easter season and, at least in the temperate climes of the Northern Hemisphere, signs of resurrection are everywhere. Flowers bloom, trees leaf out, birds sing: the green world awakens once again.

I marvel at these miracles of springtime.

Frankly, they are what have kept me going as a farmer and gardener—and, of course, as a Christian. I’m realizing, however, that in all these years of rejoicing in the signs of new life, I’ve given short shrift to the first half of the Paschal mystery. I failed to take seriously that Good Friday is the necessary gateway to Easter Sunday. Jesus didn’t just have a weekend snooze in the cave and wake up with a yawn on Sunday morning.

He was dead.

This pattern of death and resurrection, then, is as full of grit as it is of grace. It’s little wonder that I haven’t wanted to let it sink in too deeply. But as I become more in touch with my own suffering and the suffering of the whole world, I’m beginning to see that this pattern is one of the deepest and most powerful truths of Christian faith.

Bags She found peace in the water.

FICTION BY JOAN SAURO, CSJ

O

NE EVENING, five adult siblings sat around the dinner table with no idea where the conversation would lead. Two of the brothers had deep-set eyes, dark brown in one brother, gray-green in the other. Their eyes were compelling, eyes the viewer could fall into, with absolutely no bags under the eyes. The other three siblings majored in bags. The oldest brother filled his with numbers, odds, sports betting. The oldest sister filled her bags with metaphors. These made no sense to her siblings, but they pardoned their sister’s language, as she was an English professor. When she

4 6 ❘ Apr il 2016

announced, “Two roads diverged in a wood / And I took the one less traveled by,” they looked around for trees.

The youngest sister began her adult life bagless, so to speak, hopping in and out of college, in and out of sales jobs, always in a carefree manner. She took her time, though, in choosing a prince of a husband. He built her a castle, as he liked to say. There were no bags under his eyes, but sadly, all too soon an aneurysm developed in his brain and his eyes closed forever.

Little by little, bags formed under his beloved’s eyes. They filled up with worries: St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

ILLUSTRATION BY JON KRAUSE

how to keep her life going, how to keep the castle going—would she want to without her prince? She went into real estate, and her welcoming eyes were a fine asset. So were the worry bags. Among real-estate agents, she connected best with the worries of home buyers.

She had good times with good friends. She took in a niece who needed a home. She visited the sick in her parish, always with delights from her oven. Her table was where family and friends frequently gathered.

But it was not enough. This day in the middle of a harmless conversation, she announced that at this late date, to her dismay, she had Fr ancisca n Media .org

yet to find her life’s purpose. All eyes focused on her, wondering where she had ever gotten this idea.

“Something I love to do and am good at,” she said. “The reason God put me on this earth. I’m trying to find that out.”

They listened. Did any of them wonder about his or her own life’s purpose? Eventually, out of the blue, their sister said, “I think I’d like to learn how to swim.”

Everybody was relieved. All agreed this was a fine idea and suggested local pools she could try. The betting brother figured 10 to 1 she would not follow through. To lower the odds, A p r il 2 0 1 6 ❘ 4 7

he offered his outdoor pool for the summer months. Her sister thought of Stevie Smith’s poem and shuddered, “I was much too far out all my life / And not waving but drowning.” She said she would join her sister at the pool.

I

n the morning, a white gull flew hieroglyphics high above the castle.

It soared and dipped, catching the sunlight full on the breast before landing on a branch outside her window.

It was not the first time and always signified her husband’s presence. She smiled and took it for an affirmation.

She would learn to swim.

But not immediately. The betting brother knew she would procrastinate.

His sister took a good look at the castle and concluded the interior needed painting. This was no small feat due to the superb cathedral ceiling over the kitchen, dining room, and living room. Once done, though, the place looked fresh and airy. Afterward, it needed a thorough cleaning, especially since family and friends were gathering for Easter dinner. Besides, she said, cold weather was no time for swimming, even if the pool was indoors.

And so it was late spring before the two sisters packed their bags and set out for the pool. It was situated on the grounds of a senior housing complex across the street from a Catholic church. Here the pastor, who liked to refer to himself as padre, conducted healing services. Miracles were reported. The woman who had not yet found her purpose in life hoped for a miracle, not from the padre’s hands, but from the blessing of pool water.

A

t first, the two sisters floundered, sinking to the bottom, rising in a flurry of strokes, splashing every other swimmer near them. But after a month of lessons, they got the hang of it, cupping the water and pushing it back, cupping and pushing with rhythmic strokes, until they swam a whole lap. The other swimmers clapped. Then the two caught their breath, sat on the edge of the pool, and dangled their feet.

