July 2016 by St. Anthony Messenger

JESUS’ FORGOTTEN COMMANDMENT

ST. ANTHONY JULY 2016 • $3.95 FRANCISCANMEDIA.ORG

The Doctor Who Saved Flint The Legacy of St. Maria Goretti Pray Always Hope for Catholics in Cuba

Messenger

REFLECTION

If it could only be like this always—

PHOTO BY BILL WITTMAN

always

♦♦♦♦♦♦ s u m m e r. —Evelyn Waugh

CONTENTS

ST. ANTHONY

❘ JULY 2016 ❘ VOLUME 124/NUMBER 2

Messenger ON THE COVE R

28 A Doctor to the Rescue

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha is an assistant professor of pediatrics, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine. She is also being credited with bringing the lead crisis in Flint, Michigan, to the nation’s attention.

The government denied it, but this outspoken pediatrician proved that Flint, Michigan’s water was poisoning children. She became a global hero. By Patricia Montemurri

Photo courtesy of Michigan State University

F E AT U R E S

D E PA R T M E N T S

14 The Legacy of St. Maria Goretti

2 Dear Reader 3 From Our Readers

This child martyr’s mercy inspires Catholics young and old. By Rita E. Piro

4 Followers of St. Francis Mario Gomez-Tejerina, OFM

20 Hope for Catholics in Cuba Following Pope Francis’ visit, Cuban Catholics are optimistic about the future of their faith. By Donis Tracy

6 Reel Time

The Angry Birds Movie

8 Channel Surfing Expedition Unknown

34 Jesus’ Forgotten Commandment

10 Church in the News 26 Editorial

The key to loving your neighbor is learning how to love yourself. By Richard B. Patterson, PhD

Advancing CatholicMuslim Dialogue

27 At Home on Earth

40 Praying Always In my spiritual journey, I find God in all things. By Laura Britto

Interdependence Day

46 Fiction: My Father Is Beautiful I see him only with eyes of love. By Liz Dolan

50 Ask a Franciscan ‘Consumed with Guilt and Sorrow’

52 Book Corner Vatican II

54 A Catholic Mom Speaks Here’s to Strong Women

56 Year of Mercy ‘You Visited Me’

57 Backstory

DEAR READER

ST. ANTHONY M essenger

Fonte Colombo In 1217, a chapel dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene and nearby land were given by Benedictine monks to Francis. Six years later, Francis spent several weeks there, praying and writing the Rule that Pope Honorius III would approve on November 29, 1223. In the 14th century, another church was built on this site. Fonte Colombo is Italian for “fountain of doves,” a name that Francis may have given this remote spot. In January 1226, a surgeon here cauterized the area between Francis’ ears and eyeballs in the hope of curing his eye disease. This part of the Rieti Valley has many caves that were ideal for friars who sought a strict life of prayer and penance. A nearby chapel is dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene. She was a very popular saint in the Middle Ages, based on the mistaken idea that the woman who first witnessed Jesus’ empty tomb was also the woman who earlier covered his feet with her tears (Lk 7:36−50). Even acknowledging that mistake, devotion to Mary Magdalene reminds us of the infinite mercy of God and the need to repent of our sins.

Publisher Daniel Kroger, OFM President Kelly McCracken Editor in Chief John Feister Art Director Jeanne Kortekamp Franciscan Editor Pat McCloskey, OFM Managing Editor Susan Hines-Brigger Assistant Editors Daniel Imwalle Kathleen M. Carroll Digital Editor Christopher Heffron Editorial Assistant Sharon Lape Advertising Tammy Monjaras

Click the button on the left to hear Father Pat’s further reflections on Fonte Colombo.

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(U.S.P.S. PUBLICATION #007956 CANADA PUBLICATION #PM40036350) Volume 124, Number 2, 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. Periodicals postage paid at Cincinnati, Ohio, and additional entry offices. U.S. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: St. Anthony Messenger, P.O. Box 189, Congers, NY 109200189. CANADA RETURN ADDRESS: c/o AIM, 7289 Torbram Rd., Mississauga, ON, Canada L4T 1G8. To subscribe, write to the above address or call (866) 543-6870. Yearly subscription price: $39.00 in the United States; $69.00 in Canada and other countries. Single copy price: $3.95. For change of address, four weeks’ notice is necessary. See St AnthonyMessenger.org for information on your digital edition. Writer’s guidelines can be found at StAnthony Messenger.org. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts or photos lost or damaged in transit. Names in fiction do not refer to living or dead persons. Member of the Catholic Press Association Published with ecclesiastical approval Copyright ©2016. All rights reserved.

2 ❘ J uly 2016

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

FROM OUR READERS

A News Brief Double Take In reading May’s “News Briefs” in Susan Hines-Brigger’s column “Church in the News,” I had to reread the one about US Vice President Joe Biden being awarded Notre Dame University’s Laetare Medal several times as I couldn’t believe my eyes! According to the brief, the Laetare Medal is given annually to a Catholic “whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated by the ideals of the Church, and enriched the heritage of humanity.” According to recorded history, however, Vice President Biden has repeatedly supported and enabled a woman’s right to kill her baby in utero, aka abortion. That’s hardly an illustration of the ideals of the Catholic Church. Is it any wonder that so many Catholics believe that it’s OK to give abortion a pass when

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. Mail Letters, St. Anthony Messenger 28 W. Liberty St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498 Fax 513-241-0399

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the most prominent Catholic university in the United States goes out of its way to honor a Catholic like Vice President Biden? Elizabeth Kolby Amherst, New York

Editorial Misses the Bigger Question I just finished reading the editorial from the May issue, “Pope Francis’ Lesson on Compassion,” by Daniel Imwalle. Although I agree with the argument the pope made in Mexico, I feel that the editorial is off target. The author writes, “Whether escaping poverty, drug violence, or both, many millions of Mexicans and other Latin American refugees have sought asylum in the United States. Often, due to our backlogged and broken immigration system and the urgent desire to escape poverty and violence, many immigrants have resorted to illegally making the dangerous crossing into the United States.” Running away to the United States helps no one. It breaks up families who would just as soon live together in their homeland. And the United States becomes flooded with refugees, for whom we have no infrastructure to support. While Congress refuses to take on the issue, we now have to address the 250,000 people who have recently been laid off due to the cheap gas prices. We need to bring Mexico’s standard of living up to ours. We need to invest more in their country instead of forever receiving their poor. We need to create another Canada there. Canada and the United States have the freest border in the world. Why? Because we have a comparable standard of living. There is no desire for either country to migrate to the other. Many work on one side of the border and live on the other. And if we would build up such an

economy in Mexico, that “border wall” would come tumbling down. Jason McMahon, OFS Cincinnati, Ohio

A Call for Pro-Life Candidates In Daniel Imwalle’s editorial in the May issue, “Pope Francis’ Lesson on Compassion,” it was suggested that Catholics should “discern which political candidate aligns most closely with our vision of a better nation.” I suggest that politicians who are not pro-life should not be supported. Being against the death penalty, for example, and then supporting such issues as abortion, gay marriage, and forcing Catholic organizations to include contraception in their health plans shows a disregard for the most important pro-life issues. I hope a future editorial will address these concerns. Joseph Marincel Danville, Kentucky

Enchanted with ‘At Home on Earth’ I thoroughly enjoyed Kyle Kramer’s “At Home on Earth” column from the May 2016 issue of St. Anthony Messenger. He touches on a vital point that many of us in these modern times are sorely lacking: a sense that this is, indeed, an enchanted world. As Catholics, the author rightly points out, we should use our sacramental imagination to see that, “every bit of creation is drenched in spirit and points to its Maker.” How different our relationships with creation, with our neighbor, and with God would be if we all recognized that we live in such a sacred world. To live our lives with a sense of awe and reverence is the kind of magic we all need. Leonard Garcia, OFS Greenbelt, Maryland Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 3

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

‘All Are Welcome’

ith over 400,000 Latinos in the Boston area—many of whom are Catholic—the Church has its work cut out for it in reaching and enriching the faith lives of this growing population. Enter Brother Mario Gomez-Tejerina, OFM. Director of Latino ministry at the St. Anthony Shrine and Ministry Center, Brother Mario brings not only his energetic faith, but also the language and cultural background of those he serves. “I think that knowing the language definitely helps (especially if we want to catechize the community or preach the word),” he says. Born and raised in Lima, Peru, Brother Mario joined the Franciscans in 2005. He was invited to a retreat in Philadelphia that was led by Franciscans, and he immediately fell in love with their spirituality and concern for the poor. This Peruvian Franciscan is sensitive to the needs of immigrants in the United States, which flows out of not only his own firsthand experience as an immigrant, but also his faith. “I wonder how small Jesus might have felt after being abandoned by the apostles and their incredulity after he was crucified,” he says.

Mario Gomez-Tejerina, OFM

“I have also wondered how marginalized St. Francis felt when his father, former friends, and the people of Assisi looked down on him after he walked away from materialism and started living a life of penance.” The ministry began 12 years ago, when Father Brian Smail, OFM, started a Bible study group in Spanish in the basement of the shrine. The group still meets every Wednesday. As an intern in his Franciscan formation, Brother Mario started helping out with the Bible study in 2011, while “people in the Latino community increasingly started asking for ‘a little more,’” he says. The weekly Spanish Mass on Wednesdays wasn’t meeting the needs of their parishioners, so a Sunday Spanish liturgy was added. “There were only 15 people sitting in the pews that first Sunday. But that rapidly changed. We’ve grown to a steady 80-90 people every Sunday—and even more than that when the crazy Massachusetts weather allows!” Brother Mario exclaims. His passion and commitment to the ministry led to him becoming director in November 2013.

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

A Match Made in Heaven

4 ❘ J uly 2016

Five years ago a best friend, Marcia, encouraged me to sign up with CatholicMatch.com. At that time I had been widowed for eight years and had many dreams of being lost following the death of my beloved husband of 27 years, Claude Papp. My prayers were answered when a widower, David, wrote to me on June 13, 2011—the feast day of St. Anthony. When I read his profile, I realized that I had been “found” by a widower, who understood loss like I did, and by someone who practiced his Catholic faith, which was so important to me, all on the feast day of St. Anthony. When we shared stories, we knew it was providential. After dating for almost four years, we were married on April 11, 2015, during Divine Mercy weekend. A beautiful statue of St. Anthony carrying the Christ Child reminds us we have been blessed with great love twice in our lives. —Nancy Anton, Palmer, Massachusetts

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

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Seeking Solitude In the last 20 years of his life, Francis may have spent approximately half his time in hermitages at Cortona, Borgo San Sepolcro, Poggio Bustone, Greccio, Fonte Colombo, Speco di Narni, Cetona, and La Verna. Early in his life as a friar, he considered spending even more time in solitude, but Clare and Brother Sylvester advised him not to give up a life of preaching. Prayer and penance with a couple other friars gave Francis a deeper foundation for a very active life announcing Jesus’ good news. –P.M.

“Faithful to the shrine’s motto, ‘All Are Welcome,’ the Latino ministry at St. Anthony’s strives to offer the Latino men and Latina women of the city of Boston the opportunity and the space to express their faith in their own native language and according to their own cultural background,” he says. Brother Mario and others at St. Anthony’s want the ministry to become an “oasis of peace and prayer.” Besides Spanish Mass and the weekly Bible study, the Latino ministry also provides confessions in Spanish, offers retreats throughout the different liturgical seasons, and encourages participants to engage in other ministries at the shrine. The fear of reaching out to others who are culturally different from us, as well as bringing the Latino ministry into the larger community, are barriers with which Brother Mario has to grapple. However, the Peruvian friar has a simple Franciscan antidote at the ready. “A welcoming smile, a warm embrace, or maybe just a genuine ¡Hola! are sometimes all that’s needed to open the door,” says Brother Mario. —Daniel Imwalle

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

S T. A N T H O N Y B R E A D

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Send all postal communication to: St. Anthony Bread 1615 Vine St. Cincinnati, OH 45202-6498

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The National Shrine of St. Anthony is located in Cincinnati, Ohio. Consecrated in 1889, it includes a first-class relic of St. Anthony and serves as a center for daily prayer and contemplation. The Franciscan friars minister from the shrine. To help them in their work among the poor, you may send a monetary offering called St. Anthony Bread. Make checks or money orders payable to “Franciscans” and mail to the address below. Every Tuesday, a Mass is offered for benefactors and petitioners at the shrine. To seek St. Anthony’s intercession, mail your petition to the address below. Petitions are taken to the shrine each week. To post your petition online, please visit stanthony.org, where you can also request to have a candle lit or a Mass offered; or you may make a donation to the Franciscans or sign up to receive a novena booklet.

REEL TIME

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

The Angry Birds Movie

Eddie the Eagle My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 The Big Short Trumbo Spotlight

6 ❘

J u ly 2 0 1 6

New on DVD

Josh Gad and Jason Sudeikis lend their vocal talents to the animated feature The Angry Birds Movie. Based on the wildly successful video game, The Angry Birds Movie is about Red (Jason Sudeikis), a professional clown on Bird Island who gets hauled before Judge Peckinpah (Keegan-Michael Key) when he gets angry at a chick’s birthday party. He is sentenced to anger management classes, which are led by Matilda (Maya Rudolph), who is in recovery herself. The other birds in the class are Chuck (Josh Gad), who goes too fast, Bomb (Danny McBride), who explodes when he’s upset, and the big, growling Terence (Sean Penn). When a ship arrives captained by a pig named Leonard (Bill Hader) and his assistant, Ross (Tony Hale), it crashes into Red’s house near the shore. Red is not pleased. While Leonard seems friendly, the hold of the ship is filled with green pigs with evil designs on the birds’ eggs. After blowing up the island with TNT, Leonard escapes with them and his crew. Red motivates and leads the birds on a rescue mission to the island of pigs. John Vitti wrote The Angry Birds Movie

for Rovio Entertainment of Finland, the company that launched the video game. Filmmakers Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly obviously enjoyed making the film, which is filled with many bird and pig puns. While it is a story about male friendship and the importance of community, the use of violence to resolve conflict, however contrived, is disappointing. War is not the norm or the answer to everything. A-2, PG ■ Some crude humor and cartoon peril.

The Man Who Knew Infinity Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) is a young mathematical genius in Madras, India. He is a Hindu, poor, and newly married. Ramanujan is eager for work that will enable him to use his mathematical gifts, but no one pays attention until a man working in the accountant general’s office notes his brilliance and gets him a job as a clerk. Ramanujan moves his mother and wife into St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO COURTESY OF RICHARD BLANSHARD. AN IFC FILMS RELEASE.

Oscar winner Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel play a professor and his young, brilliant charge in The Man Who Knew Infinity.

