The Catholic Spirit - October 25, 2012

Newspaper of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

The Catholic Spirit

Voting as responsible Catholic citizens

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News with a Catholic heart

October 25, 2012

TheCatholicSpirit.com

‘Ancestors in faith’

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

St. Agnes School eighth-graders Katherine Larson, left, and Chauntyll Devora work on an ink rubbing of a grave stone at Calvary Cemetery in St. Paul Oct. 11 as part of a class field trip. Religion teacher Joan Decker came up with the idea as a way of helping students prepare for the Feast of All Souls on Nov. 2. See story, page 4.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

‘Nones’ on the rise

Local Latinos gather for Family Day About 2,500 people came to the Cathedral of St. Paul Oct. 20 for worship and celebration.

— Page 3

Nobel winner has Minnesota connections

More people are checking the “none” box when it comes to religious affiliation, and that has evangelization implications.

— Page 10

Professor who attended grade school in Little Falls honored with chemistry prize.

— Page 24

Launching the Year of Faith

Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis hosts vespers service.

— Page 22

Newest saints proclaimed Kateri Tekakwitha and Marianne Cope, both North Americans, are among the seven newest saints.

— Page 27

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OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Public witness and Catholic citizenship In two weeks, voters in the state of Minnesota and throughout the nation will be asked to exercise their duty to build up the common good through both voting for public officials and expressing their preference in public policy.

That They May All Be One Archbishop John C. Nienstedt

As Archbishop Chaput notes, we’re better citizens when we’re more faithful Catholics

In Minnesota, we have the marriage amendment. While my brother bishops and I propose the entirety of Catholic teaching as pillars to build up the common good, I am also aware that to be a Catholic means always and everywhere to be a Catholic. Being Catholic is not simply part of who I am or Read more who you are. It is meant to deabout fine the whole Catholic of our exiscitizenship tence. When — pages 12-13 we participate in public life, as you and I should do through our vote this November, we must be wholly, authentically Catholic.

Among the reflections I have read about being Catholic in our shared political life, I believe Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia has said it best. I offer his reflection as my own, aware of all the decisions before us.

As we each prepare to offer our voice and our vote as faithful citizens, let us all pray that God will grant us the virtues of humility,

The Catholic Spirit The Catholic Spirit’s mission is to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

It seeks to inform, educate, evangelize and foster a spirit of community within the Catholic Church by disseminating news in a professional manner and serving as a forum for discussion of contemporary issues.

Vol. 17 — No. 21 MOST REVEREND JOHN C. NIENSTEDT Publisher SARAH MEALEY Associate publisher

JOE TOWALSKI Editor

Materials credited to CNS copyrighted by Catholic News Service. All other materials copyrighted by Catholic Spirit Publishing Company.

Subscriptions: $29.95 per year Senior 1-year: $24.95 To subscribe: (651) 291-4444 Display Advertising: (651) 291-4444 Classified advertising: (651) 290-1631 Published bi-weekly by the Catholic Spirit Publishing Company, a non-profit Minnesota Corporation, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102 (651) 291-4444, FAX (651) 291-4460. Periodicals postage paid at St. Paul, MN, and additional post offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102. www.TheCatholicSpirit.com e-mail: catholicspirit@archspm.org USPS #093-580

“Being Catholic is not simply part of who I am or who you are. It is meant to define the whole of our existence.

”

ARCHBISHOP JOHN NIENSTEDT

courage and wisdom so that we may reflect with the beautiful and clear mind of the Church on the truth of so many important matters.

God bless you!

The following is reprinted with the permission of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: Public witness on issues of public concern is natural for Catholics because we have a commitment to the common good and to the dignity of each human person. Those two pillars — the common good and the dignity of every human person — come right out of Scripture. They underpin all of Catholic social thought.

That includes politics. Politics is where the competing moral visions of a society meet and struggle. And since a large majority of American citizens are religious believers, it makes sense for people and communities of faith to bring their faith into the public square.

As a result, if we believe that a particular issue is gravely evil and damaging to society, then we have a duty, not just a religious duty but also a democratic duty, to hold accountable the candidates who want to allow that evil. Failing to do so is an abuse of responsibility on our part, because that’s where we exercise our power as citizens most directly — in the voting booth.