The older sister observed, “I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow / I Iearn by going where I have to go.”

Her companion was perplexed. The comment had no relevance whatsoever to swimming in a neighborhood pool.

To tell the truth, the sister who was looking for her place in life was sometimes irritated by her sister’s inappropriate pronouncements. They pierced the air like a Greek chorus commenting on the ongoing story to anyone who would listen. This is what she would have thought had she been familiar with a Greek chorus.

Still, her sister had been her faithful companion the day her prince of a husband was scheduled for surgery. A robust man, he had been failing, the color draining out of his face. One day he went to church alone and prayed all morning, which alerted his wife that something was seriously wrong.

And something was. After thorough examinations, his doctors told them it was a tumor that could be removed without too much difficulty, even though it was near his brain.

It sounded very serious, although necessary. The three of them came

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early to the hospital. When they rolled her prince to surgery, his wife kissed him and said she would be waiting for him. Always had, always would. He smiled through drugs. Her sister took hold of her brother-in-law’s hand and said, “Into your hands, O Lord, I commend his spirit.”

Then the two sisters set up shop in a corner of the waiting room. They had brought a thermos of coffee, and a small cooler with snacks and sandwiches for the long haul. They shared cookies with everyone in the waiting room.

T

he wait turned out to be longer than anyone anticipated. Late in the afternoon, the surgeon came into the waiting room. He was ecstatic. He had successfully removed the tumor and the patient was resting.

The two sisters hugged him, one another, and everybody else in the waiting room. One hour later, however, the surgeon and anesthesiologist returned. It seemed that the tumor had been supporting a weak blood vessel. Soon after they removed the tumor, the blood vessel burst. Her husband was in a coma from which he would not awaken.

For three days and nights, the family kept vigil at his bedside. Finally, he was declared brain-dead. One by one they approached his body, prayed him into eternal rest, and wept their goodbyes. The English teacher honored her brother-in-law at his funeral by reading some of the poetry he had written, though many were unaware of his writing. She concluded with William Blake, “We are put on earth a little space, / That we may learn to bear the beams of love.”

This is what the beloved wife remembered as they swam laps in the pool. No one noticed her tears through the splashing water. Some days the beams were a heavy cross, the beams of light—nonexistent. Still, she swam, one stroke after another.

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ne morning the gull appeared outside her bedroom window.

The morning after that, she made up her mind.

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Her church had a well-equipped kitchen and serving area used mostly on Sunday mornings. Through the church bulletin, she enlisted a crew of men and women to bake one day a week, once a month. They brought their favorite recipes and the ingredients for several batches. There were, of course, coffee breaks and samplings and a camaraderie that extended beyond the church kitchen. At the end of the day, cookies, rolls, sweet breads, small decorated cakes, and a variety of donuts were packed and picked up by those visiting the sick and homebound.

Once this got running on its own, the woman looking for her place in life visited the next-to-new shop the parish ran in a small nearby strip mall.

Then she asked the 40 real-estate agents in her office to contribute clothes that they, their children, and grandchildren no longer wore.

Meanwhile, she cleared out her closet and her husband’s—his handsome suits, shining shoes, 59 ties. It was time. She enlisted one of her friends, a quiet, artistic woman, who discreetly helped the volunteer staff transform the shop. Excitement abounded.

Real-estate agents were a gold mine.

Weekly pickups were arranged. The secretary in her office e-mailed fliers to all the branch offices. More pickups were arranged. While the shop volunteers pressed and arranged the clothes, her friend redid the windows with mannequins she found at the Salvation Army. They’d have their own army, and it would be called “Next to New for Next to Nothing” with the parish logo prominent.

Bags of clothing came into the shop, and bags of clothing went out of the shop. Somehow, the bags under the woman’s eyes got lost in the shuffle.

The gull appeared outside her window one last time. Then the white bird slowly rose, circled the castle, and flew with a flock of white wings into shining beams of light. A Joan Sauro, CSJ, is an award-winning and widely published author of numerous articles and books Her most recent book is Does God Ever Sleep?

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ASK A FRANCISCAN

❘ BY FATHER PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM

Praying to the Saints Only?

One of my friends, who is rock-solid strong in her religion and her Bible, asked me about my Catholic faith, to which I am new. She asks, “Is it true that Catholics pray to the saints only and not to the Lord?”

I have prayed to the saints all the time, always starting with Our Lord and Mary.