CNS PHOTO/BROAD GREEN PICTURES

a small apartment and sets off to work. But his head is filled with mathematical formulae, and he fills notebooks with theorems. Ramanujan writes to universities in England hoping to be invited there to do research. Finally, as World War I erupts, Professor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) and his colleagues, notably Professor J.E. Littlewood (Toby Jones), are impressed enough to invite him to Cambridge University. Once there, Ramanujan struggles with the food (Hindus are vegetarians), racism, illness, distance from his mother and wife, and having his genius tempered. The Man Who Knew Infinity is a remarkable film on many levels. The acting, direction, screenplay, and cinematography are brilliant. The conflict and dialogue between Ramanujan’s faith and Hardy’s atheism are superbly and gently articulated. I can only imagine how much of Ramanujan’s story was left out—most notably about his health and marriage. Based on a 1991 biography by Robert Kanigel, The Man Who Knew Infinity is certainly the best and most interesting film of the year so far. Not yet rated, PG-13 ■ Mature themes.

Sheridan). The family wanders the desert, struggling to make a life there. The father and Yeshua converse as they walk; the elder offering words of wisdom to the younger, who seeks meaning in his father’s will. Most impressive about Last Days in the Desert is that it is probably the first time a film has successfully done what C.S. Lewis accomplished in The Screwtape Letters—to give the devil a voice and to create a conversation about belief, temptation, and consequences. Writer/director Rodrigo García captures the wandering of Jesus in the desert recounted in the synoptic Gospels. What do that time and those encounters with the devil look like to the mature person today, whether believer, seeker, or nonbeliever? The real depth of the film is how it ably asks us to question the sincerity of our beliefs. That McGregor plays both roles of Yeshua and the demon layers the story. There’s lots to talk about here. A-3, PG-13 ■ Disturbing images and brief, partial nudity.

As Yeshua, Ewan McGregor endures joys and struggles in the film Last Days in the Desert.

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

Last Days in the Desert For 40 days, Yeshua (Ewan McGregor) walks in the vast wilderness of Palestine with only his cloak and a staff. He communes with God and faces the devil (also played by McGregor), who tempts him in every way that he can. As he walks, Yeshua meets a family made up of a father (Ciarán Hinds), a mother (Ayelet Zurer), and their young son (Tye Fr anciscanMedia.org

General patronage Adults and adolescents Adults Limited adult audience Morally offensive

■

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

■

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

J u ly 2 0 1 6 ❘

CHANNEL SURFING

WITH CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

UP CLOSE

Travel Channel, check local listings What really happened to Amelia Earhart? Was Christopher Columbus the fearless explorer of legend? Is there truth to the myth of vampires? While these questions can be easily answered by our ubiquitous friend, Google, it isn’t half as fun. Enter Josh Gates. As the host of Travel Channel’s exciting and educational investigative series Expedition Unknown, Gates brings armchair explorers with him to exotic locations to uncover history’s greatest mysteries. While the photography and pace are reasons enough to tune in, the power of the series is that it brings history to life. Recent episodes worth noting center on the true cross of Christ and searching for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan. But the real draw here is Gates. Quick with a smile and often clumsy, Gates has more cred than his genial nature indicates. Archaeology is his background and his passion, which makes for engrossing television. Sensitive viewers should be aware that Gates’ language can be crass—but considering the perilous environments he explores, who can blame him? Yet the series is still worth watching for families who love history and travel. Gates informs as he entertains, and given the dearth of quality programming during the summer months, that’s a breath of fresh air.

Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives

PHOTO BY GABRIELLA HERMAN/ THE TRAVEL CHANNEL

Fridays, 10 p.m., Food Network Perfect summer viewing, Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives combines two pastimes that Americans relish: food and travel. Guy Fieri, the platinum-blond host with energy to spare, brings viewers across the country in search of dishes that cannot be massproduced or ordered off the wall behind a cash register—and that is the show’s undeniable spirit. Each episode tackles a specific theme, usually centered on American cuisine. Fieri gives a brief history of the mom-and-pop restaurant that he’s visiting, its proprietors, and, of course, the food. But the spikey-haired host one-ups most culinary programs by bringing viewers into the kitchens to watch the creation of these signature dishes. Some of the recipes are older than the restaurants themselves, which deepens the experience. What sets the show apart is that Fieri puts these greasy spoons—most of them independently owned—into the spotlight: no nationwide chain restaurants allowed here. Fieri shows us, in his trademark high-energy way, that food made locally with fresh ingredients and shared with loved ones is always a better meal. Food, after all, is a communal experience. And while binge-watching the series might not be to everyone’s taste (Fieri tries too hard to maintain his younger demographic), in smaller portions, it can be tasty television.

Josh Gates explores a cave on the scenic Cayman Islands during production on Travel Channel’s Expedition Unknown. 8 ❘

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

PHOTO BY CITIZEN PICTURES/ TELEVISION FOOD NETWORK

Expedition Unknown

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CHURCH IN THE NEWS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

CNS PHOTO/L’OSSERVATORE ROMANO

Issue of Women Deacons to Be Studied

Pope Francis greets Sister Carmen Sammut, president of the International Union of Superiors General, during an audience with the heads of women’s religious orders in Paul VI Hall at the Vatican May 12. During a meeting with the International Union of Superiors General, the leadership group for superiors of women’s orders, Pope Francis agreed to establish a commission to study the issue of women deacons, reported Catholic News Service (CNS). He did not, however, “say he intends to introduce a diaconal ordination for women,” said Vatican spokesman Jesuit Federico Lombardi. Many news outlets reported that the pope had done the latter. During the meeting, the pope spent more than an hour fielding questions posed by members of the group. “I like hearing your questions because they make me think,” the pope told close to 900 superiors general, representing almost 500,000 sisters around the world. “I feel like a goalie, who is standing there waiting for the ball and not knowing where it’s going to come from.” 1 0 ❘ July 2016

When asked if he would establish “an official commission to study the question” of whether women could be admitted to the diaconate, Pope Francis responded: “I accept. It would be useful for the Church to clarify this question. I agree.” He said his understanding was that the women described as deaconesses in the Bible were not ordained as permanent deacons are. Mainly, he said, it appeared that they assisted with the baptism by immersion of other women and with the anointing of women. However, he said, “I will ask the [Congregation for the] Doctrine of the Faith to tell me if there are studies on this.” Pope Francis also insisted that more can and should be done to involve lay and consecrated women in Church decision-making at every level. One of the sisters told him, “Our desire is that the Church talk with

us—like is happening now—and not about us.” “To talk about someone when they are absent is not evangelical,” the pope said. In the meetings of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, “you must be present and I will tell the prefect this,” he said. “I never imagined there was such a disconnect, truly. Thank you for telling me so courageously and for doing so with that smile.” In the wake of the reports about women and the diaconate, Father Lombardi said, “One must be honest: The pope did not say he intends to introduce a diaconal ordination for women and even less did he speak of the priestly ordination of women. In fact, talking about preaching during the eucharistic celebration, he let them know that he was not considering this possibility at all.” He added that “it is wrong to reduce all the important things the pope said to the religious women to just this question.”

Archdiocese Institutes Paid Parental Leave Policy Beginning this month, the Archdiocese of Chicago has implemented a new policy offering 12 weeks of paid parental leave to its staff, reported Catholic New World, the archdiocesan newspaper. The new policy is open to fathers and mothers who just had children or adopted children. Staff who are eligible for benefits—those who work at least 26 hours a week— and who have worked at the archdiocese at least one month qualify for parental leave. Archdiocesan employees who have worked less than one year will receive one week St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

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

CNS/PAUL HARING

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has confirmed that Pope Francis, or his successor, will visit Ireland in 2018 for the World Meeting of Families. The gathering is dedicated to “The Gospel of family, joy for the world,” and it will run August 22-26, 2018, in Dublin.

Pizzaballa, who held the position for 12 years. The custos is the provincial minister of the Franciscans in almost all of the Middle East, with jurisdiction over territory extending through Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Cyprus, Rhodes, and at their monastery in Cairo. In these countries he serves as a liaison among the patriarchs, bishops, and apostolic nuncios. In addition, he is authorized to sign statements with the Middle East patriarchs and must navigate the current delicate political landscape of the region.

Italian authorities arrested six suspects in late April who allegedly received orders from the Islamic State terrorist group to attack the Vatican and the Israeli embassy in Rome. According to the Italian news agency ANSA, authorities monitored a series of conversations among the suspects. Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters the messages, intercepted in February and March 2016, mentioned a strike against the Israeli embassy as well as against Christian pilgrims in Rome for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, expressed his confidence in the current security measures in place for the Holy Year. The election of Franciscan Father Francesco Patton as custos of the Holy Land was approved by the Vatican this past May. Father Patton replaces Father Pierbattista

of paid parental leave for every month they worked. Previously, female staff who gave birth or adopted used paid sick time and vacation time during their parental leave. Betsy Bohlen, CEO for the Archdiocese of Chicago, said the previous policy worked for most people, but there were some instances when it didn’t work for everyone, such as in the case of Fr ancisca n Media .org

CNS/CHRISTOPHER S. PINEO, PILOT

In response to a recent story regarding the secrets of Fatima, the Vatican has issued a statement from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI confirming that “the publication of the Third Secret of Fatima is complete.” The statement is in response to a blog story that claimed a German priest, Father Ingo Dollinger, said that then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had told him soon after the publication in 2000 that part of the message was still secret. “Pope emeritus Benedict XVI declares ‘never to have spoken with Professor Dollinger about Fatima,’” said the statement.

A group of parishioners who have occupied a closed Boston church since 2004 have said they will leave the parish and form an independent Catholic community. The move comes after the US Supreme Court rejected their appeal of a Massachusetts Court of Appeals decision that found the parishioners were trespassing on church property. Members of the group have led the aroundthe-clock vigil in the church since the archdiocese suppressed, or legally dissolved, the parish. The closing was one of 65 in the archdiocese under a plan to address changing demographics, a decline in Mass attendance, and a shortage of priests. For more Catholic news, visit AmericanCatholic.org.

newer employees, or someone who had to use sick time for other health reasons. When Archbishop Blase J. Cupich came on board as Chicago’s new archbishop in the fall of 2014, he wanted to ensure that the personnel policies were in line with Church teaching. “Obviously, we do want to be a voice for pro-life, family-friendly

kinds of policies,” Bohlen said. “The idea was to make sure that we have something that can work for all staff.” Including fathers under the new policy grew out of discussion from the human resources committee of the archdiocesan finance council about what it means to be Church today in a world that is increasingly less family-friendly. Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 1 1

Peace Activist Father Daniel Berrigan Dies at 94

Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel to Be Sold

of the congregation, said that a portion of the proceeds from the sales will support the care of retired sisters. At their peak number, there were about 600 sisters, but they have dwindled to about 104 today, with more than half retired and living at the motherhouse. The proceeds will also be used “to

CNS/SARAH WEBB, CATHOLICPHILLY.COM

challenge, in new ways, all forms of racism as well as the deeply rooted injustices in the world,” said Sister The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, Breslin. the order founded by St. Katharine St. Katharine Drexel left her Drexel, announced in May that it prominent Philadelphia family to will sell its historic motherhouse in establish a religious order in 1891 Bensalem, Pennsylvania. The 44-acre with the primary purpose to minister property contains the National to Native Americans and African Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel Americans. and her tomb. At a future date, Philadelphia Archbishop St. Katharine’s tomb will be Charles J. Chaput said in a moved to the Cathedral Basilstatement, “I have guaranteed ica of SS. Peter and Paul in archdiocesan support for the Philadelphia. sisters as their plan unfolds over The congregation has also the next few years. They’ve placed for sale a 2,200-acre committed to keeping the property in Virginia that was national shrine open to visitors the location of two schools through at least 2017.” He said founded by St. Katharine and the archdiocese will also work her sister, Louise Drexel Morwith the sisters “to make sure rell. their archival records are cared The National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel and the Blessed Sacrament Sister for appropriately within our motherhouse of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament in Donna Breslin, the president archdiocese.” A Bensalem, Pennsylvania, will be sold. 1 2 ❘ July 2016

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

CNS PHOTOS: (UPPER) BOB ROLLER, (LOWER) GREGORY A. SHEMITZ

More than 800 people gathered at the strations and meetings were routinely Church of St. Francis Xavier in the Greenmonitored by the FBI. wich Village neighborhood of New York Father Kelly said Father Berrigan and his City on May 6 to celebrate the life of Jesuit brother, Philip, a fellow peace activist, Father Daniel Berrigan. The longtime were men who lived the Resurrection and peace activist died April 30, reported CNS. challenged religious leaders to know During his funeral Mass, Father Berrigan “bomb-blessing has no place in Jesus’ selfwas remembered as a “fierce, mischievous giving.” The priest suggested that the visionary,” a “Beatnik Jesuit friend,” a brothers’ lives of radical witness made priest who “taught the sacrament of resisthem candidates to be doctors of the tance,” and a loving uncle Church. ruled by faith, not fear. The In her eulogy, Elizabeth Mass was concelebrated by McAlister, the widow of more than two dozen Philip Berrigan, said to priests, including retired those gathered, “Sisters Auxiliary Bishop Thomas and brothers, it is of no Gumbleton of Detroit. service to Dan or to his Prior to preaching his memory for us to simply homily, Jesuit Father hold him up as an icon, Stephen M. Kelly extended especially in ways that a tongue-in-cheek welexempt us from responsicome to members of the bility. How much better FBI, which was met with would it be if we asked for A mourner participates in a peace march May 6 prior to the laughter and applause. a double portion of Dan’s funeral Mass of Jesuit Father Daniel Berrigan at the Church During his life, Father spirit, and better yet, if we of St. Francis Xavier in New York City. Berrigan’s antiwar demonacted on it?”

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The Legacy l of l

St. Maria Goretti This child martyr’s mercy inspires Catholics young and old.

hen Pope Francis announced an extraordinary jubilee, a Holy Year of Mercy, to highlight the “Church’s mission to be a witness of mercy,” few could imagine that it might be an illiterate 12-year-old peasant girl from Italy who would be embraced as the face of forgiveness. Maria Goretti was close to her 12th birthday when she was stabbed to death by 20-yearold Alessandro Serenelli, a farmworker who shared a dwelling with the Goretti family in Nettuno, Italy, just outside of Rome. Alessandro had attacked the young girl when she resisted his efforts to sexually assault her. Maria initially survived the horrific wounds to her body and was transported to a hospital, where doctors were able to do little for her. During the painful 20 hours leading to her death on July 6, 1902, Maria prayed with her mother, siblings, and priest, stating repeatedly that she forgave her attacker and that she was sure that God had forgiven him, as well. Alessandro was imprisoned immediately following his attack on Maria. Since he was a minor, he was sentenced to only 30 years hard labor. One night during the third year of his confinement, Maria appeared to Alessandro in his cell. According to Alessandro, she was smiling and holding an armful of flowers— often identified as 14 lilies to symbolize the 14 wounds suffered by Maria—which she lov-

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ingly offered to the man who had taken her life. Alessandro described being enveloped in a wave of peace. From that moment on, he lived a life of goodness and grace during the remaining years of his prison term. Alessandro was released from prison three years early due to his exemplary behavior. His first action as a free man was to visit Assunta Goretti, Maria’s mother, and beg her forgiveness. Said Assunta, “Maria has forgiven you, and surely God has forgiven you. Who am I to withhold my forgiveness?” That Christmas Eve, and each one thereafter, Alessandro attended midnight Mass with the Goretti family. Although Maria and her mother had forgiven Alessandro, the local townspeople found it difficult to forget the terrible acts he had committed in his youth. He was rejected by several nearby communities, whose residents treated him as an outcast. He was offered safe lodging at a monastery belonging to the Capuchin Franciscan friars. He became a Third Order Franciscan and lived and worked the rest of his life on the friary grounds. Along with 30 other witnesses, Alessandro testified to Maria’s sanctity during her cause of beatification. On June 24, 1950, Maria was canonized by Pope Pius XII at an outdoor ceremony in St. Peter’s Square attended by her mother, her siblings, and the man who had taken her life. St. Maria Goretti is the only St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

PHOTO BY EUGENE PLAISTED, OSC

B Y R I TA E . P I R O

saint who has the distinction of having not only her mother but also her murderer at her canonization. More than 250,000 people were present at the event, which was the first canonization broadcast through news outlets.