The “separation of Church and state” can never mean that religious believers should be silent about legislative issues, the appointment of judges or public policy. It’s not the job of the Church to sponsor political candidates. But it’s very much the job of the Church to guide Catholics to think and act in accord with their faith.

So since this is an election year, here are a few simple points to remember as we move toward November.

1. “Catholic” is a word that has PLEASE TURN TO IF OUR ON PAGE 19

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Mass of remembrance for deceased clergy is set for Nov. 7 The Catholic Spirit Every November, Catholics around the world are asked to pray in a special way for the repose of the souls of the dead. As a way of marking this special month, Archbishop John Nienstedt will be offering a Mass of Remembrance for all Deceased Clergy of the archdiocese at 11:30 a.m., Nov. 7 at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

“Praying for the dead is a Spiritual Work of Mercy, an act of real Christian love, and praying for those who have touched our lives in profound ways is especially important,” said Father John Paul Erickson, director of the archdiocesan Office of Worship.

The Mass, he said, is an opportunity to “offer thanks to God for the gift of their lives and their service, and pray that they see the Lord they served in fidelity and love face to face.”

Christmas contest expanded to include artwork and essays The Catholic Spirit invites young artists across the archdiocese to participate in the annual Christmas contest.

To enter, complete and then illustrate this sentence: “The ornament on my family Christmas tree I like best is. . .”

The completed sentence must appear on the front of an 81⁄2 by 11inch poster.

Artists may use any media to create a vivid, colorful and memorable picture. Hint: Strong colors with lots of contrast reproduce better than soft pastels in the newspaper.

Entries will be judged on: ■ Originality and artistic ability.

■ How well the artist interprets the theme.

A first prize of $50 will be awarded for one poster in each category: grades three and under, grades four to six, grades seven to nine and grades 10 through 12.

Winning entries will be published in The Catholic Spirit’s Christmas edition, Dec. 20.

New this year, people — adults included — may submit an essay (200 words or less), instead of a poster, answering the same question. There are no prizes for essays, but a selection of them also will be published in The Catholic Spirit’s Christmas edition.

All entries — artwork or essays — must be postmarked or dropped off by Dec. 7.

Entries must include the artist’s or writer’s name, address, telephone number, grade (for posters) and parish (include city).

Mail to: The Catholic Spirit Christmas Contest, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

Correction A photo on page 7B of the Oct. 11 issue of The Catholic Spirit wrongly identified Bishop Anthony Muheria of the Diocese of Kitui, Kenya as the man walking with Bishop Piché. It was Bishop George Lungu of the Diocese of Chipata, Zambia.

“Family is what will keep us together, family is what will keep us going through the thick and thin. If you have family, you have everything.”

Luz Zagal, a member of St. Alphonsus in Brooklyn Center and a member of the advisory committee for Latino Family Day

Local News from around the archdiocese

OCTOBER 25, 2012

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Latino Family Day About 2,500 members of the archdiocese’s Latino community came together Oct. 20 for Latino Family Day at the Cathedral of St. Paul. The event was planned by the Advisory Board for Latino Ministry.

At left, Arturo Moya, front, Ana Orbe, left, and Evelyn Rivera, center, members of Risen Savior in Burnsville, pray the “Our Father” with other members of their parish.

Bishop Lee Piché celebrated the Mass and during his homily told the crowd that the Year of Faith, which began Oct. 11, is for everyone. He prayed for them, “That God, our Lord Jesus Christ, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in the knowledge of him, of Jesus.”

Below, members of Sagrado Corazon in St. Paul do the dance of the Matachines, a traditional dance from Tlaxcala, México. They lead a procession from St. Paul College to the Cathedral of St. Paul to begin the celebration.

At right, Father Evan Koop gives a blessing to Jesús Cárdenas during Communion.

Lower right, after Mass, Bishop Lee Piché presents Father Lawrence Hubbard with a plaque honoring him for his many years of service to the Latino community in the archdiocese.