The answer to your friend’s question is an emphatic “no.” That is not the faith of the Catholic Church. All the saints (including Mary) point us only to Jesus and thus to God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The saints have no power—or meaning—apart from God. Anyone who believes otherwise is simply mistaken.

Your friend may also be unaware that veneration of the saints is very strong in the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches—with basically

the same understanding as described above.

What is a saint? The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) describes the universal call to holiness in this way: “All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity” (2013).

The CCC also teaches: “The way of perfection passes by way of the Cross. There is no holiness without renunciation and spiritual battle.

Spiritual progress entails the ascesis and mortification that gradually lead to living in the peace and joy of the Beatitudes” (2015).

Saintly women and men can be married or single, live in any country, thrive in any century, work at almost any profession—as long as they cooperate with the grace of God and are open to where it may lead them next.

Holy Communion for Everyone?

CNS PHOTO/AL DRAGO, COURTESY BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA

Because Jesus redeemed the world and everyone in it, isn’t it presumptuous to deny the Eucharist to anyone who professes Jesus to be their lord and savior? When the apostles complained that someone not of their number was healing in Jesus’ name, he told them that anyone who does not oppose him is, in effect, his friend.

People should be properly disposed to receive any sacrament.

When I hold up a consecrated host and say, “The Body of Christ,” the Catholic Church expects the recipient to say, “Amen” (meaning, “I believe”).

If he or she says, “Whatever” or “It’s only a symbol,” is this person properly disposed to receive this sacrament at this moment? I think not. I can give the person a blessing without presuming to pass God’s final judgment on the individual.

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Saints are not giant egotists; they always acknowledge the good example of the holy people they have known or who have gone before them. The saints show us various types of self-denial that can prepare us to cooperate more generously with God’s grace.

Christianity long ago clarified that we adore or worship God but venerate or respect saints. There is a special veneration for Mary, the mother of Jesus and the model disciple.

Part of the misunderstanding here arises from the fact that some people (Catholics and others) have seen saints according to the ancient world’s patron/client model instead of the mentor/mentee relationship.

In the ancient world, a patron “ran interference” to protect a client’s interests. Patrons acted as buffers with the larger world that was often hostile and frequently not deeply rooted in the rule of law.

Because most human societies have a pecking order, it is understandable that I may seek “friends in high places” to pull a few strings in my favor.

Other people who have interests contrary to mine, however, may seek a patron to protect their interests.

Whose patron will prevail? The patron/client model has led some Christians to rank saints according to their presumed influence with God. When God has become everything in all of us (what being a saint truly means), any ranking of influence is no longer necessary or even possible.

The saints teach or mentor us in how to live the joy of the Gospel and how to deal with any difficulties that other people may create when we do that.

Jesus could be only one gender, live in one part of the world, and St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

exist under one political system at a particular moment in human history. Saints show us that the good news of Jesus Christ can be lived everywhere, under any political system, at any time in history, and in a great variety of family and work situations.

I am indebted to Elizabeth Johnson’s book Friends of God and Prophets: A Feminist Theological Reading of the Communion of Saints for explaining the contrasting patron/client and mentor/mentee models of understanding the saints.

The title is based on Wisdom 7:27, which says about God’s wisdom: “Although she is one, she can do all things, and she renews everything while herself perduring; passing into holy souls from age to age, she produces friends of God and prophets.”

I encourage you to continue praying to the saints—but not in the sense of “running interference” for you. In unique ways, they show that God’s ways are never too difficult, too costly, or beyond our human possibilities.

As the Roman Missal’s “Preface I of the Saints” puts it, “Encouraged by so great a cloud of witnesses,” may we “run as victors in the race before us and win with them the imperishable crown of glory through Christ our Lord.”

I hope your friend does not use the expression “my Bible.” The Scriptures belong to the entire faith community before they belong to any individual within it. The community helps us understand God’s selfrevelation in the Scriptures.

‘They Seem Too Ordinary’ As I read your “Saint of the Day” daily web feature, I sometimes wonder why some of these people are considered saints. They seem too ordinary to be put forward as models of holiness!

Some saints may indeed seem more heroic than others (Maximilian Kolbe, Teresa Benedicta of the Fr ancisca n Media .org

Cross/Edith Stein, Damien of Molokai, and Elizabeth Seton, for example).

Saints show us what lives fully open to God’s grace look like. Heroism is not always external. Blessed Teresa of Kolkata, who will be canonized later this year, frequently spoke of doing small things with great love.