The Power of Pardon

In St. Maria Goretti we experience the consummate example of mercy and clemency.

tal Digi as Extr Click here to learn more about St. Maria Goretti.

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In “Misericordiae Vultus: The Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy,” Pope Francis declares, “Pardoning offenses becomes the clearest expression of merciful love, and for us Christians it is an imperative from which we cannot excuse ourselves. At times how hard it seems to forgive! And yet pardon is the instrument placed into our fragile hands to attain serenity of heart.” In St. Maria Goretti we experience the consummate example of mercy and clemency. Her radical forgiveness—that of the young man who tried to violate her, then stabbed her multiple times causing her death—is something that few of us are able to comprehend, much less imitate. How many of us are able to forgive even the most minor of slights that come our way? It’s an inevitable consequence of having to share our world with others certainly not as perfect as ourselves. Would we be able not only to forgive, but also to welcome into our lives someone who has caused us serious hurt and anguish? Would we be able to pray for that person, asking for the grace of a softened heart on their behalf, then rejoicing with them when it is accepted? The life of Maria Goretti serves as a blueprint for Christians, all of whom are called to forgive unconditionally in the same manner as Jesus. After all, the first person that Jesus took with him to heaven was not only a sinner, but a convicted criminal. “Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied to him, ‘Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (Lk 23:42-43). Since the time of the announcement of the Holy Year of Mercy, the Vatican has made a great effort to provide numerous catechetical and experiential opportunities for the faithful to celebrate the jubilee year in their lives. Under the direction of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the relics of St. Maria Goretti were recently brought to the United States as part of “The Pilgrimage of Mercy.” Father Carlos Martins, CC, director of Treasures of the Church in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Texas, was approached by officials from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints about the feasibility of bring-

ing her body on a tour of the United States. Plans were immediately developed and a team was assembled to bring St. Maria across the Atlantic, under the guidance of Father Martins. The first tour covered 16 states and included 61 churches, as well as several schools and a correctional facility. A fall 2016 tour of the West and Northwest states is currently being organized.

‘A Friend of Mercy’ The first stop on the tour, which began September 20, 2015, was Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York. The selection of a maximum-security prison as the first place of exhibition was no accident, as Maria, who famously forgave her murderer on her deathbed, is venerated not only as the patroness of victims of violent crimes, but also of those guilty of committing such heinous acts. Father Martins reported that many of the inmates at the prison openly wept upon learning the saint’s story. “She’s here as a friend of mercy,” he told them. “Ask her to pray for you, and invite her into your hearts.” Among the first churches to receive the relics was Good Shepherd Parish in the Marine Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Reverend Thomas Doyle, pastor of the parish of about 3,500 families, was quick to offer the church as a location for the exhibition. “What a powerful story, a saint for our times,” he says. “We usually think of saints as old people who lived long ago, but Maria was a young person who lived relatively recently and whose story of mercy and forgiveness speaks to all of us of all ages still today.” Adds Permanent Deacon Christopher Wagner, “The motorcade bearing the relics of St. Maria arrived at 1 a.m. the morning of the exhibition, and we all came out to welcome her. As the police escort arrived at church, I was filled with pride that our parish was chosen for such a great honor.” At Good Shepherd Church, as at all the churches that hosted the exhibition, the young and old came out in large numbers—as many as 35,000 at some locations across the United States—to venerate the relics. Some solemnly touched holy cards, medals, and rosaries to the gold-plated reliquary adorned with cherubs, while others knelt in prayer, asking for Maria’s intercession. More than a few approached with tear-filled eyes. The glass reliquary contains a life-size wax figure in the youthful likeness of Maria. None of her actual human remains are visible, but St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

CNS PHOTO/GREGORY L. TRACY

are contained within the wax figure itself. A woman healed by Maria’s intercession donated her own hair for the wig that adorns the head of the figure. Assunta Goretti, Maria’s mother, worked with an artist to produce an image that best represents what Maria looked like. Because there were no photographs ever taken of the young saint, this portrait, reproduced in all manner of media, is considered the only accurate representation of her. Says Deacon Wagner, “As a father of two daughters myself, I was moved by her story and knew that my daughters would be, as well. I wanted her to visit us because we are a parish made up of many young families, and I hoped that this exhibition and veneration would help strengthen their relationship with God and allow them to see that we are all called to be saints. I knew that many of our youth could look to St. Maria as a model and a guide.” Lifelong Good Shepherd parishioner Susan Indart is a breast cancer survivor currently undergoing treatment for stage IV colon cancer. “I prayed to St. Maria Goretti for healing, not only physical, but spiritual as well. Experiencing her relics in person was amazing. I could Fr anciscanMedia.org

(Above) On a “pilgrimage of mercy” that spanned nearly 20 states, the faithful had the opportunity to venerate a wax figure of St. Maria Goretti, which contains relics from the saint.

CNS PHOTO/KAREN CALLAWAY, CATHOLIC NEW WORLD

feel her presence as soon as I walked into the church. I pray her novena every night, asking for strength and to help me not only to forgive, but to be forgiven.” Maria Resciniti, a teacher at Good Shepherd School, came to know of St. Maria Goretti through one of her students. “I had given the class an assignment to write about a favorite saint, and this student wrote about Maria

(Left) Many worshippers brought prayer cards, medals, and rosaries to the glass reliquary containing the remains of St. Maria Goretti. When the tour made a stop at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, many inmates wept openly upon hearing her story.

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STEFANO.NICOLUCCI AT ITALIAN WIKIPEDIA

PHOTO BY RITA E. PIRO

St. Maria Goretti, who died at the age of 12, could have called some of these children classmates were she alive today. Her choice to forgive serves as an inspiration for generations to come.

Goretti,” she explains. “Up until then I had never heard of her. I was deeply moved by her story. Praying before her relics has made me see forgiveness and mercy in a brand-new light. It has made me realize that I have not been very good at it, and for far less than what Maria suffered. “What better example of mercy and forgiveness could there be?” asks Resciniti. “Maria Goretti not only forgave her attacker, but felt compassion for him, too. Such reconciliation takes someone with a true understanding of what Jesus teaches us about forgiveness.”

An Inspiration for Future Generations Maria’s great example was not lost on the young who visited the church to hear her

story and pray at her relics. Parish schoolchildren had learned about St. Maria Goretti in their classes. “I was amazed at how Maria forgave,” says 11-year-old Emily Monahan. “I hope I am able to forgive like that.” Adds 12year-old Michael Santoro, “It was an honor to see her in the church I attend with my family. It took my breath away to see the relic of a saint right in front of me. I did not know her before this, but I feel now that she will help me and pray for me.” Michael’s 10-year-old sister, Gianna, was equally touched by the event. “I have only ever prayed to a statue of a saint, and this was an amazing experience. These were the real relics of St. Maria Goretti. I wrote down my prayers and put them in her prayer box. I put my grandma’s name on a candle near her relics and asked St. Maria Goretti to take care of her and us.” St. Maria Goretti allowed the grace of God to touch her heart and let flow from it the compassion to see the goodness, dignity, and worth in a person who had sinned greatly. It was this act of love that helped bring about the conversion of that person’s heart. A few years before his death in 1970, at the age of 87, Alessandro Serenelli wrote in a reflection upon his life, “Looking back at my past, I can see that in my youth, I chose a bad path, which led me to ruin myself. Maria Goretti, now a saint, was my good angel, sent to me from God to guide and save me. She prayed for me, she interceded for me, her murderer.” In both Alessandro Serenelli and St. Maria Goretti, let us find the strength to take up as our life’s mission the type of reconciliation that brings peace and new life to even the most unholy among us and unites us all as loving and merciful children of God. The feast of St. Maria Goretti is celebrated on July 6 as part of the worldwide calendar. In addition to forgiveness and reconciliation, she is the patroness of victims of sexual assault, chastity, and teenagers. Her remains are kept in the crypt of the Basilica of Our Lady of Grace and St. Maria Goretti in Nettuno, Italy. A

The Basilica of Our Lady of Grace and St. Maria Goretti is located in Nettuno, Italy, just outside of Rome. The basilica is also the final resting place of this young saint. 18 ❘

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Rita E. Piro is the author of many articles and books. She is on the faculty at The Mary Louis Academy in New York City. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

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HOPE for Catholics in Cuba Following Pope Francis’ visit, Cuban Catholics are optimistic about the future of their faith.

PHOTO BY GREGORY L. TRACY

BY DONIS TRACY

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CNS PHOTOS/ PAUL HARING

HEY CAME from all over the island: some by car, others by foot. They came from Santa Clara, Matanzas, Camaguey. The lucky ones clutched VIP tickets close to themselves— gifts from their parish priest—that would allow them access to the few folding chairs set up for the event. The rest stood for hours—some even slept outdoors, dressed in their finest clothes. Some held rosaries; others held signs. “Papa Francisco—Nuestra Esperanza” (“Pope Francis— Our Hope”) read one. “Bienvenidos Papa Francisco” (“Welcome Pope Francis”) read another. All descended on Havana’s Revolution Square for one reason alone—to celebrate Mass with Pope Francis. Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, has certainly brought much hope to the people of Cuba. Just one year into his papacy, he helped broker a deal that has begun to heal the relationship between Cuba and the United States. “The fact that the Holy Father chose to add this trip to Cuba to his visit to the United States underlines the great importance of the reconciliation between our two nations,” Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley, cardinal archbishop of Boston, explains. Cardinal O’Malley recounted a conversation he had with one of the local Cuban bishops.

Pope Francis makes his way to Revolution Square, where he celebrated Mass before thousands of Cubans in September 2015. “[The Cuban bishop] spoke about how unpleasant it is if you in your neighborhood don’t get along with your neighbor—living in constant tensions, fearful that your family pet will run into their lawn, or that their music will be on too loud, and all the kinds of hostilities that are generated in those kinds of situations. That’s been the life of the Cuban people for decades, and the constant barrage of propaganda against the United States . . . and the people being told over and over again that the embargo was the sole cause of all of their suffering” leaves a mark on a society, he explains. With the relationship between the United States and Cuba on the mend, it was no coincidence that Pope Francis chose to begin his North American trip with a visit to Cuba, Cardinal O’Malley continues.

A Time of Joy

With the Cuban flag in the background, Pope Francis processes into Mass. St. John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI also celebrated Mass in the Square.

During his September 20 Mass at Revolution Square—the third pontiff in less than 20 years to celebrate Mass there—Pope Francis urged the people to a life of service to others. “Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people,” he said. “Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it. That is why Christians are constantly

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CNS PHOTO/ PAUL HARING

Cuban President Raúl Castro and Pope Francis meet at the Palace of the Revolution during the pope’s visit in September 2015. Perez. Speaking in her native Spanish from her apartment in West New York, New Jersey, the 79-year-old reminisced about her days in Cuba. “What we didn’t know then actually did come back to hurt us,” she says. Beginning in 1961, Fidel Castro created the People’s Socialist Party. Four years later, it would be renamed the Communist Party of Cuba. Those who opposed Castro were silenced—imprisoned, executed, or deported. Among those deported were close to 200 priests, largely Spaniards ministering to the Cuban population, who had

PHOTO BY GREGORY L. TRACY

called to set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those who are most vulnerable,” he continued. God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba are a people with a taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things. They are a people who march with songs of praise. They are a people who have wounds, like every other people, yet know how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because they have a vocation of grandeur. Together with Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, Cardinal O’Malley attended the papal Mass. “In the many years I have been visiting the island, this is the visit with the most enthusiasm, joy, and hope that I have experienced in the people. And they see the Holy Father’s part in promoting reconciliation and they are so grateful,” he muses. “Pope Francis has cemented the role of the Church in Cuba,” says Mario Paredes, presidential liaison to Catholic Ministries for the American Bible Society. According to Paredes, the Church has been given a legitimacy that hasn’t been seen for half a century.

been critical of Castro’s regime. By 1962, it became illegal to be Catholic and a member of the new regime. Perez recalls the chilling effect Castro’s regime had on Catholics. Born in a rural village called Manicaragua, Perez and her nine siblings had been raised Catholic. Her mother, who Perez confesses did not have enough money to buy a rosary, taught her children to pray the rosary using corn kernels instead of beads. “We didn’t have a church anywhere near us,” she recounts, “so every once in a while a priest would come by. My grandmother would turn her living room into a chapel, and everyone who wanted to be baptized would come.” Perez and her family moved to Havana when she was 13. “That was the first time I was able to go to Mass every week,” she says. “I did my first Communion at the Church of San Francisco. It was such a beautiful church. Fidel took that, broke all the statues, and turned it into a museum,” she adds bitterly. Perez says she first felt singled out because of her faith in 1969. By then a married woman with a young son, her family still attended weekly Mass. At their church, soldiers entered, destroyed all the religious statues, and burned all the sacred books. At her son’s school, “the adminis-

Catholicism in Communist Cuba To understand the Church’s current situation in Cuba, one needs to look at the early days of the revolution. “I remember that time,” recalls Laura 22 ❘

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The Basilica of San Francisco, now a concert hall, was once home to Franciscans in Havana. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

tration made him announce that he was Catholic from a Catholic family. He was only 3 or 4 at the time, and I was very afraid of why they singled him out like that,” she says. Perhaps the most terrifying moment —one that instilled in Perez the desire to leave her homeland—came one Sunday as the family was leaving Mass. Perez explains that her husband was a professor who continued to practice his faith, although it was strongly discouraged by the administration. As the family was walking out of church, one of his students was marching with a group of young soldiers. “Angel, my husband, just froze,” she says. “Then the boy walked up to him and whispered, ‘Don’t worry, professor, I’m one of you.’ We realized we couldn’t keep living in fear like that.” According to Mario Paredes, the Cuban government also began “altering the calendar of the country.” Christmas was banned. Easter was removed from the calendar year. “On Sundays, the government would create all sorts of activities to dissuade people from going to church,” he explains.