Above, 3-year-old Jared Rivera Torres enjoys a tamale after the Mass. The crowd gathered under a tent on the Cathedral grounds to sample tamales provided by Sagrado Corazon, St. Paul; St. Stephen, Anoka; Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul; St. Alphonsus, Brooklyn Center; St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul and Risen Savior, Burnsville. The parishes also competed for best tamale and best salsa, with St. Stephen, Anoka, coming out on top in both contests.

BY THE NUMBERS

16,000

68%

Number of Latinos attending Spanish Masses in the archdiocese

Estimated percentage of Latinos who are Catholic nationwide

23 Latino parishes in the archdiocese

8,000

Estimated number of Latino Catholics served by the 23 Latino parishes

Source: Office of Parish Services for thte Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis

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Local

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

St. Agnes kids prove cemetery visit can be fun died in 1872 at 28 years of age. So, I said to the girls who were cleaning graves next to me, ‘How do you think she died?’”

Curious about the answer to that quesBy Dave Hrbacek tion, she contacted the Sisters of St. The Catholic Spirit Joseph of Carondelet here in St. Paul and It was an odd sight: 35 teenagers laugh- inquired about the person whose name ing, running and playing — in a ceme- they found on the headstone — Sister John Joseph O’Keefe. tery.

Decker learned that Sister John Joseph How could this be? Those visiting the was born in Pennsylvania to parents who gravesites of their loved ones may have came to the U.S. from Ireland. She joined scratched their heads as they watched the CSJs in 1868 and was sent to Mineighth-graders from St. Agnes School in nesota in response to a request from ArchSt. Paul frolic on the grounds of Calvary bishop John Ireland for people to staff Cemetery in St. Paul St. Joseph’s Hospital.

After caring for Oct. 11 — all with many patients as a nurse, she got sick the approval of herself and died of tuberculosis on Jan. their teacher 29, 1872. and the Works of Students did an ink rubbing of her pastor of headstone and now have it displayed in St. Agnes the classroom.

The class prays for her parish, who were there with daily, which helps keep her memory alive.

This is exactly what Decker was hoping them. would come out of the experience.

This was no joke, but was, in fact, The idea for this field trip came last serious business. They engaged in earnest summer when she was visiting Resurrecwork to clean the graves of clergy and retion Cemetery in Mendota Heights with ligious buried there, plus say prayers and her husband Francis.

They ended up staymake rubbings of a handful of headstones ing an hour longer to clean gravesites; that would be taken back to school and then she decided to schedule a field trip put up in the classroom as a reminder to for her students to the students of their do the same thing ancestors in faith. this fall. That gave The event was them the valuable meant to help preIt shows them that opportunity to enpare the children counter people like for the Feast of All a cemetery doesn’t Sister John Joseph, Souls on Nov. 2. and learn how they have to be a scary, And, it was clear lived and served the these kids had some church. sad place. A fun along the way.

“I have talked Watching the rakabout Sister John cemetery should ing, rubbing and Joseph O’Keefe to praying with delight be a place to both the seventhwas an employee of and eighth-grade remember and the cemetery, Linda classes,” Decker Radtke, who helped said. “They have know our loved arrange the outing visited her remains, with St. Agnes reliand now with the ones, and we can gion teacher Joan opportunity to Decker. learn about her hisdo that with “We are ecstatic tory, she becomes about having the laughter and real to them.” kids out here,” This was an unexsmiles, and not just Radtke said. “It pected result of the shows them that a field trip for the stutears. cemetery doesn’t dents, at least some have to be a scary, of whom merely sad place. A cemeLINDA RADTKE viewed the afterCalvary Cemetery employee tery should be a noon as a time to place to remember play in a wide open and know our loved space. ones, and we can do that with laughter “I just wanted to run around with my and smiles, and not just tears.” friends,” said eighth-grader Michael Eilen.

Indeed, no tears were shed on this day, “But, I knew what Jesus would do, and I but there was plenty of awe and wonder, did it. . . . I found compassion for the especially when the students studied in- people who weren’t able to help themdividual gravestones and discussed what selves, and I thought treating them with the lives of the deceased clergy and reli- respect is what they deserved.” gious might have been like.

Decker said the students already have Decker joined in one of those conver- asked her to schedule another visit to Calsations, right after she looked down at vary Cemetery this school year. And, fuher feet and noticed something that sur- ture St. Agnes eighth-graders also will get prised her. their chance.