When Jesus praised people who were saved because they clothed the naked, fed the hungry, etc. (Mt 25:31-46), those actions probably seemed too ordinary to the people who chose to avoid them. Were they waiting for something that looked more heroic and would be widely recognized?

Click the button above to hear Father Pat’s insights on Catholic topics.

Father Pat welcomes your questions!

Send them to: Ask a Franciscan, 28 W. Liberty Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or Ask@FranciscanMedia.org. All questions sent by mail need to include a selfaddressed stamped envelope. This column’s answers can be searched back to April 1996 at StAnthonyMessenger.org.

Changes in Marriage Tribunal Practice: In light of the changes made by Pope Francis last September (and described in the November “Ask” column), the Tribunal link at www.DioceseofMadison.org has several updated questions and responses. A

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April 2016 ❘ 51

BOOK CORNER

❘ BY CAROL ANN MORROW

The Nones Are Alright A New Generation of Believers, Seekers, and Those in Between

What Our

Readers Recommend Seizing the Nonviolent Moments: Reflections on the Spirituality of Nonviolence through the Lens of Scripture Nancy Small The Perfect Joy of St. Francis Felix Timmermans 21 Ways to Worship: A Guide to Eucharistic Adoration Vinny Flynn The Name of God Is Mercy Pope Francis The Gift of Years: Growing Older Gracefully Joan Chittister

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By Kaya Oakes Orbis Books 208 pages • $22 Paperback/Kindle Reviewed by ELIZABETH BOOKSER BARKLEY, PhD, a Vatican II Catholic who counts many “nones” among her students at Mount St. Joseph University, where she teaches literature and writing courses.

“Do you think we could meet sometime tomorrow to discuss my Christian Social Justice class? I have some concerns,” read an urgent e-mail from one of my students the first week of a new semester. The concerns did not surprise me. He had been raised Catholic, but currently didn’t know how to describe himself—“an agnostic or an atheist,” depending on his “existential mood.” I suspect he’s actually a “none.”

The nones include more than college students. According to a 2012 Pew Forum study, about a third of poll respondents between 20 and 50 describe themselves as “religiously unaffiliated.” Thirty-two percent of respondents ages 18-28 fell into this category. Kaya Oakes has encountered students similar to mine in her writing classes at the University of California Berkeley. As a “revert” herself (a Catholic who left the Church but, after a period of seeking, returned seven years ago), Oakes set out to find more about the nones. Through her blog, she put out a call for help with “a book

exploring the ways in which nones are really alright. But the book will also look at the ways people are reinventing what it means to ‘be church’ outside of church walls.”

What she found in her interviews of over 50 people from diverse religious backgrounds was that “to leave religion was not a spontaneous decision. It was the product of discernment, thought, and, yes, even prayer.” Many nonbelievers are searching for community outside a formal church. Some, in the words of one woman, “fit in with many religions, rather than one,” and so find it “difficult to commit to any.”

A growing number of children who were raised in interfaith families are taking time to discern where they belong. Younger women of many religious traditions see no reason to remain in a church that does not treat them as equals. Many LGBTQ people move away from a religion because, “for the most part, religion does not make room for them to live their lives fully.”

Oakes devotes the last half of her book to nones from the Catholic Church. Some don’t consider themselves “lapsed Catholics or ex-Catholics.” They are more like Catholics in exile. Especially younger Catholics have a vision of an ideal Church, and, since they have grown up customizing so much in their lives, it’s little wonder that they are customizing religion. One version of this approach is “Guerrilla Communion,” where groups of young people meet to talk about their faith in a “real simple format: potluck, introductions, icebreaker, announcements, prayer.”

Readers might be shaken by this book because of Oakes’ conclusion that “it is increasingly clear that top-down, rigid, authoritarian structures hold little appeal for generations of people who were raised to be self-reliant and freethinking.” She admits that, despite negativity about religion in the popular media, it “stubbornly maintains the capacity to inspire compassion and love. But in an evolutionary sense, species that do not change or adapt will wither and die.” The book is challenging and worth the read for anyone trying to understand a “generation of believers, seekers, and those in between.”

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

BOOK BRIEFS

A King, a Queen, and a Warrior The Secret Chord A Novel

By Geraldine Brooks Viking Books 320 pages • $27.95 Hardcover/E-book

By Jaymie Stuart Wolfe Pauline Books & Media 240 pages • $16.95 Paperback/E-book

Pulitzer Prize winner Geraldine Brooks vividly retells the story of King David in this imaginative work of fiction. David’s arc as a character is astounding as he evolves from shepherd to sovereign of Israel. The Secret Chord is an ambitious and emotionally charged journey through one of the Bible’s most famous stories.