Ongoing Repression Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, “the Church in Cuba was essentially closed,” Paredes says, adding that the papal nuncio tried to establish relations with the Archdiocese of Havana, but the Castro regime blocked all communication. “The country was reduced to a small number of priests—all Cuban-born— that had to minister to the entire island,” he continues. The number of men willing to enter the seminary dwindled, he adds, because they were afraid that even within the seminary “there were informers that infiltrated,” reporting to the government about what was said and taught. “Many of the churches were left open, but if anybody went to Mass, if you were under 70 years of age, the police would come up to you and tell you not to come back. And the way that control was exerted over the populace in Cuba was through what they call the Committees for the Defense Fr anciscanMedia.org

of the Revolution,” explains Cardinal O’Malley. “In every neighborhood there was a sort of a government spy who would look and see what everyone in the neighborhood was doing. So, if you didn’t go to the rallies in front of the American embassy or whatever the government wanted you to do, if you went to church, or if you expressed any kind of opposition to the government, you would be penalized for that.” Penalties would come in the form of job restrictions, unemployment, denying university for children, and the loss of government coupons that were the form of currency used to purchase food, clothing, or other necessities. The effect was noticeable. By 1971, the Archdiocese of Havana only recorded 7,000 Baptisms. In a country that was once almost entirely Catholic, the Church was in trouble. According to Cardinal O’Malley, when he first traveled to Cuba in 1980, fewer than one percent of the population were practicing Catholics. Things began to change in 1981 when a new archbishop was appointed in Havana. Then-Archbishop Jaime Ortega “was a real turning point,” according to Paredes. “With his charisma, and his willingness to speak to the outside world, we began to see what was going on in the Church in Cuba,” he adds.

to be Catholic and a member of the Communist Party. Castro, who had often described Cuba as an “atheist nation,” now began referring to it as a “secular nation.” In 1991, the Archdiocese of Havana reported 33,569 Baptisms—almost a fivefold increase from the 1971 statistic. It seemed things were looking up for the Church in Cuba. Then history stopped all progress in its tracks. The Soviet Union collapsed. The Berlin Wall was toppled. Commu-

ANSWERS TO PETE AND REPEAT 1. The moon now has a glow. 2. Pete’s sleeve is longer. 3. Scruffy has joined the fun. 4. Sis’ shirt has a collar. 5. Pete and Sis’ friend is tilting her head the other way. 6. A small piece of the firework is falling. 7. Pete has only one finger raised. 8. The firework on the right is lower.

So that his work might continue...

A Step Forward In 1986, with the help of Cardinal Ortega, Cardinal Terence Cooke—then archbishop of New York—traveled to Havana and met with Castro. At the time, Paredes was director of operations for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB), so he traveled with Cardinal Cooke to the meeting. “In that encounter, a lot of things were said,” Paredes recalls. Ultimately, Cardinal Cooke was able to negotiate the release of over 800 political prisoners. He also was granted permission for priests to visit prisoners in jail. And, perhaps more importantly, he opened the way for Havana to host Pope John Paul II. By the 1990s, it was no longer illegal

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CNS PHOTOS: (FAR LEFT) ARTURO MARI, EPA; (LEFT) ETTORE FERRARI, EPA

(Right) In 1998, St. John Paul II became the first pope to travel to Cuba, paving the way for future papal visits. Here, he greets then-President Fidel Castro. (Far right) Pope Benedict arrives for an open-air Mass in Havana’s Revolution Square during his visit to Cuba in 2012.

nism lost its power in most of Europe. “Fidel was very upset,” Paredes recalls. “He accused bishops of conspiring against his power. There was a complete breakdown of communication.” It wasn’t until 1998 that Pope John Paul II would be allowed to enter the island nation. Calling it a “watershed moment,” Cardinal O’Malley believes “that visit saved the Church in Cuba. It really changed the landscape. “Fidel always admired John Paul and he thought, I’m sure, that it would be a feather in his cap if he could bring him to Cuba. In many ways, it was a risky thing for him to do. Fidel never allowed anyone besides himself to address the Cuban people. It was the first time since the revolution that any other voice would be heard,” the cardinal continues. For many Cubans, the papal Mass, which was held in Revolution Square— the same place Castro held his many political rallies—was the first Catholic Mass they had ever witnessed. In his homily, Pope John Paul II spoke of the need for the Church to be a presence in Cuba. “There are always people who need the voice of the Church so that their difficulties, their suffering, and their distress may be known,” he said. “Those who find themselves in these situations can be 24 ❘

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certain that they will not be betrayed, for the Church is with them and the pope, in his heart and with his words of encouragement, embraces all who suffer injustice. “I am present among you as a messenger of truth and hope. For this reason, I wish to repeat my appeal: let Jesus Christ enlighten you; accept without reservation the splendor of his truth, so that all can set out on the path of unity through love and solidarity, while avoiding exclusion, isolation, and conflict, which are contrary to the will of God who is Love,” the pontiff said. His words were met with thunderous applause. “I know it was a long time ago,” says Ramón, a 73-year-old cab driver in Havana who asked that his last name not be used. “But for me it feels like yesterday. Is that a silly thing to say? I had heard about Mass and about God from my mother, but I never had seen anything like it. “It made me want to go to church, but I didn’t do it for a long time because I wasn’t sure I wouldn’t get in trouble for it,” he admits. He was baptized as an adult, and now describes himself as “a true Catholic.” According to Ramón, that following year, Christmas was allowed to be celebrated for the first time in his memory. “Oh, what a Christmas that was!

Everyone was celebrating; we finally had something to celebrate,” he says with a smile.

A New Era Things would continue to change. In 2008, an aging Fidel Castro stepped down as president of Cuba, ceding his power to his younger brother, Raúl. “Fidel was very dogmatic,” Paredes explains. “Raúl is very pragmatic.” Seeing his nation in financial distress, and acknowledging the needs of the Cuban people, Raúl Castro began to allow groups such as Caritas Cubana to minister to the Cuban people. “Raúl has been very interested in forming a relationship with the Catholic Church,” Paredes says, adding quickly that “it is not an official relationship. He looks to the other side and allows Caritas to establish centers of continuing education, centers for children with disabilities, and other such entities to exist. Private entities do not exist in Cuba, yet the Church is allowed to run these without any problem.” In 2010, a new seminary was erected in Cuba—the first Catholic building constructed since the revolution in 1959. President Raúl Castro was in attendance at the inauguration ceremony for the San Carlos and San Ambrosio Seminary. Over 40 seminarSt A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

ians, most of whom were baptized after Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, were in attendance for the historic day.

Pope Benedict Breaks Down More Walls

Looking Forward After Pope Francis’ visit to Cuba, Cubans are highly optimistic about their future. Sitting in Old Havana, Vivian, a 43year-old tour guide in Havana, who was not comfortable giving her last name, sees this as a real turning point for Cuba. The fear they once lived in has been lifted. The paranoia that had been instilled in the people has dissipated. Continuing education in fields such as business, computers, and finance are being offered in many parishes. Individuals are being allowed to own restaurants called paladares. The oppression once felt by the masses has been changed into promise. “We can feel it in the air—there’s a hope, an electricity. You can see it when you look at people. We are hopeful. We know that things are going to get better,” Vivian says with a smile. A Donis Tracy is an award-winning author who lives and works in the Boston area. She has written a number of articles for this magazine, including the March 2016 feature on Grassroots Films.

CNS PHOTO/ALEJANDRO ERNESTO, EPA

Two years later, another pontiff visited the island. Pope Benedict XVI arrived amid throngs of people waving papal flags, publicly declaring their faith. “I appeal to you to reinvigorate your faith . . . and armed with peace, forgiveness, and understanding, that you may strive to build a renewed and open society, a better society, one more worthy of humanity,” he told the crowd. Like his predecessor, Pope Benedict celebrated Mass at Revolution Square. He also visited Santiago de Cuba, the place where the statue of the patroness of Cuba, Our Lady of Charity, resides. Following Pope Benedict’s visit, the Cuban people were allowed to celebrate Holy Week, even having Good Friday declared a national day off from work. “His was an impressive visit,” says Paredes. “He was able to meet with Raúl, to give hope to the people of

Cuba, and to bring the eyes of the world into Cuba.” According to Paredes, following Pope Benedict’s visit to Cuba, “the Church began to be seen not as a counterrevolutionary or antipatriotic entity, but as an asset.” Although the Church has certainly grown in Cuba—now more than 60 percent of the population are baptized Catholics—there is still much work to be done, according to Paredes. “Each pope has helped to make the revolution more flexible, more tolerant,” he says, adding that there are still many things to be done. “The Church is still not allowed to enter the field of education—no high school or elementary or university,” he says. “They also have no access to mass media of any kind.” And yet, incredible progress has been made. In the last few years, the government has begun to give back to the Church properties that were confiscated a half century ago. To date, more than 120 buildings, most in disrepair, have been given back to the Church in Cuba.

Cubans take part in a procession featuring the country’s patroness, Our Lady of Charity. Fr anciscanMedia.org

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EDITORIAL

Advancing Catholic-Muslim Dialogue A new national dialogue is working to bridge the gap between these two religions. According to a 2015 Pew Research study, Muslims are the only major religious group expected to increase faster than the world’s population as a whole. In fact, it is projected that, in the second half of this century, Muslims will likely surpass Christians as the world’s largest religious group. Many polls show that Americans—and even Catholics—hold a negative perception of Muslims, citing terrorism by the Islamic State as a reason. But what about the vast majority of Muslims, who do not condone such terror but instead embrace the Quran’s nonviolent teachings? Is it OK to vilify them based on the actions of some? In our own religion, have we not witnessed a similar situation within our priesthood following the sex-abuse crisis? Some priests have done horrible, unspeakable things. (Most have not.) And what about the anti-Catholicism movements in our nation’s history? As a means of bridging the gap between Catholics and Muslims, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently established a new National Catholic-Muslim Dialogue, which will begin in January 2017. Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago will be serving as the first Catholic cochair of the group. Currently, there are three regional dialogues—the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and West Coast, each cochaired by a bishop and a Muslim leader from the corresponding regional organization. According to Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Springfield, Massachusetts, chair of the bishops’ Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs (CEIA), these dialogues will continue. On taking the discussion to the next level, Bishop Rozanski believes, “As the national conversation around Islam grows increasingly fraught, coarse, and driven by fear and often willful misinformation, the Catholic Church must help to model real dialogue and goodwill.” 2 6 ❘ July 2016

An Ongoing Conversation The Catholic Church’s positive relationship with Islam is not a new development. The footwork was laid out in the Vatican II document “Nostra Aetate: Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian Religions.” St. John Paul II continued to promote dialogue with our Muslim brethren. So did Pope Benedict XVI, and now Pope Francis has, too. In his apostolic exhortation “Joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis called for understanding between followers of the two religions. “Faced with disconcerting episodes of violent fundamentalism, our respect for true followers of Islam should lead us to avoid hateful generalizations, for authentic Islam and the proper reading of the Quran are opposed to “In today’s world every form of violence,” he where God is wrote.

An Informed Belief

tragically forgotten, Christians and Muslims are called in one spirit of love to defend and always promote human dignity, moral values, and freedom.”

Why is it, then, that many Americans hold such a negative view of the followers of Islam? Lack of understanding? Ignorance? After all, a 2009 Pew study found that just under half of Americans know someone who is Muslim. It also —St. John Paul II reported that “a slim majority of Americans know the Muslim name for God is Allah, and a similar number can correctly name the Quran as the Islamic sacred text.” How would we as Catholics feel if the roles were reversed? The reality is, as the number of Muslims increases, our relationships with Muslims are also likely to develop. Generalizations about followers of Islam aren’t acceptable and have no place in a religion that follows Christ’s teachings to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Categorizing Islam with broad strokes is bigotry and, quite frankly, unchristian. Perhaps this new national dialogue can help to put an end to that. —S.H.B. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

AT HOME ON EARTH

❘ BY KYLE KRAMER

Interdependence Day

et me say, right up front, that I am not a party pooper. I love the Fourth of July as much as the next patriot, and I revel in destroying my hearing with loud fireworks and my cholesterol numbers with plenty of high-fat picnic fare. In fact, some of my fondest family memories entail carting our children to the local fireworks show and watching them twirl around with their own sparklers. Even so, I am beginning to have some qualms about our national holiday. Partly, it’s the polarized mood of our country, where patriotism often devolves into a litmus test for partisan loyalty rather than fidelity to our diverse country as a whole. But mostly, it’s that I believe less and less in the idea of independence, at all. What I mean is that I’m more and more interested in Pope Francis’ simple message for our global neighborhood: that everything is interconnected. This truth is revealed in the mystery of the Trinity, the elegance of ecosystems, and the tragedy of global pollution and climate change. It’s a truth we’ve encountered in quantum

physics, astrophysics, sociology, medicine— you get the idea. I learned it in my early days of homesteading. My A Global ideal had been Daniel Boonestyle rugged independence— Community being completely off-grid and self-sufficient. What I came If you want a mindto realize, however, the first bending example of inter(and second, and third) time connection, look up my neighbors got me out of a “quantum entanglement,” jam, was that my ideal was “quantum non-locality,” not only silly and impossible, or “spooky action at a but not much fun. I like the distance.” term “rugged interdependence” instead: working hard Remember and thank all and taking an active role in the people whom you’ve providing for your own never met but who make needs, but realizing that to your life possible: those survive and be fulfilled who provide your food, requires belonging generclothing, electricity, clean ously to a larger whole. water, and consumer items. Living out of the truth that we need each other will Take a moment to reflect on mean changing the way we the African word “Ubuntu,” do business, politics, educaoften translated as “I am tion, and, yes, even religion. what I am because of who It will be hard work, so monwe all are.” umental as to be called the Great Work of our time. The reward, though, is not only that we avoid ecological destruction and human misery, but that we actually have a whole lot more fun— together. Maybe we could even have a new holiday to celebrate it. Happy Interdependence Day! A

We can celebrate our independence, but we must also honor our interdependence with the environment. Fr ancisca n Media .org

Click the button on the right to listen to an interview with Kyle.

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

A Doctor to the Rescue The government denied it, but this outspoken pediatrician proved that Flint, Michigan’s water was poisoning children. She became a global hero. B Y PAT R I C I A M O N T E M U R R I

CNS PHOTO/ REBECCA COOK, REUTERS

VERYWHERE SHE GOES now, from testifying before the US Congress to the coffee shop, Dr. Mona HannaAttisha is recognized—and thanked. Hanna-Attisha, the director of Flint’s Hurley Hospital Pediatric Residency Program, was named to the 2016 TIME 100, the magazine’s list of the world’s most influential people. PEN America, a group of writers dedicated to human rights, chose Hanna-Attisha and Flint mother/activist LeeAnne Walters to receive the 2016 Freedom of Expression Courage Award. (Last year, PEN honored the surviving staffers of the Paris attack on the weekly Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.) Flint’s Christ the King Parish honored Hanna-Attisha with the Father Norman Dukette Award, named after the pioneering black Catholic who founded the parish to serve the African American community. Even the doctor’s suburban Detroit Catholic school teachers will attest that even as an elementary student, Hanna-Attisha demonstrated a tendency toward fearless, not-to-be-ignored, straight talk. Her most recent recognition, however, comes from being one of the heroes in the

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Flint water crisis, a scandal of bureaucratic indifference, ineptitude, and bad choices. A crisis where bottom-line politics were placed before commonsense compassion, it is a prime example of institutional racism.