“We feel that this needs to be a yearly “I just happened to be standing on a gravestone that was filled with debris, event for us,” she said. “These are our anand I started to brush it away and realized cestors in faith and we absolutely will be that it was a young sister,” she said. “She doing this on an annual basis.”

The Catholic Spirit is running an occasional series focused on the works of mercy.

This week, we highlight praying for the dead, a spiritual work of mercy.

MERCY

“

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‘Saints Manor’ offers Halloween alternative to haunted houses The Catholic Spirit Eighth-graders from Holy Spirit School and parish religious education classes will transform the annex of the St. Paul church into “Saints Manor” Sunday, Oct. 28 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The project, in its third year, anticipates the celebration of All Saints Day, Nov. 1.

The idea is similar to a haunted house but features living dioramas of saints instead of gory and scary characters, said Christopher Menzhuber, Holy Spirit director of faith formation.

“I’d love to see this become more common around the archdiocese during Halloween,” Menzhuber said.

The students serve as the actors and stagehands. They practice the Friday beforehand, set up the “Manor” Saturday and get into costume the morning

of the 28th.

The students learn about the saints they portray, Menzhuber said. “Our actors who were playing Padre Pio were ‘Googling’ him as they got dressed in order to find his picture and learn about the stigmata,” he said.

The Italian saint, who died in 1968 at age 81, experienced wounds that corresponded with those suffered by Christ at the crucifixion.

“The students have fun. It brings them together around a wholesome and educational pursuit related to their faith,” Menzhuber said. “It highlights the celebration of the Feast of All Saints, which is a great feast of the Church that is often overshadowed by Halloween in their lives.”

Holy Spirit is located at 515 S. Albert St. The event is free.

Local

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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Successes, challenges of being an evangelizing parish Lay leaders hear that personal invitation, hospitality among keys to effective evangelization

By Joe Towalski The Catholic Spirit

For a parish to evangelize successfully in a society marked by moral relativism, skepticism and a growing number of people with no religious affiliation, it must reach out effectively to the “spiritually curious and seeking” and invite everyone into a fuller experience of the faith, said Mark Croteau, director of programs at the Cathedral of St. Paul.

“Our society has become mission territory,” he told nearly 300 parish leaders who gathered Oct. 16 at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton for the archdiocese’s annual Fall Formation Day, which focused on the topic of evangelization.

“More and more, we’re up against this post-modern horizon,” he said. “The largest growing number of people within American society now are the ‘nones’ — those that are not affiliated with any faith or don’t believe in God. . . . What we have here is a great opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity that comes at a time when the Catholic Church is focusing on the need for a “new evangelization” to reenergize the Christian faith in an increasingly secular world. In addition to the Year of Faith launched by Pope Benedict XVI on Oct. 11, the world Synod of Bishops is meeting on the topic at the Vatican. Archbishop John Nienstedt also released a pastoral letter earlier this month on the new evangelization.

Being ‘evangelizing parishes’ In his letter, the archbishop said he wants every parish to ask how it “can be-

Archspm.com TheCatholicSpirit.com CatholicHotdish.com

“The largest growing number

of people within American society now are the ‘nones’ — those that are not affiliated with any faith or don’t believe in God. . . . What we have here is a great opportunity.

”

MARK CROTEAU Director of programs, Cathedral of St. Paul

come a welcoming and evangelizing parish.” Croteau and a panel of priests, drawing on experiences from their parishes, offered insights and suggestions.

Croteau highlighted efforts under way at the Cathedral of St. Paul that illustrate five “thresholds of conversion” identified

by Sherry Weddell, international co-director of the Catherine of Siena Institute: trust, curiosity, openness, seeking and intentional discipleship.

Cathedral programs such as its “Faith and Reason” speakers series — a theologian at the most recent gathering spoke about physicists’ possible discovery of the Higgs boson “God particle” — can appeal to “seekers” who are curious to know more about a Catholic world view and what the church teaches on issues such as science.