Reviewed by TOM MANNING, PhD, CASA volunteer and proud adoptive parent.

Joan of Arc

Our eyes first met in a room at Catholic Charities in Ogdensburg, New York. Hers seemed to say, “Who are you and where are you taking me?” As we carried her home, I realized that the religious sister at Catholic Charities had forgotten something. Where was the instruction manual?

As Jaymie Stuart Wolfe tells the story of her adoption of a Russian toddler, the counsel she offers is based almost entirely on her own experience. This book’s strength is as a devotional guide along the spiritual journey of adoptive parenthood.

Each chapter, which represents a step on this journey from the decision to seek an adoptive child to her final integration into the new family, repeats the same structure.

The scriptural excerpts that begin each chapter explore the metaphor of parenthood as the archetype of our relationship with God. The reflections on these readings that follow are, in many cases, inspiring.

Despite my misgivings about the lack of experiential depth (Ms. Wolfe writes as a theologian, not as a sociologist), and an unnecessary sidebar on the appropriateness of a gay couple as adoptive parents, I found this work moving.

Its pages called me to reflect back on my own story. I realized that if the religious sister had included the instruction manual, it could have been a very large and heavy book! Alternately, it might have been a single page bearing a single word: “Pray!”

By Kathryn Harrison Anchor Books 416 pages • $16.95 Paperback/E-book

Adoption Room for One More?

Fr ancisca n Media .org

A Life Transfigured

This biography of the Maid of Orleans presents a profound—and complex—portrait of its heroic subject. History mixes with Scripture, folktales, and more to tell of the unlikely transformation of Joan of Arc into a warrior and messenger for God.

It’s Good to Be Queen Becoming as Bold, Gracious, and Wise as the Queen of Sheba Liz Curtis Higgs WaterBrook Press 224 pages • $14.99 Paperback/E-book Warmly told and chock-full of wit, Liz Curtis Higgs’ account of the wise Queen of Sheba goes beyond analyzing the biblical story. In her highly accessible style, Higgs ties in stories from her own life where Sheba’s wisdom connects in a profound way. Bible-study groups will love using the study guide she provides.—D.I. Books featured in Book Corner and Book Briefs can be ordered from

St. Mary’s Bookstore & Church Supply 1909 West End Avenue • Nashville, TN 37203 • 800-233-3604 www.stmarysbookstore.com • stmarysbookstore@gmail.com A p r il 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 3

A CATHOLIC MOM SPEAKS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Less Can Be More

“ tal Digi as Extr Click here to read about one family’s adventure with tithing.

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W

e’re going to be eating salads made of grass from the backyard.”

That’s what my husband, Mark, and I told our four kids after a few months of being hit with a slew of expenses—some foreseen and others not.

For some reason, the kids did not find the comment amusing. Honestly, neither did Mark or I, but laughter—even if it was out of sheer panic—seemed to be the best response.

Yes, 2016 is shaping up to be a rather expensive year for the Brigger household.

In January, we discovered that our 5-yearold daughter, Kacey, would need her tonsils out. “They take up this much of my throat,” she would tell people as she held her hands just inches apart. The following month we registered our son, Alex, at a local Catholic high school. And then, at the beginning of March, we got the news that our oldest

daughter, Maddie, needed braces. Ah, the joys and financial realities of parenthood.

I kept replaying in my mind what my parents so often said to my sisters and me when we asked how they managed when the three of us were younger: “You’ll find a way,” they would always tell us. “Just have faith.”

Scaling Back Mark and I scoured our budget, looking for ways to tighten. As we broke down the numbers, we made a startling discovery. We were wasting money without even realizing it.

Did we really spend that much money eating out? And why were we eating out that much, given what we spent on groceries?

Why do we need so many TV channels?

Suddenly, what we had thought was impossible seemed doable—not easy, but doable. When we really thought about it, in many ways, our family has already gone St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

WHAT IS TITHING? Father Pat McCloskey, OFM, author of our “Ask a Franciscan” column, offers a good explanation of tithing.

“Let’s begin with the biblical description of tithing, giving one-tenth of some product to God. According to John L. McKenzie’s excellent Dictionary of the Bible, this practice was already in use before Abraham, who paid a tithe to Melchizedek (Genesis 14:20).