A Crisis Emerges After the city of Flint switched its water supply source in a questionable cost-cutting move in 2014, the 39-year-old pediatrician is credited with exposing how that resulted in a neardoubling of the number of children with dangerous levels of lead in their bloodstreams. State of Michigan officials initially dismissed Hanna-Attisha’s research, before they corroborated what she already knew: Flint’s water was poisoning its children. “Why do pediatricians freak out on lead?” she asks audiences. “Because lead never should be in the body of a child.” The impact of the Flint water crisis means that more than 8,000 Flint children under age 6—the most vulnerable to the neurological and cognitive damage that can be caused by lead—drank contaminated water, says HannaAttisha. And when tap water ran brown, smelled funny, and was clearly not clear, she St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

At the time of this December 2015 photo of the waters flowing through Flint, Michigan, a state of emergency had been declared. As a pediatrician, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, seen here examining a child, knows the dangers of lead poisoning: it causes lifeshattering disabilities.

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ABOVE PHOTO COURTESY MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. ADJACENT PHOTO BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI

told a March audience at Michigan State University, “nobody listened.” What’s happened in a city where 60 percent of children live in poverty, said Hanna-Attisha, has added to built-in disadvantages for many of Flint’s children. “We have shifted their IQ down,” says the doctor and mother. The city’s water system was so damaged, says Hanna-Attisha, that drinking from it is “like drinking through a lead-coated straw and . . . there’s no knowing when a flake of it will fall off.” A task force appointed by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder—who faces calls to resign over the Flint water crisis—summarized part of the tragedy this way: “Flint residents, who are majority black or African American and among the most impoverished of any metropolitan area in the United States, did not enjoy the same degree of protection from environmental and health hazards as that provided to other communities.” In early May, US President Barack Obama visited Flint to assess the city’s water crisis. In addressing the situation, the president pointed out that too often situations such as in Flint

arise because “we underinvest when the communities that are put at risk are poor, or don't have a lot of political clout, and so are often not as heard in the corridors of power.”

A Solid Foundation At coffee shops, strangers pick up HannaAttisha’s tab. In the ladies’ room at the theatre with her two daughters, playgoers salute her work. And the mail brings handwritten letters of praise, including from her fifth-grade Catholic school science teacher.

Dr. Hanna-Attisha speaks with a reporter this past March, following a speech sponsored by Michigan State University Institute for Public Policy Research. She has become a spokeswoman and advocate for victims of lead poisoning.

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“If she had an idea, she made sure she was heard,” recalls Nancy Sadowski, who taught fifth-grade science and math at Guardian Angels in the Detroit suburb of Clawson. “She wasn’t intimidated. She was always so absolutely determined and focused, and she’s living that now,” says Sadowski. Hanna-Attisha says she was floored when she received Sadowski’s note. “That letter from my fifth-grade teacher was just amazing,” says Hanna-Attisha. “She wrote about what a stubborn and smart kid I was in Catholic school, and I am stubborn.” Born in Sheffield, England, to Iraqi-born parents, Hanna-Attisha moved to the Detroit area as a child. Her family hails from an area in northern Iraq that’s home to a shrinking, terrorized Christian population and which has fallen under ISIS control. “It was just incredible to look back at my foundations. I’m Chaldean Catholic from Iraq. We know what it’s like to be a minority, to struggle,” says Hanna-Attisha. “Any member

of any immigrant community would fight injustice. It’s probably one of the reasons that I do the work that I do.” She’s also undertaken directing the Michigan State University and Hurley Children’s Hospital Public Health Initiative, designed to research and remediate the impact of Flint’s lead contamination. “There was a foundation of service, of looking at injustices and helping those who are suffering,” says Hanna-Attisha of her Catholic schooling. “I don’t know whether it’s the most important thing that drove me to do what I do, and continue to do, but it was definitely part of my foundation.”

Helping Hands As the Flint water crisis exploded into the national spotlight, Catholic institutions also stepped up to become part of the solutions. “You got water?” Another car rolls into the parking lot of Flint’s Catholic Charities center, and staffers

of the country’s schools and day-care centers.

Not Just Flint’s Problem

Because of the Flint water contamination, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has pledged to enact the nation’s most stringent regulations to guard against lead-tainted water. A congressman from Flint, US Rep. Dan Kildee, has introduced a bill to set more stringent national standards.

Kildee’s bill would lower what’s considered the acceptable level of lead in drinking water. Currently, the federal Safe Drinking Water Act mandates lead-abatement actions if a water system records lead levels above 15 parts per billion. When that happens, water systems are supposed to deploy corrosion controls or replace service What’s coming out of your faucet? Other municipalities and states now are examining whether they have lead problems with their water supplies, because of revelations from the Flint water crisis. A USA Today report in March revealed that about 350

lines. Kildee’s bill proposes lowering the acceptable level to 5 parts per billion by 2026. “Our country’s drinking water protections are outdated and a patchwork of different rules,” Kildee said. The US Food and Drug Administration has tougher

schools in the United States have lead levels in their

standards against lead in bottled water than it does for

drinking supplies that record “excessive amounts of an

tap water, said Kildee. He also noted that the World

element doctors agree is unsafe at any level.”

Health Organization also calls for less lead in tap water

Data collected by the Environmental Protection Agency, wrote USA Today, showed that “about 350

than does the United States. “We must do more to protect families and our drinking

schools and day-care centers failed lead tests a total of

water, and that starts with passing better standards for

about 470 times from 2012 through 2015.”

drinking water quality,” said Kildee. “This legislation

That might be only the tip of the problem. That’s because the federal data studied reflects only a fraction 30 ❘

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would bring America’s drinking water standards in line with the rest of the developed world.” St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Angie Lara and her son, James, load up on cases of water from Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties in Michigan. In January and February of this year, the organizations were distributing 4,000 cases of water daily.

PHOTO BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI

load up four 24-bottle cases for Flint mother Angie Lara. For Lara, 36, the stop here is routine and vital to take care of her four children. “The water smelled funny. It looked funny. I refused to take showers and tried water bottles instead,” says her 11-year-old son, James Lara. “This is a bad condition. We shouldn’t even be going through this.” Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties, located on the edge of downtown Flint, has been a lifeline for thousands. In January and February, its staff was daily passing out 4,000 cases of water—each with 24 bottles—from trucks in the parking lot of its headquarters, across the street from St. Michael Catholic Church. Initially, state-run water distribution centers required photo ID, which scared away Flint residents who are undocumented immigrants and are ineligible for state driver’s licenses. The requirement was later lifted at the staterun centers. But distrust runs high, and many folks make sure to get their bottles and jugged gallons at Catholic Charities—no questions asked. Catholic Charities director Vicky Schulz is blown away by the generosity of people across the country. A furniture company teamed up with a Detroit-area television station to collect donated water. A Pittsburgh Catholic school Fr anciscanMedia.org

raised $1,200 through a dress-down day to send Catholic Charities money to help Flint. A New York man donated his work bonus check—and his boss matched it. Ohio State University social-work students brought water in a rental truck. Unexpected expenses in dealing with a water crisis include needing to buy equipment to move pallets. Purchasing traffic cones became a necessity to form vehicle line-up and exit lanes after staffers’ parked cars were hit. “We’ve been in hazmat mode since September,” says Schulz. “But people coming to us for water now have realized more about the

How Lead Poisons Lead remains in human bones. The effects of lead may not be immediately apparent. Blood tests measure only current exposure. But lead remains in human bones potentially causing future damage. In children: According to the Mayo Clinic, lead exposure can lead to learning disorders, such as attention-deficit disorder and behavioral problems. Other problems can include irritability, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain, vomiting, and hearing loss. In adults: In pregnant women, lead can leach from the mother’s bones to the fetus. Other potential effects include premature birth, low birth weight, and learning delays. Lead also can cause anemia and nerve damage. J u ly 2 0 1 6 ❘

Lara Daniel, principal of St. John Vianney Catholic Elementary School, says stacks of bottled water filling the school’s cafeteria, hallways and stairwells, have just become “our new normal.”

PHOTO BY PATRICIA MONTEMURRI

other services we offer.” It’s meant a couple hundred more families are using its food pantry and its personal-needs closet, as well as inquiring about its services for counseling. “You’d think it’s a basic human right in America—good clean water,” says Schulz. “And we don’t have it.”

The Crisis Continues There’s no end in sight. As of mid-April, Flint’s water supply—even though it had been switched back to being treated by the Detroit water system—was still showing unacceptable lead levels because of the city’s aging pipes. It was safe for bathing, officials said, but not for drinking without using a filter.

Ways to Help Catholic Charities of Shiawassee and Genesee Counties: While you can designate it for water, a general donation can be used to help the organization take care of long-term needs arising from the lead water crisis. To make a donation, visit its GoFundMe site at www.gofundme. com/FeedFlintHealthy or send a check to 901 Chippewa Street, Flint, MI 48503. Flint Child Health & Development Fund: For health intervention services. Make note that it’s for this particular fund. Make payable and mail to: Community Foundation of Greater Flint, 500 S. Saginaw Street, Suite 200, Flint, MI 48502. 32 ❘

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At three Flint Catholic schools, the water fountains are off-limits. At St. John Vianney Catholic Elementary School, six-foot stacks of water fill the stairwells. Gallon jugs of water are lined up in the basement cafeteria. Over a giant circular box of water bottles, 4 feet high, at the end of the school corridor, sits a statue of an angel in prayer. Tests of the school water last fall indicated lead levels some three times higher than government safety standards for lead. “This is just our new normal,” says Principal Lara Daniel. A Catholic elementary school by the same name in Gainesville, Wisconsin, raised donations for the school. An alum now teaching in the Miami area sent a check and challenged other Archdiocese of Miami principals to help out the school. Catholic school principals about 70 minutes away raised $8,000 for whatever the school needed. While the stacked-up water bottles seem plenty, Daniel says the school doesn’t turn any donation away. “We don’t know how long this is going to last.” A Patricia Montemurri is a Detroit-based freelance multimedia journalist. For 36 years, she was a staff writer for the Detroit Free Press and has long covered issues pertaining to a wide range of topics, including the Catholic Church. She has a BA from the University of Michigan. St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

POETRY

The Weathered Boardwalk to Trust “Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths.” –Psalm 25 Barefoot, I tiptoe splintered boards the grey-bone tones of driftwood to the sweep of the sea, conga-line of surf, never wondering if it’s still there, never doubting the tide’s drum. Inching toward abundance, the vast smorgasbord of shells: one a tiny, polished surfboard, another an arrowhead, a third, a sleek jet wing. All mottled and marbled, with streaks of sunrise or striated sunset, a band of purple or sprig of lilac, the tooled detail of Santa Fe pottery.

Heavy Summer Rain Heavy summer rain wiggles the tips of cedar branches and dizzies the teetering flowers. In the torrent’s swelling ferocity even the hardiest birds take cover and squirrels vanish. Now comes ear-piercing thunder like a stern scolding. You hope this scrub, like the old-time Saturday bath, washes you too clean of your dusty flaws, your persistent selfish quirks. For a while, at least. At least, for a while.

—Patricia Schnapp, RSM

Dandelion When life scatters like flight of gulls, we anchor in ocean, silver necklace of cresting wave. We edge toward mercy, toes nudging delicately into infinite soft sands of grace.

—Kathy Coffey

The Unfolding In God’s hands we are like the sheet of paper an origami artist chooses before fold after fold it becomes the winged crane born to fly off and bring good fortune. Or the salmon given courage to swim upstream. The dragon of power, wisdom, and mastery. The butterfly of beauty and grace. Or the pond frog of safe return. In God’s hands, we become what we become.

—Chet Corey

Dandelion, Dens leonis, Lion’s tooth A super star Punctuating lawns and walks Crevices, cracks Crenellations Nesting in weedy domiciles Imperially peering Over lawn mown kingdoms A bee’s delight A butterfly’s butter Ruler of rooted neighbors She sheds her seedlings Nature’s perfect drones Programming them To populate Earth. Through wishing children.

—Eileen Sullivan

Transformation Death is transforming . . . God’s Love coming upon us: Graced fullness of Life!

—Jeanette Martino Land

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Jesus’ Forgotten

Commandment The key to loving your neighbor is learning how to love yourself. B Y R I C H A R D B . PAT T E R S O N , P H D

HEN A YOUNG MAN asked Jesus about the greatest commandment, Jesus responded that we must first love God. He then added, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This directive is a common theme across all religions and is typically viewed as the Golden Rule, where we are encouraged to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I have heard many sermons over the years on the topic of loving my neighbor. But I can count on one hand the number I’ve heard on loving myself. I’ve observed that I’m not alone. When I raise the issue of loving oneself with the wounded persons with whom I speak, very few have a clear idea of what this means or how to express such loving. Many ask, “Isn’t that being selfish?” Most of these people have been very effective when loving their neighbors but don’t seem to be able to apply the same standards of kindness and compassion to themselves. When we look more closely at what Jesus said, we notice first that he said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” not “then yourself.” He calls us to love ourselves in equal measure to loving others. How can this be selfishness if we are commanded by Jesus to do so? What Jesus is talking about is balance. I have known many wonderful people of great service: physicians and other healers; persons working for social justice; priests, ministers, rabbis, and other religious professionals. Many of these people battle exhaustion and depression. Some have ceased spiritual practices because they “don’t have the time.” Jesus is clearly calling those people as well as the rest

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of us to pursue balance. This requires us to pay attention to how we treat ourselves in the areas of body, mind, emotion, and spirit.

Respect Your Body To love yourself at the physical level is to treat your body as a temple. How often do I treat my body with respect? In my own case, for many years I desecrated the temple with alcohol and nicotine. To love my body is to not poison it. In a larger sense, though, loving myself physically involves living a healthy lifestyle—attending to what I eat and drink, exercising, getting enough sleep, dealing with stress. You may already be aware of these lifestyle issues, but I, at least, don’t always consider them as part of Jesus’ command. Take note of Jesus’ lifestyle. He may have led a simple, even ascetic life, but one of the first things he did upon entering a town was to find something to eat. Many of his most dramatic teachings occurred within the context of eating and making sure that people were fed. He also would often try to escape the crowds and be alone as a way of managing his own stress. How many of us find a long walk to be calming and renewing? So did Jesus! Finally, to love your physical self, you might want to borrow a phrase from the play The Fantasticks. At one point the narrator, El Gallo, exhorts the audience to “celebrate sensation!” Think of each of your senses. Then make a list of pleasurable experiences for each sense. Here’s my list, just to give you a sense of what such a list might look like: • Sight: a painting such as Van Gogh’s Starry Night or Hopper’s Nighthawks • Sound: the laughter of my grandchildren J u ly 2 0 1 6 ❘

Too often there is disconnect between how we view ourselves and the way others see us. Extending love to ourselves is not just a luxury, it is a mandate from Christ.