Other Cathedral programs, such as its “First Saturday Series,” which features Mass, eucharistic adoration, confession and speakers on various subjects, are directed more to those seeking to deepen a relationship they already have with Christ

and the Church, he said.

The five priests who comprised the panel addressed a slate of topics, including how evangelization is conducted in their parishes and what they have found to be effective.

For Father Paul La Fontaine, pastor of St. Charles Borromeo in St. Anthony, the Sacred Liturgy is the Church’s best tool for evangelization, particularly for people who might only come to church for weddings, funerals and other special occasions.

“It’s something that really speaks to visitors,” he told the lay leaders in attendance. “For many people, it is the only personal contact they have with the church and it can make a great difference.”

The importance of the liturgy highlights the need to do it well, said Father John Bauer, rector of the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. Proper attention must be given to having good music, homilies and lectors so visitors will want to return on subsequent weeks. Good hospitality, he

added, is essential.

Events like the annual Basilica Block Party also are an opportunity to reach out to the broader community, he said. In addition to the musical groups it hosts, the church offers tours during the event.

“It’s a way for us to invite people to come to our home,” Father Bauer said.

“The first year I was at the Basilica we had a downpour and we had to stop the music for about an hour and people came to me in the rectory and said there were people in the Basilica. . . . They were praying.

They were all throughout the church, sitting down or kneeling down and praying.

So they knew that was a place where they could go and spend some time with God.”

Going to the people The pastors highlighted other examples of evangelization initiatives they have undertaken: ■ St. Joseph in West St. Paul initiated “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” gatherings to build community and friendships, said Father Michael Creagan, pastor.

Parish families and individuals, who may have seen one another before but never met, gather at host homes to enjoy a meal and good conversation. The church also does door-to-door evangelization, in which teams of two people visit homes and extend an invitation to learn more about the parish. The effort is supported by prayer and office volunteers who help meet any needs those visited might have.

■ Father Kevin Finnegan, pastor of Divine Mercy in Faribault, said the church is reaching out to the growing number of Latino families in the area by offering trailer park Masses during the summer, followed by food, soccer games with the PLEASE TURN TO PERSONAL ON PAGE 19

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

St. Thomas’ $500 million campaign gives financial aid big boost The Catholic Spirit

course of the campaign. That’s impressive.”

The University of St. Thomas recently completed the most successful fundraising campaign of any private institution of higher education in Minnesota and its four neighboring states.

Gifts and pledges totaling $515,104,773 have been generated in the university’s “Opening Doors” capital campaign, Father Dennis Dease, the school’s president, told a dinner audience Oct. 17 in the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.

“The campaign transformed our campus with stunning new facilities. But most significant was our single-largest goal, raising $142 million for financial aid that will open the doors to a St. Thomas education for future generations of students from all economic and cultural backgrounds,” Father Dease said.

The university’s board of trustees approved a $500 million goal and the campaign was announced publicly in October 2007.

“The 43,539 alumni and friends who made contributions were key to our success,” Father Dease said. “It was truly a community effort.”

Campaign’s three themes

True to its roots The campaign benefited from three gifts of more than $50 million each — two of them made anonymously — and from two large challenge grants. An anonymous donor made one challenge grant in 2010 for $25 million, and St. Thomas trustees made a second challenge grant for $20 million earlier this year. When matched, the challenge grants collectively added $90 million to the campaign and pushed the total beyond the $500 million goal.

Opening Doors was launched with news of a $60 million gift from St. Thomas trustee Lee Anderson and his wife, Penny. The gift helped underwrite three major construction projects on the St. Paul campus: the 2012 An-

University of St. Thomas

Students walk outside the Anderson Student Center.

derson Student Center, the 2010 Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex and the 2009 Anderson Parking Facility.

The campaign was co-chaired by two longtime St. Thomas trustees and their wives, John and Susan Morrison and Richard and Maureen Schulze.

“Creating that pool of scholarship and financial-aid resources for students of diverse backgrounds speaks to our deepest roots,” Father Dease said. “Archbishop Ireland founded St. Thomas, in large measure, to serve Minnesota’s growing immigrant community.”

Mark Dienhart, executive vice president and chief operating officer of St. Thomas and director of the campaign, thanked students, faculty and staff for their contributions.