“Tithes on grain, wine, oil, and firstborn animals are required in Deuteronomy 14: 22-29. Every third year they are to benefit Levites, aliens, orphans, and widows. Tithes are also mentioned in the Books of Leviticus, Numbers, Nehemiah, Malachi, and 1 Maccabees.

“In Matthew 23:23, Jesus refers to how zealously Pharisees pay tithes. In Luke 18:12, he describes a Pharisee boasting to God about paying tithes. Hebrews 7: 1-10 also mentions tithes. Without using the exact term,

through this process. Buying my parents’ three-bedroom ranch home was a big step down from our previous four-bedroom, two-story house. To make the move also meant that we had to do a serious reduction of things that had filled up the house.

Thanks to that process, we discovered that things we thought were essential sometimes are not.

Apparently we forgot that lesson. Now that we’re once again working to find ways to cut back, I think we’re beginning to remember. Of course, I’d be lying if I said that there haven’t been quite a few rumblings among our kids about why they can’t

Acts of the Apostles describes the common fund that meant no follower of Jesus was in financial need (4:34).

“Although most followers of Jesus do not understand tithing as required, many Christian groups encourage it.

Must 10 percent go to the local parish or congregation? No. Can private gifts or donations to charitable organizations be considered as part of a tithe?

I would say yes to that and to assisting financially one’s friends and relatives.

“In biblical times, there was no social ‘safety net’ that most Western societies now provide by means of taxes. Even so, there are many genuine needs addressed by charitable organizations.

“Give what you can, after you have paid your bills (including your rent) and made reasonable provision for your future. All we have comes from God and should be used in a way that reflects that fact.”

have this or that. But we try to remind them of what’s important.

So while we may be eating grass salads for a while, that’s OK, because what we’re investing in—our kids and our family—is so much more important than those extra cable channels. A

Do you have comments or suggestions for topics you’d like to see addressed in this column? Send them to me at “A Catholic Mom Speaks,” 28 W. Liberty St., Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498, or e-mail them to CatholicMom@FranciscanMedia.org.

Click the button above to listen to Susan’s “Marriage Moments.”

PETE AND REPEAT These scenes may seem alike to you, But there are changes in the two.

So look and see if you can name ILLUSTRATION BY TOM GREENE

Eight ways in which they’re not the same.

(Answers on page 43)

Fr ancisca n Media .org

April 2016 ❘ 55

BACKSTORY

Quiet Giant

T

his magazine has reached your homes in many ways over the decades. When I was new here, I heard stories time and again of how in the mid-20th century, people would go door-to-door, for a

commission, selling St. Anthony Messenger to support the Franciscans. The

stories I heard were those of faithful friends: “Mr. So-and-So would show PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

up at our step every year, asking us to renew. We couldn’t say no!” Apparently, he needed the money.

Over the years, as families enjoyed a rich serving of Franciscan inspiration month after month, our sales rep became a trusted part of your circle of faith. Father Peter Wiethe, OFM, grew and nurtured this whole operation, coast-to-coast, for many years. I feel lucky to have worked with him before he passed in 1991.

In time, our culture changed. Door-to-door presence became undesirable. So our local representatives turned to their phones. That worked well for many years.

Franciscan Brother Dominic Lococo, one of those callers, retired a few months ago. He was a quiet presence to those St. Anthony Messenger subscribers lucky enough to be on his list, as far back as 1971! He would

COURTESY OF FRANCISCAN COMMUNICATIONS

Brother Dominic Lococo, OFM, was a stalwart of subscriber relations.

He called to ask for help through renewals, but as often, he had help to give, with his listening ear and warm advice.

call, hand extended, seeking to encourage you to help the work of the Franciscans. Inevitably, there would be a warm conversation about the faith—this was a ministry for Brother Dominic. He loved it!

Once in a great while, over the years, I saw Dominic in the halls of these offices—he worked mostly from his friary. He is a very soft-spoken man, so people inevitably would later ask, “Who was that?” He simply didn’t make a big deal out of himself. I’d like to make a big deal out of Brother Dominic: THANK YOU for many years of service! Thanks for befriending so many subscribers. Thanks for gently and quietly witnessing to the best of our efforts to spread the Good News.

With caller ID and voicemail slowing the phone lines, mail is our most common way to reach you these days. Over decades, among hundreds of callers, though, Brother Dominic may well have been the best. Take a break, Dominic. You’ve earned it!

Editor in Chief @jfeister

5 6 ❘ Apr il 2016

St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

REFLECTION

T

rees are Earth’s

endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.

PHOTO FROM INGIMAGE

—Rabindranath Tagore

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