• Smell: the rosemary in my herb garden • Taste: a good plate of enchiladas • Touch: a hug from my wife. To celebrate sensation is to enjoy your body in all its wonder, enjoying one of God’s finest creations.

Change Your Mindset

Click the button above to hear an interview with a psychotherapist who also specializes in spirituality and women’s issues.

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When I first came across those little affirmation books that are popular in recovery circles, I was turned off, thinking the various positive phrases were “corny” or “syrupy.” Thus, if I read something like, “You are precious in the eyes of the Lord,” I would dismiss it. One day, though, I realized I had absolutely no problem accepting negative thoughts such as, “You’re really stupid,” or “You have no idea what you’re doing,” and so on. Something was clearly amiss. I saw that I was quick to dismiss positive thoughts yet tended to invite negative thoughts in to stay awhile. In learning to love myself in my mind, I must confront such mental negativity. Bad thoughts can become just as habitual as bad habits and just as challenging to break. Daily affirmations can certainly help. In addition, though, we can undermine mental negativity by embracing the powerful thought that we are loved by God—that God sees our goodness even when we don’t. There is much in Scripture about God’s enduring love for us. I hope there are a few passages that you know well and can turn to when caught in the grip of self-criticism. For me, there is nothing more powerful and reas-

suring than Psalm 139. These and other words of that psalm chase darkness: “How precious to me are your designs, O God; how vast the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sands; when I complete them, still you are with me” (17-18). In my quest to love myself in my mind, the other attitude that helps greatly is gratitude. To be grateful is not necessarily the same as saying I deserve good things. But it acknowledges that God has blessed me. Gratitude is more than a simple thank-you. It is to delight in the blessing. How do you like someone to react when you give a gift? Does it not detract from the joy if the recipient says, “Oh, I don’t deserve this”? Is it not more enjoyable when the recipient beams, maybe even cries with joy, thereby accepting our message that he or she is loved? Perhaps God also delights in our gratitude and is saddened if we view ourselves as undeserving of God’s gifts.

Mixed Emotions To understand how to love yourself emotionally, I would first suggest you make a list of experiences that give you joy. Part of my list would include hiking the Tejas Trail in the Guadalupe Mountains, watching the Boston Red Sox play baseball or the Indiana University Hoosiers play basketball, taking a long run by the ocean, or watching a good old movie such St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

Dealing with emotions can be a challenge. But expressing and acknowledging our feelings is actually a healthy way of honoring ourselves.

as Casablanca or My Favorite Year. After making your own list, ask yourself how often you allow yourself those experiences. In my own case, I find first that I have a hard time coming up with the list and also that I don’t often give myself the opportunity to have these joyful experiences. I allow work and other obligations to dictate how I use my time. Some of us are wary of emotion. When I was growing up, by and large the only acceptable emotion for a man to display was anger. Feelings of sadness or fear—even positive displays of emotion such as affection—may be viewed as showing ourselves to be too vulnerable. And so we keep such feelings to ourselves. And yet we may not deal with others’ emotions in the same way, instead responding to them much differently than we do to our own emotions. Thus, we may reassure someone who is afraid, comfort someone who is grieving, or delight in a loved one’s display of affection. And yet we keep a tight grip on our own emotions. The price for such self-control can be high. Have you had the experience of losing someone before you had a chance to tell that person

how much you loved him or her? I have. I had an aunt, my father’s only sister, who was always kind and loving to me. She died somewhat unexpectedly, and I realized it had been years since I’d told her that I loved her. I have never made that mistake again.

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Free Your Spirit

We are challenged to develop a spiritual world whose foundation is not based on guilt or fear.

At the spiritual level, learning to love oneself certainly involves developing a capacity to accept God’s forgiveness and forgive oneself. Beyond that, though, we are challenged to develop a spiritual world whose foundation is not based on guilt or fear. It is one thing to behave in a certain way to avoid being punished. It is something else to behave in a certain way based on a set of values. If I am focused only on that within me that is sinful, then I will be forever judging myself. I need to balance that focus with a joyous celebration of that within me that is saintly. Most of us hesitate when considering that we might be saintly. When I was young, we were encouraged to aspire to sainthood. All that I was aware of was how short I fell of such a lofty goal. Yet, in my life and work, I have met and known some very saintly people. Flawed, to be sure, but nonetheless saintly. I think of a divorced woman who went to

a wedding to pick up her son, anticipating an encounter with her ex-husband, his wife, and their new baby. This woman walked into the hall with her head high, walked across the floor, greeted her husband and his wife, pronounced a blessing over the baby, then walked out with her son. I think, too, of a friend here in El Paso who has devoted his adult life to providing a place of welcome for illegal immigrants. I think of a man dying of AIDS who, when I asked him how he wanted to face his death, said, “I want to look forward to stepping into the light.” These and many other saints have graced my journey. I honor them by being open to the possibility that I, too, can be saintly. We can also grow in spiritual love for ourselves by embracing our role in creativity. The great scientist and mystic Teilhard de Chardin once wrote, “We may imagine that creation was completed long ago, but that would be quite wrong because it continues still.” In other words, God continues to create and we play a part in that creation. Embracing that invitation can be a strong expression of love of self. As with saintliness, many of us hesitate when considering that we all have within us an artist. We think of Van Gogh’s paintings or Beethoven’s symphonies or Frost’s poems and think, “I can never do anything like that!” Perhaps not. But that does not mean that you do not have creative potential. Creativity can be found in cooking or gardening, knitting or sewing. There are those who can “think outside the box” when confronting a problem. There are those who make us laugh. You could even write a poem or a song.

Jesus’ Challenge

As Jesus noted, loving our neighbor is easy when our neighbor is lovable. The challenge is to love the unlovable. So it is with loving oneself. It is easy to love yourself when all is well. The challenge is to love yourself when you are down or grumpy, when you are angry or disappointed with yourself, when you sin. Can you obey his command? A Richard B. Patterson, PhD, is a clinical psychologist from El Paso, Texas. He has had a number of articles published in this magazine, including “Angry with God,” in the April 2016 issue. 38 ❘

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

LIGHTEN UP

“Don’t you think you’re pampering him a bit?”

“I didn’t know there was a cover charge.”

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“My problem is, I can’t tell the difference between claiming credit and taking responsibility.”

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Praying Always In my spiritual journey, I find God in all things. BY LAURA BRITTO

hen I was growing up and went to confession, the priest would always ask, “Did you say your morning and evening prayers?” I would feel guilty and wonder if I prayed enough or in the right ways. Happily, as I became an adult, I read about prayer and worked with a spiritual director and realized that prayer is more than the words I prayed at a certain time. Prayer is also walking with God and attending to God’s presence throughout my days.

What Is Prayer? One of the earliest definitions I learned was that prayer is talking and listening to God. As a child (and even now some days), I did more 40 ❘

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of the talking and less of the listening. Much of my early years were spent saying rote prayers I learned at school, including novenas and the rosary. For me they were the real prayers— the right ones to say if I were to answer the parish priest’s question with an affirmation in confession. It wasn’t until I was in college and began reading some of the classics like Teresa of Avila, and contemporaries like Henri Nouwen and Thomas Merton, that I began to understand prayer as being more aware of God and God’s presence throughout the day, and that prayer can happen—and does happen—at any moment. All times and all things can be prayer. It sounds simple enough, but it takes a willingness to recognize that God is incarnational St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

and present in all creation. Whether I’m sitting before the Eucharist in the tabernacle, or watching my son strike out again at a baseball game and feeling his pain, I am praying. St. Paul writes, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit . . . there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone” (1 Cor 12:46). I like to paraphrase it by saying there are different “pray-ers” but the same Spirit; there are different prayers but the same God who accomplishes all of them in everyone.

Distractions and Worries Each of us is called to be a person of prayer, whether we are a parent, teacher, young adult, senior, or student. There are multiple prayers we will echo in common, and there are many Fr anciscanMedia.org

ways of praying that help us reach the goal to which we are each called: praying always. Indeed, we can offer all we do and say as a prayer. However, there will be many moments in life when one may question as I did, “Am I really praying if I am so distracted?” Most mornings I find myself so preoccupied by thoughts and plans of what I am going to teach that day that I feel I can’t focus. If I were to grade my morning prayer based on how focused I was and the number of distractions I had, I would fail most days. Even while praying the psalms aloud with an app, I find my mind wandering. I must be a slow learner, because it took numerous years and countless talks with spiritual directors to accept that perhaps my most

Take time to stop throughout the day and look around. The everyday things that you see, such as crosses in windowpanes, can ignite you spiritually.

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personal prayer was the distraction I experienced. I have learned that these distractions are my prayers, as I strive to gently release them into the hands of God without feeling that I am praying poorly.

Ordinary Prayer

Encouraging Prayer Always If you want to add “God moments” to your life, begin small with some of the ideas below. A simple prayer of “Loving God, help me be more aware of your presence in my work day” is a way to begin. ✤ Schedule a time each day in your planner/calendar for a formal prayer time. ✤ Pray a blessing for a family member or coworker as you pass him or her. ✤ Close your office door for a few minutes of quiet prayer when things get stressful. ✤ Put a prayer or Scripture quote as your screen saver. ✤ Say a prayer for the person ahead of you in a line or at a stoplight. ✤ Commit yourself to 15 minutes of spiritual reading every day, possibly reading while using mass transit. ✤ Pray the rosary while driving. ✤ Look for the presence of a cross in windowpanes, nature, or art, and remember God’s love for you. ✤ Memorize a verse of Scripture that you like each month. ✤ Keep a gratitude journal.

Many Ways of Prayer

✤ Every time you touch water, bless yourself and give thanks for your Baptism.

When I think of the many gifts I have received, the best one didn’t come in a package tied with a bow—it was the gift of prayer. Spiritual directors and friends have shared little lessons in discovering God through different ways of praying along my spiritual journey. Father Paul Ouellette, OMI, gave me the gift of understanding and learning traditional

✤ Establish a prayer corner in your home with a Bible, candle, and other sacramentals. ✤ Invite someone to pray with you.

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I vividly remember my “honeymoon” of prayer when I could focus and frequently experience the warm feeling of God’s presence as I sat in my prayer spot. My mindfulness of God, though, doesn’t always happen during my formal prayer times. Today my awareness of God happens when I am peeling potatoes in my kitchen. I give thanks for the food and recall the many hours spent in the kitchen with my mom as I offer prayers for her. When I drive by a church steeple, I think of my childhood and the Sunday afternoon drives with my grandparents. My grandfather wore a hat, and even though he would be listening to his Red Sox game on the radio, he would tip his hat whenever we passed a church. I thank God for reminding me of his presence and offer a prayer for my grandfather. Being more attuned to God in my ordinary time, rather than during my formal prayer time, has become almost the norm for me. Some days I am most aware of God while cooking or folding laundry, whereas I struggle to stay focused during my morning prayer, the Liturgy of the Hours. Recalling a directed retreat more than 30 years ago, I remember being so frustrated with distractions and a lack of feeling God’s presence that I was ready to leave on day three of an eight-day retreat. My wise director told me to take a break from formal prayer times and take a walk into town. As I walked across the bridge that spanned the roaring river and into the quaint little town, I perceived God telling me how much he loved me and realized how he had been in my everyday life. Our God is a God of surprises, and I have learned that God can become apparent in any place at any time. It is I who must realize his presence.

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

CNS PHOTO/NANCY WIECHEC

prayers, and the realization that prayer happens all the time when one is open to finding God in everyday experiences. After I completed my master’s degree in theology, he asked me what I had learned about prayer in my studies. I had to admit that while I had taken classes in Scripture, liturgy, Church history, systematics, and morality, most of what I had learned about prayer had come from retreats, spiritual direction, and my own reading. Under his guidance, I read and practiced many types of prayer. While Ecclesiastes talks about there being a time for everything: “A time to rend and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak” (3:7), I learned that there is a time for the rosary and a time for centering prayer. There is a time for quiet meditation and times for crying and pleading to God to make his presence known. And most of all, there is the response to God’s grace of simply being present to the moment. As a teenager, I would take long walks into the woods or pause by a bubbling brook and converse with God in my mind about all the usual concerns of a teenage girl: arguments with my family, not feeling popular at school, and worries about college. Somehow I felt better about life when my walk ended. Although

I never considered these walks and conversations as prayer, they were some of my deepest prayer times. Recognizing the divine throughout the day can take various forms. Teaching in a Catholic school, I noticed that one of my middle-school students always paused to make the sign of the cross and say a prayer when he heard a siren. Seeing a military vehicle or a member of the military, a friend of mine offers a prayer for safety and peace in our world. Walking through a doorway, I use it as a signal to ask

The app Click to Pray allows people to pray for the pope’s monthly intentions. Technology can provide another avenue for our prayer lives.

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Sometimes prayer can be as simple as finding a quiet place to sit and talk with God.

CNS PHOTO/ BOB ROLLER

Additionally, St. Ignatius of Loyola recommended that an Examen be part of daily prayer. This involves reflecting on where God was present or not present throughout the day, and asking forgiveness for faults and sins. Indeed, I believe it is because of my formal prayer times that I am more conscious of God during the day. © GEBER86/ ISTOCKPHOTO

Too often we get caught up in the hurried pace and responsibilities of life and overlook our abundant blessings.

Click the button above to listen to an author and educator speak about devotions and Catholic spiritual practices.

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Praying through Life’s Changes

God to open the door of my heart to his grace. When I spent a weekend at a Carmelite monastery while in college, my director, Sister Margaret, suggested that I offer a prayer of thanksgiving for God’s love every time I saw a cross, such as in a windowpane or wires against a telephone pole. I look for crosses in nature every day and remember her. To notice God in everyday instances, it helps to have a regular prayer time and a method of prayer that nourishes one’s soul and relationship with God. Just as my physical body needs a balanced, nutritious diet to function well, my spiritual life needs a variety of prayer to sustain me. My diet for prayer is nourished with Ignatian prayer, centering prayer, the Jesus prayer (see sidebar, p. 42 ), lectio divina, Liturgy of the Hours, Scripture, novenas, and traditional devotions, including the Stations of the Cross and Marian devotions.

Through Father Paul and other spiritual directors, I have learned that just as there are seasons in the year, there are seasons in my prayer life. There are times of light and times of darkness. Mother Teresa wrote about times when she sensed that God was absent. I could relate to her experience, but thankfully, my periods of dryness lasted only a couple of months. I have been blessed by many fruitful experiences of God. When I became a mother in my 30s, I quickly realized that my extended, quiet prayer times for meditation were no longer possible. Indeed, getting married and having children opened my prayer life to new possibilities. I no longer found God in a lengthy period of Ignatian meditation, but in the quiet of the middle of the night as I nursed a fussy baby back to sleep. I couldn’t hold a prayer book or a Bible, but I reflected deeply on how God had fed me in the Eucharist, and how Mary must have felt nursing baby Jesus to sleep. While washing my children’s dirty feet, I recalled a meditation on Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, and I felt God calling me in St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o r g

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Jesus Prayer This prayer has been recited by pilgrims and Christians in their daily lives for centuries.