“It’s inspiring that more than 3,300 students contributed to the campaign, and we know they don’t have money to spare,” Dienhart said. “Faculty and staff also pitched in and did so at record levels. Their participation rate jumped from 15 percent to 58 percent during the

Opening Doors’ priorities addressed the campaign’s three themes: access, excellence and Catholic identity.

St. Thomas raised nearly $254 million for financial aid and academic programs and another $176 million for construction and renovations. It also raised $52 million in other restricted gifts and $32 million for the Annual Fund.

While the facilities will serve students for many generations, so will funds raised for scholarships and professorships. Opening Doors, for example, created 309 newly endowed scholarships, each valued at $50,000 or higher.

The number of endowed chairs and professorships, meanwhile, will increase from 17 to 36.

Funds raised for construction projects include: ■ $58.7 million for the Anderson Student Center.

■ $52.9 million for the Anderson Athletic and Recreation Complex.

■ $15 million for the Anderson Parking Facility.

Funds raised for financial aid and academic programs include: ■ $142.5 million for financial aid ($106.5 million for undergraduates and $36 million for graduate students).

■ $51.8 million for 19 endowed chairs and professorships.

■ $35.1 million for deanships and strategic funds.

■ $8.6 million for the School of Law. ■ $3.9 million for the Center for Ethical Business Cultures.

■ $3.4 million for the Center for Catholic Studies.

■ $2.5 million for the Terrence J. Murphy Institute for Catholic Thought, Law and Public Policy.

■ $1 million for the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning.

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OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

7

Beyond the yard signs Catholics share how they are dialoging with others about the marriage amendment

By Susan Klemond

“I feel like they respected us for having the

For The Catholic Spirit

David and Lisa Zimmerman of Mendota Heights didn’t shy away from talking about the proposed marriage amendment this fall. After their “vote yes” sign was defaced in early September, rather than replacing it they added another sign that said “Come and talk next time.”

No one came to talk about the amendment, but several neighbors with “vote no” signs called to express sympathy over the vandalized sign, and one of those neighbors opened up when Lisa approached her to talk about it, said David, who attends St. Joseph in West St. Paul with his family.

“I feel like they respected us for having the courage to come over and wanting to talk,” he said. “And in the end, they would say we just need to agree to disagree.”

While the proposed marriage amendment carries enough emotional charge to prevent some Catholics from talking about it with anyone outside their immediate circle, others have found it to be an opportunity to define their views and share them with those who are on the fence or disagree with them.

After Election Day When the ubiquitous lawn signs, bumper stickers and buttons disappear after Election Day, Nov. 6, many of those interviewed said they’re confident that re-

”

courage to come over and wanting to talk.

DAVID ZIMMERMAN Commenting on a discussion he and his wife had with neighbors about the amendment

lationships between neighbors, family and friends will remain strong and could even grow deeper because of efforts to dialogue.

Randy Lehnen, also a St. Joseph parishioner, said he believes the Lord is calling him to share his views on the amendment and encourage deeper discussion in his St. Paul neighborhood. He created a flyer featuring reasons he supports the amendment that he plans to give to neighbors.

Lehnen also hopes to encourage neighbors to share their views without conflict at a meeting in his home.

He said he hasn’t talked to many neighbors about the issue, partly because they aren’t outside as much in the fall. While he has a “Yes” sign in his yard, he said he wonders if signs without discussion create the potential for misunderstanding.

“If the signs are out and they say “no, I disagree with you” and you never talk about it, it can kind of build up a sort of suspicion or resentment or a feeling of them and us, a separation and division,” he said. “But if you talk to people and say I’m open to hear your viewpoints, I think

it opens it up for people.”

The signs can be more flag waving than dialogue, said Ed Steinhauer, Lehnen’s neighbor who has a “vote no” sign in his yard. He said he’s sensed that people have strong emotions about the issue and talking about it could be unproductive. Drawing a distinction between the issue and values that make good neighbors, he added, “People’s politics are not getting in the way of being neighbors.”

Politics weren’t a topic at Michael Kraemer’s recent family gathering, so he didn’t bring up the amendment, though he said he’s had other opportunities to talk about it.