Laura Britto is a freelance writer from Woodbridge, Virginia. She is a teacher at St. Michael Catholic School in Annandale.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

STAINED GLASS BY ALFRED HANDEL, PHOTO BY TOBY HUDSON

prayer to wash the feet of those people with whom I had difficulties. Just as I often prayed blessings for my own children, now I pray for each of my students as I walk around my classroom checking their work. In quiet moments or while taking a walk, I recall a prayerful reflection from a retreat I attended when I was free of family responsibilities. Occasionally, I pray with Scripture by repeating a passage or verse. A favorite is Philippians 3:10: “[I wish to] know him and the power of his resurrection and [the] sharing of his sufferings by being conformed to his death.” While I cook or clean the house, I say grace or the Jesus prayer. The plaque of St. Francis of Assisi above my sink reminds me of St. Francis’ call to simplicity, humility, and peace as I wash dishes. God is in the midst of everything we do or touch. My life can become prayer at every moment when I take the time to acknowledge the incarnational nature of God and how my life is embraced, enriched, and enlivened by it. A

Can we light a candle for you at the National Shrine of St. Anthony? Fr. Carl lights the candles for your intentions. Each burns for five days, a reminder of St. Anthony’s attention to your prayer. Candles dispel the darkness and offer hope. In lighting a candle, you are asking St. Anthony to intercede with the Lord for your intention. Can we light a candle for you? Visit us at www.stanthony.org. The Franciscan Friars 1615 Vine St., Ste 1 Cincinnati, OH 45202-6492

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My Father Is

Beautiful I see him only with eyes of love. FICTION BY LIZ DOLAN

OT BECAUSE he has cow-like brown eyes and long lashes, not because he has jet-black hair, full lips, and a square jaw, or because he has broad shoulders to carry me so I can touch the sky. My father is beautiful because

my father loves me. He calls me his pearl set in a cluster of emeralds. My mother loves me, too, but she’s always telling me to tuck in my shirttail or tie my laces. My father tells me how quickly I run and how I sing like Doris Day. In my notebook, I pasted a photo my mother gave me of my beautiful father sitting on a chair under a blue umbrella at Orchard Beach. Dressed in his swim trunks and shirtless, he cradles my four-week-old bottom in his right hand; his

ILLUSTRATION BY PIERRE MORNET/MARLENA AGENCY

left hand supports my back as he presses me to his chest. I am naked. My naked skin against his naked skin. “You changed your father’s life,” my mother says. “He could never hold his drink. After you were born, he never touched another drop.” Even when I’m at school, his love warms me like a wool coat on a cold Bronx day. Whenever I ask, he takes me to the playground at St. Mary’s Park, where I climb to the top Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 4 7

of the monkey bars, send our secret sign to him, and he sends it back. Until I’m ready to leave, under the maple tree he reads the baseball stats and the letters in the Voice of the People in The Daily News. I watch how the mothers like to talk to him, especially redhaired Mrs. Gallagher, whose daughter joins me at the top of the monkey bars. We anchor our feet on the bars and clap hands to the tune of “A, my name is Adam and I come from Athens.”

y name is Kathleen; every night my father sits at my bedside and sings “I’ll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.” Actually, I think Mrs. Gallagher would like to take my father home. It’s hard to describe her hair. It’s not orangey or loud like a siren, but more like the color of tea mixed with the color of the wine my mother lets me measure and pour into her thick gravy. My father rolls the newspaper in his hands as Mrs. Gallagher gets a bit too close to him. At home, I stand on a stool and stir the gravy. Last year, my father painted the kitchen apple green for Mama. She stitched white dotted-Swiss curtains with yellow trim to hang on the window. Chicken is crackling in the iron pan and I think the wonderful smells are enough to fill up my hungry belly. “I think Mrs. Gallagher likes Daddy,” I tell Mama. “Child,” she says as she pushes a wisp of hair away from my eyes, “you’ve a vivid imagination. Maybe I should turn off Helen Trent when you come home from school for lunch.” At the beginning of that boring program, the announcer always says, “Romance can begin at 35.” “Women admire your father because he’s so striking and he’s a kind, decent man. When Mr. Gallagher was in the hospital last year, your father brought him soup every day and spoon-fed him to give his wife a break. But your father is mine forever and ever. We are bound together for all eternity.” I picture my mother and father tumbling through space tied together till the end of time by long strips of cotton 4 8 ❘ July 2016

my mother has cut from an old sheet like the ones she uses to curl my hair into ringlets. I’m thinking how exhausted they will be. I’m so distracted by the scene in my head I burn my fingers on the edge of the pot. I’m sitting on the floor leaning my back against my mother’s knees as she hands me one end of a long cotton strip, which I hold with my left hand over my head as she uses the rest of the strip to curl about a thick strand of my hair. When she’s done, I look like an alien from outer space with white corkscrews sprouting from my head. Over newspapers my father has spread on the floor to protect the kitchen linoleum, he is polishing my brown school oxfords and my black Mary Janes for Sunday Mass. As he brushes the leather, he spits on it to give it a higher shine. Sitting close to the radio on the enamel table, he claps the soles of my oxfords together to the rhythm of Mel Allen’s “Going, Going, Gone” when DiMaggio slams one out of the stadium. Since we live 30 blocks south of the stadium, my father has promised to take me to a game. “We’ll go when Old Satch or Ted Williams comes to town,” he says. I can’t wait to ride the trolley up the Grand Concourse and listen to its bell ring.

n our neighborhood there are lots of bars with pretty names. The Shannon View, The Dew Drop Inn, The Bide a Wee While. The only one I’ve ever been in is The Shannon View because Mr. Gallagher owns it and he lets me sell chances for the school raffle there. Groups of men sit around the bar smoking, talking, some of them staring ahead at the smoky glass mirror that covers the wall behind the bartender. I guess men like to get away from their noisy children and hang out together. I sell the most chances there. Mr. Mulligan, who owns the funeral parlor on the ground floor of our apartment building, buys lots of chances from me, too. Because he doesn’t have a wife, the boys on our block say he paints his nails. “I don’t care,” I always

say, because he has always been nice to me. “Right,” they respond. “You’re probably dying to see him paint the faces of the corpses in his basement.” Mr. Mulligan often takes me to Shapiro’s for an egg cream. “Extra cream on top,” he says, “for this young lady.” Sometimes my father and I sleep over at Mr. Mulligan’s home on the water in City Island. On summer evenings when we play War and Ringa-Leavio in front of the funeral home, I see men visit him. I’m glad Mr. Mulligan has friends.

n summer evenings when my father works the second shift, Mama and I walk up Bruckner Boulevard where we cross an iron bridge—a trestle, Mama calls it—and climb down the steps into Oak Point Yard, a railroad yard filled with wild roses. Sitting around a potbellied stove with his buddies, my father eats the turkey sandwich we brought him as the kettle boils. He talks about Satch and Williams, his favorite players: “Satch is over 50 and still as swift as any of ’em. And the reporters give Ted a hard time ’cause he wouldn’t tip his hat to the umpire.” When the 6 p.m. to Darien chugs into Oak Point, kicking up pebbles en route to Hartford, she looks like a great black stallion snorting smoke. We stand so close it takes my breath away. What I like best is the shriek of the train whistle and my father in his denim cap and overalls, rapping his wrench against the locomotive’s door as a signal to the engineer.

y favorite place to visit is Aunt Nell’s because she has four kids. Often I ask my mother why I have no brothers or sisters. “Because God has not sent them,” she says. My two cousins closest to me in age are Matthew and Mark; we have played together forever. When my mother and I reach their block, they are playing stickball outside their building under a bright sky. “Mama,” I beg, “Can’t I stay and play with them?” “OK,” she says. “I’ll check on you from Aunt Nell’s window.” St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

“You can’t play,” Mark says as his buddies circle around me like a posse. “Why not?” I ask. “’Cause you’re a girl, a sissy girl.” “I am not! I can run faster than any of you,” I say as I plant my hands on my hips, push out my chest, and toss back my braids. “I can be a boy anytime I want.” At that moment Mama sticks her head out the window of 4C, cups her hand over her mouth and calls, “Hi, honey.” “Hi, honey,” Matthew says with a grin I’d like to wipe off his face. “You traitor,” I say. “I’m telling your mother.” “Not only are you a Mama’s girl but you’re also a squealer,” Mark says. As I stumble into the dark hallway and up the slate stairs, I feel the taste of salty tears streaming down my cheeks. When I enter the hall of the sunny apartment filled with green plants and the smell of gingerbread baking, I hear Aunt Nell tell my mother, “Annie, he’s at it again.” “He’s not,” my mother replies. “He’s not.” “Don’t tell me he’s not. People talk. And you still with one child only. Don’t lie to me; I’m your sister.” As I step breathlessly into the yellow kitchen, Aunt Nell smiles a too-broad smile and hugs me into her damp apron. “Would you look at this beauty, taller and taller each time I see her.” “Who’s at what again, Aunt Nell?” I ask. “Nobody’s at nothing at all. Nothing worth bothering your pretty head about. Don’t you be growing too beautiful on us,” she says as she hugs me again.

or the last few weeks, the sky has been so blue and the air so crisp, I hardly notice the man who sits much too close to my father on the bench at the park. Like my father he is beautiful, too. A bit taller, a bit thinner, with a cloud of blonde curls crowning his eyes. From the monkey bars I see my father fold his newspaper and I see the man pull his hand away from my father’s knee. Then he brushes off my father’s jeans with the Fr ancisca n Media .org

same hand as if they were dusty. Usually he disappears before I get to the bench, but today he waits and introduces himself to me as if he knew me forever. He pats my head, musses my hair, and puts out his hand. “I’m Sam,” he says. “Are you my father’s friend?” I ask. “I work with him at Oak Point Yard,” he says and coughs. “I fix the tracks, the wheels, the lights.” Since I’m not Nancy Drew, I could be wrong, but I thought his hand was much too soft to belong to a car knocker. My father’s hands are rough. The following Saturday, as the moon rises above the firehouse, my father and I walk hand in hand to Willow Avenue near the Triborough Bridge where Sam lives. On summer Sundays, my father and I walk across the bridge to Downing Stadium on Randall’s Island where players from Argentina, Brazil, and Peru play soccer. Before we picnic, we pass the lifesized statue of a naked discus thrower. I always giggle because his privates are covered by a fig leaf. My father tugs my hand and drags me past it. Then we spread a plaid blanket under the fat trees by the river, where we watch the rats crawl in and out between the concrete bricks. As long as my father is close by, I’m never afraid.

n his small living room, Sam serves me ginger ale mixed with milk. “It’s good for you,” he says. “It’s disgusting,” I say and refuse to drink it. In the kitchen, my father and Sam play poker as I read through an issue

of Archie and Veronica that Sam says he bought just for me. All through the game they laugh, and laugh, and laugh. As we leave, I ask Sam where his wife is. I don’t hold my father’s hand as we walk home. That night, after my father has sung me to sleep, I am startled awake by the sound of him sobbing and the sound of the foghorns in the East River. I creep out of bed and tiptoe over to the French doors that separate my room from the living room. I gently pull back the white curtain that covers the panes of glass on the door. Standing in front of my father, who is sitting in the overstuffed chair, my mother is cradling his head in her hands and pressing his face against her belly. “We’ll have another beautiful child like Kathleen,” she whispers. “We will go and talk to the priest,” she says in a weak voice. My beautiful father smooths his hands over her hips and weeps, “How many times can God forgive? How many times can God forgive?” I want to throw open the door, jump into my father’s lap, and shout what he has taught me over and over again, as I smother him with kisses, “70 times seven, 70 times seven, our beautiful father in heaven forgives 70 times seven.” A Liz Dolan is a freelance author and award-winning poet from Rehoboth, Delaware. She began writing at 61 and says it helped her heal after losing her mother, sister, and a grandchild. Because her nine grandkids live one block away from her, Liz considers herself the richest woman on the planet.

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ASK A FRANCISCAN

❘ BY FATHER PAT McCLOSKEY, OFM

‘Consumed with Guilt and Sorrow’

or police car. I am, however, consumed with guilt and sorrow. It’s not like hitting a light pole; it was a person! Please help me ease my conscience. Do I need to go to confession?

I am feeling very guilty. I was driving my car and accidentally hit a man with my side mirror. I never saw him, and I don’t know if he stepped in front of me or not. The only reason I know he was hit was my side mirror flipped in, and I heard the snap. I immediately pulled over and asked the man if he was OK. He was standing there, rubbing his shoulder. The impact did not knock him to the ground. He silently nodded his head, and I gave my apologies and went on my way to catch a train to work. After sitting at the train station for a few minutes, I became increasingly upset. Had I done enough? The man was Hispanic. Perhaps he did not speak English. Was he in the country illegally and did not want any attention brought to him? I decided to miss my train and go back to where this happened. He was gone. There was no sign of any further upset, such as an ambulance 5 0 ❘ July 2016

Thanks for writing. Your conscience is certainly alive and well! I don’t know that you have sin to confess. After reading my response below, you may want to continue this email conversation. I am fairly certain that, even though your actions do not constitute a sin, this incident may continue to trouble you until you take a next step. That “step” is something that most probably will not aid this particular man directly, but will instead address this situation’s larger context. What might that “something” be? Perhaps a contribution of time or another resource to the Red Cross, Catholic Social Services, a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter, or some other group trying to meet the needs of very marginalized people. Your intuition that this man may not speak English could be very accurate. Another “something” might be to resolve to speak up the next time you hear someone making a negative, sweeping generalization about illegal immigrants. Of course, this man may be in this country legally, but it is never a waste of time or energy to speak up when an entire group of people is written off as “the enemy” or “the problem.” I think your conscience is asking you to take a “next step,” but it has not indicated a specific next step. That’s part of how conscience works. Any one of the things that I have suggested, or something else that you identify, may be that next step.

Your sending me a letter was one next step—but probably not the last one needed to return you to greater peace about this event. It’s good that you went back. Even so, according to your state’s law, what you did might be considered leaving the scene of an accident. Please pray for this man and then thank God that you have a conscience that does not allow you to shrug your shoulders and callously say, “That’s life.” This experience could still have a long-term, positive influence on your life if you take an effective next step.

Mortal? Venial? The Catholic Church speaks about mortal and venial sins. Protestant Churches have only sin, from the Bible. Where did Catholics come up with the concept of venial sin? The terms mortal sin and venial sin are not in the Bible, but the basis for that distinction is there. According to the New Catholic Encyclopedia, “There are sins that exclude from the kingdom (Eph 5:5; Gal 5:19-21) and sins that do not exclude from it (Jas 3:2; 1 Jn 1:8; Eccl 7:21).” Mortal sins kill the life of grace in a person’s soul; venial sins wound that life of grace. Any sin can be forgiven, but clearly there is a significant moral difference between murdering someone and stealing $1 from that person. This distinction existed already at the time of Lateran Council IV (1215); it directed Catholics to confess all mortal sins of which they were conscious at least once a year, during the Easter season. The Catechism of the Catholic St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

Church teaches: “Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man [sic] by a grave violation of God’s law; it turns man away from God, who is his ultimate end and beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him. Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though it offends and wounds it” (1855). “It’s only a venial sin” is neither good theology nor moral practice. Every sin means accepting something inferior instead of God and God’s ways.

Still a Leper? In Matthew 26:6-13 and Mark 14:39, we read that Jesus was eating at the home of “Simon the leper” when Jesus was anointed with costly perfumed oil. Did Jesus heal Simon of his leprosy? If not, was Simon still a leper at the time of this incident? If so, how could he be hosting a dinner? For us, leprosy is a very specific bacteriological condition (Hansen’s disease) that can be treated but not reversed. In biblical times, leprosy meant a wide variety of skin disorders, some of which could be cured. For this reason, priests were designated as the people to declare someone now free of leprosy and thus able to rejoin the normal functions of society. Chapters 13 and 14 of Leviticus describe how anyone suffering from a leprous disease was to be treated. When Jesus cured 10 lepers (Lk 17:11-19), he told them to show themselves to the priests. “Simon the leper” may be a nickname that persisted even if that skin condition ceased. It is not clear that Jesus cured him of this disease.

Why in Greek? In the Latin Mass with which I grew up, the Kyrie was said in Greek. To the best of my knowledge that is the only time Greek was used. Why? In his classic The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, Fr ancisca n Media .org

Father Josef Jungmann, SJ, devotes 13 pages to explaining the development of the Kyrie eleison (“Lord, have mercy”). Before the Mass was revised in 1969, this petition was prayed three times, then followed by a threefold Christe eleison (“Christ, have mercy”), and finally Kyrie eleison three more times. In fact, Christians in Rome used Greek in their liturgies until the middle of the third century. The Kyrie eleison petition began in the East and was not part of the liturgy in Rome until the fifth century. The Gallic pilgrim Etheria records its use in Jerusalem at the end of the fourth century. Although now an option in the penitential rite, the Kyrie eleison was once a response to what we now call the general intercessions. The Western Church retained the Kyrie after the Catholic/Orthodox split in AD 1054. At a few papal Masses, the Gospel is still read first in Latin and then in Greek. A

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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.

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Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 1

BOOK CORNER

❘ BY CAROL ANN MORROW

Vatican II The Complete History

CATHOLIC

Best-Sellers on

Amazon.com 9 Days to a Deeper Prayer Life with the Holy Spirit John-Paul and Annie Deddens Dear Pope Francis: The Pope Answers Letters from Children Around the World Pope Francis Mother Angelica: Her Grand Silence Raymond Arroyo The Vatican Cookbook The Pontifical Swiss Guard Mother Teresa: A Life Inspired Wyatt North

5 2 ❘ July 2016

By Alberto Melloni Paulist Press 280 pages • $79.95 Hardcover Reviewed by EDWARD P. HAHNENBERG, PhD, author of A Concise Guide to the Documents of Vatican II and Theology for Ministry. He teaches at John Carroll University in Cleveland, Ohio. Vatican II: The Complete History is a big and beautiful book. Scaled more for a coffee table than a library shelf, it deserves to sit out in full view, ready to be picked up and perused. Its 280 glossy pages are richly illustrated, revealing a treasure trove of archival photographs, religious art, color maps, charts, and diagrams—all meant to draw the reader into the historical event that was the Second Vatican Council. The variety of visual display is impressive. There are the famous images of the opening procession and Pope John XXIII’s smiling face. But there are also candid shots of the day-to-day operation of what John O’Malley calls “the biggest meeting in the history of the world.” Seminarians in lacy surplices sit down on the floor of St. Peter’s to rest, while mitered bishops peer through binoculars toward the other end of the church. The book includes images of the computer punch cards used to count votes, an architect’s sketch of the risers constructed in the basilica nave, and maps of Rome pointing out hotels where visiting bishops stayed. Colorful vestments from Cameroon, mosaics

from Istanbul, and scribbled notes from Pope John’s diary fascinate, as does an image of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, head of the Holy Office, lifted from the pages of a Spanish comic book! The amount of data in charts and captions is overwhelming. (Fourteen doublecolumn pages list all the names of all the members of all the preparatory commissions.) And that’s before the reader gets to the 52 chapters detailing major events. In its historical heft, the book is the proud offspring of the research project led by Giuseppe Alberigo at the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies in Bologna. At first, I worried about the book’s intended audience. Who (other than a Church nerd like me) is going to be interested in facsimiles of academic journal covers from the 1960s or pie charts breaking down bishop participants by date of birth? The volume is attractive, but too cumbersome to serve as a textbook. Many of the chapters are straightforward overviews, but the introductory essay leaps right into a scholarly conversation that would prove mystifying to newcomers. However, the more time I spent with Vatican II: The Complete History, the more I came to appreciate what it offers to any reader. Here is the council in flesh and bone, in cappuccinos and shuttle buses. (Did you know that the council snack bars served about 2,200 hot drinks and 6,000 pastries every morning?) Here we get a sense of the council as a living, breathing event. We see the spirit of Vatican II born out of real people dealing with real problems in the real world. As Melloni explains, this volume comes at the end of a period of debate over continuity and discontinuity at Vatican II—“a series of squabbles of rare unproductiveness” driven by the strange question: Did anything happen at Vatican II? To that question, this book answers an unequivocal yes. Something did happen, and to tell its story is not to memorialize the past, but to point toward the future. Pope Francis—in a quote that concludes this book—asks us: “But after 50 years, have we done everything the Holy Spirit inspired in the council?” St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

BOOK BRIEFS

Our Loving and Merciful God The Infinite Tenderness of God Meditations on the Gospels

The Shepherd Who Didn’t Run Fr. Stanley Rother, Martyr from Oklahoma By María Ruiz Scaperlanda Our Sunday Visitor Press 256 pages • $19.95 Paperback/E-book Reviewed by ANNE C. McGUIRE, theology professor and liturgist who served on the Canonization Commission for Stanley Rother and traveled to Guatemala to celebrate the 30th anniversary of his martyrdom. María Ruiz Scaperlanda has given us a loving biography of Father Stanley Rother, a priest from Oklahoma who was martyred in Guatemala in 1981 while serving the parish of Santiago, Atitlán. The insights she provides into a contemporary Catholic martyr reveal the deep faith of Father Rother and the unassuming manner in which he lived that faith while serving the Tz’utujil parishioners, whom he loved. Scaperlanda reveals a humble man who simply did what was needed wherever he found himself. In Guatemala, his instinctive pastoral sense was a combination of his Oklahoma roots and an innate goodness, which eventually cost him his life. The author, who served on the Canonization Commission for Father Rother, is also bilingual, and so her insights are not simply from research, but from personal exchanges with both Oklahomans and Guatemalans who knew, worked with, and admired him. This lovely book is easy to read, drawing the reader into the life of a saint from America’s heartland and Central America’s turmoil and faith. When it was suggested, six months prior to his death, that he remain in Oklahoma and not return to Guatemala, Father Rother simply replied that “a shepherd cannot run” from his flock. Fr ancisca n Media .org

By Pope Francis The Word Among Us Press 176 pages • $12.95 Paperback/E-book In his characteristic straightforward-yet-warm delivery, Pope Francis guides us through a reading of the Gospels in this collection of addresses and homilies. Soaking in a Gospel passage every day, says the pope, “allows us to encounter the living Jesus.”

Remembering God’s Mercy Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from Painful Memories By Dawn Eden Ave Maria Press 160 pages • $14.95 Paperback/E-book Author of The Thrill of the Chaste and My Peace I Give You, Dawn Eden returns with an exploration of how painful memories impact faith. Eden emphasizes that God’s mercy soothes our pain while bringing inner peace to the core of our being.

The Works of Mercy Explained By Silvia Vecchini; illustrated by Antonio Vincenti Pauline Books and Media 64 pages • $6.95 Paperback Now is the perfect time to enrich your child’s understanding of the works of mercy. The 14 works of mercy are presented with beautiful illustrations and practical questions. —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 Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 3

A CATHOLIC MOM SPEAKS

❘ BY SUSAN HINES-BRIGGER

Here’s to Strong Women

I Click the button above to listen to Susan’s reflections on family life.

5 4 ❘ July 2016

grew up in a family of three girls, and my parents taught my sisters and me that we are capable of doing anything we put our minds to. It is a message that we all took to heart and have carried forward with us in our lives. My oldest sister is a scientist, touching lives through her research. My other sister is a social worker, helping those in need of help in many different ways. Myself, I enjoy the honor of using my words to share my faith journey with all of you, our readers. Over the years, I have continually been blessed to witness the strength of the women who surround me both in my daily life and in my faith life. My mother, Mother Mary, my sisters, and the religious sisters who taught me in high school and college— all of them have provided me with strong examples of what it means to truly live a life honoring both myself and others.

Shining Examples At times, I feel discouraged by what seems to be the male-dominated infrastructure of our Church. Especially when a recent Pew Survey, “The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World,” showed that in the United States, women of all religions are more likely than men to say they pray daily (64 percent to 47 percent), attend religious services at least once a week (40 percent to 32 percent), and consider religion “very important” in their lives (60 percent to 47 percent). I think about how strong Mary was to say yes, when most of us faced with her situation would have said no. I stand in awe of Mother Teresa, who will be canonized this September, and the way in which she stepped up to help those whom most others had dismissed. And while it’s easy to look to the better known women of our faith, such as saints, St A n t h o n y M e s s e n g e r . o rg

as examples of courage and strength, I also stand in admiration of the women I encounter daily. I have been privileged to witness the strength of women I know who are fighting cancer and other diseases, and the patience of those facing the struggles of raising kids, as well as those longing for kids. I learn from the example of women balancing the challenges of work—either at home or in an office. I watch these women live their lives and faith as a shining example for others— both through their words and their actions. Perhaps it wasn’t until I lost my own mom that I became acutely aware of what a contribution and strong presence women make in our everyday lives. So often during the past three years, I have wanted to turn to my mom for direction, encouragement, and wisdom. Sure, others are there, but it’s not the same.

Share the Love

“Don’t call me a saint. I don’t want to be dismissed so easily.” —Dorothy Day “Live simply, so that all may simply live.” —Elizabeth Ann Seton “Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.” —Mother Teresa “We can’t talk about the poor. We must be poor with the poor and then there is no doubt how to act.” —Sister Dorothy Stang “We become what we love, and who we love shapes what we become.” —St. Clare of Assisi

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MARY KURNICK MAASS

So how do we shine a light on how important strong women are in our lives and society? I’m sure that at some point in all of our lives, we have been blessed to have encountered a strong and fearless woman. It could be your mom. Perhaps it was a teacher or a coworker. Whoever that person was, wouldn’t it be nice to tell her that she made a difference in your life? Chances are, she may not even know that she made an impact. Let her know. You can write a note, call her, or take her out to lunch. Just let her know how much she influenced you through her words or her example. If doing so isn’t possible for some reason, honor that person by being an example for someone else. Let’s show some love to the strong women in our lives and the impact they have made. A

WORDS OF WISDOM

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.

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 23)

Fr ancisca n Media .org

Ju ly 2 0 1 6 ❘ 5 5

YEAR OF MERCY

❘ BY MARK PATTISON

‘You Visited Me’

CNS PHOTO/KAREN CALLAWAY, NORTHWEST INDIANA CATHOLIC

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 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 A deacon distributes Communion to an inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Indiana. Pope Francis has spoken widely about those who serve long sentences. Their plight “makes me cry inside,” he has said.

5 6 ❘ July 2016

Once released, inmates are welcome at Barrere’s parish, St. Bonaventure in Concord. A few have shown up for faith and fellowship after having served their sentences. But when they’re behind bars, she says, she tells them, “We consider you parishioners while you’re here.” A

tal Digi as t Ex r

Click here for a longer version of this article.

Mark Pattison is a reporter and media editor for Catholic News Service.

POPE FRANCIS ON MERCY “Celebrating the Jubilee of Mercy with you means learning not to be prisoners of the past, of yesterday. It means learning to open the door to the future, to tomorrow; it means believing that things can change.” —Address to prisoners in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, February 2016

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

CNS PHOTO/PAUL HARING

athleen Barrere says that when she visits Marsh Creek Detention Facility, a minimum-security facility in Contra Costa County, California, she never feels unsafe. What she experiences is something that “just grabs you.” “You want to save them. It’s somebody’s baby boy,” she says. “I have three children of my own. Stuff happens and you want to reach out to that person . . . who made a mistake, and maybe you can touch their lives.” Although visiting the prisoner was mentioned in one of Jesus’ parables, few perform this work of mercy. Barrere, part of the Diocese of Oakland jail chaplaincy for approximately 100 prisoners sentenced for misdemeanor offenses, says she sees “petty drugs and too many DUIs—too much stupid stuff. “There are many Catholics who find themselves in jail,” she says, and Mass is the only Sunday religious activity. Sometimes it draws two people; sometimes up to 20.

BACKSTORY

If Salt Loses Its Flavor . . .

ne way that we try to inform you is by publishing a monthly editorial. It’s a one-page essay meant to explain to you some current event that either is of interest to Catholics, or ought to be.

The strongest editorials express a position, in an attempt to persuade. The editorial states a particular analysis and position on an issue of the day.

PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER HEFFRON

We actually spend a good amount of time choosing editorial topics— entirely two of our eight meetings per month. We sit around a table and pitch ideas, and information to support them. That helps keep us all in the know about the events of the day. It also allows us to sense who has passion enough to write from the heart on a particular topic. (Though sometimes we need to encourage one another to take the assignment!) Once the editorial is written, a draft is circulated for comment among us all. We each read the piece, then write our criticism. How could this be stronger? What did the writer miss? It’s up to the writer to settle the questions raised, then to polish up a piece that fits exactly onto the allotted page, and be sure she or he hasn’t written anything outrageous. After all, we need to keep our jobs. A one-time editor of another major Catholic magazine in this country, published by a large religious order, once told me of an CNS PHOTO/NATE CHUTE, REUTERS

Our editorials promote understanding. In this photo, demonstrators protest Indiana religious freedom legislation they say will discriminate based on sexual orientation. The Church opposes discrimination, but supports religious freedom.

encounter with Pope John Paul II, in one of those private audiences we hear about. He handed the saint a copy of his magazine, a slogan on which caught John Paul’s attention. “A journal of opinion?” asked the pope. The editor was quick on his feet, telling this man of highest authority, “Your opinion Holy Father, your opinion!” His story points to a constraint of Catholic media—we have to keep things within the bounds of Catholic teaching (secular editors have constraints with their corporations, claims otherwise aside). But that still leaves us plenty of material: we help you hear facts and points of view that help you shape a responsible understanding of society’s issues. Our editorials sometimes make you uncomfortable. They may even motivate you to write a letter of protest. That would be a high compliment to the writer— we like to hear from you, even when you disagree with us.

Editor in Chief @jfeister

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