Kraemer and his wife, Linda, both St. Alphonsus (Brooklyn Center) parishioners, put up two “yes” signs in their yard, the only ones in their Brooklyn Park cul-desac. So far, no one has approached them about the signs. “My sense was they have to know where we stand,” said Michael, who is in the diaconate program.

Molly Stommes talks about the amend-

ment frequently with her husband, Matt, and with friends. Facebook has been a place for positive discussion about it, she said.

Stommes said she prefers oneon-one conversations over signs, so she and Matt didn’t put a “yes” sign in the yard of their Minneapolis home.

Safety was a factor for the St. Mark parishioners.

When two men harassed Vivian Sutch for wearing a “yes” button in downtown Minneapolis recently, she said she didn’t think they’d hurt her, though the experience was unsettling. She said she believes God helped her to calmly share her views, which she’d thought about in advance.

“God really was there,” said Sutch, who attends St. Peter in Mendota. “His presence was very [calming]. It was not a standing-on-a-street-corner-yelling-andscreaming type of thing.”

She doesn’t believe the men were open to her views but plans to pray for them.

“That may be the whole reason for wearing the button and engaging people,” she said.

Discussions rooted in love Will it be possible to engage people and have dialogue with them after the election?

Lehnen thinks so, and imagines the election will come up at the next block party.

PLEASE TURN TO LOVE ON PAGE 26

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OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Parishes continue to reap benefits of stewardship toolkit

By Kristi Anderson For The Catholic Spirit

In the Oct. 11 issue of The Catholic Spirit, St. Bernard parish in Cologne illustrated how the archdiocesan stewardship toolkit has helped in promoting stewardship efforts in the parish. The last of this three-part series on stewardship digs deeper into this key resource available to all parishes across the archdiocese.

Meeting individual needs For more than 15 years, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bloomington has had a committee dedicated to ongoing stewardship education and promotion.

Two years ago, the parish incorporated the use of the stewardship toolkit created by the archdiocesan Office of Development and Stewardship.

“This tool has given us a guideline to follow,” said James Kelzer, parish administrator, “but also allows some flexibility in the program to tailor it to our parish needs.”

One of the ways Nativity modified the plan was by adjusting the timing of lay witnesses to meet individual needs. From this process, the parish community has turned this effort into an annual renewal process that Kelzer says will “hopefully continue into the future.”

Discovering gifts Lumen Christi in St. Paul began using the stewardship toolkit as its key resource as soon as it became available.

“Previously, I had been going online to find resources from other dioceses or parishes, and now everything that we need is right here,” said Joan Gecik, parish business administrator.

The planner has many practical things Lumen Christi incorporated right away

Msgr. James Habiger remembered as social justice advocate Msgr. James Habiger will be remembered for his commitment to social justice and to those on the margins of society.

The former executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference, died Oct. 9. He was 85.

Ordained a priest in 1951 for the Diocese of Winona, he ministered in the Archdiocese of St. MSGR. HABIGER

such as logos, suggestions for talks, messages to connect with the liturgy, bulletin announcements and best practices.

“In short, it has saved us time because we didn’t have to create everything from scratch,” Gecik said. “We had something to work from, to give us a jumping off point for how to begin and build the whole process from year to year.”

Gecik said there are challenges to get people to understand the stewardship message.

“People often hear the word ‘stewardship’ and immediately think of money,” she said. “We have been equating the word ‘stewardship’ with ‘discipleship’ and the call to live the life of a disciple. That seems to appeal on many levels to people’s experience of the Gospels.”

Though the parish experienced a few growing pains in utilizing the toolkit, the overall effects outweigh the challenges, she said.

“This practical tool has been one of the best helps that has ever come out of our archdiocese,” Gecik said. “It has been a

great support for all we need to do in keeping stewardship an essential element of parish life.”

“It isn’t just the pastor getting up and asking people to give money,” she said.

“It involves catechesis. It needs to be well thought out. There needs to be consistent messages. It needs more than a few weeks of planning. It involves the whole person following Christ with all the talent and strengths they have and the responsibility we have in helping people to discover their gifts.”

Paul and Minneapolis since 1980 when he took the MCC post, which he held for 15 years. He also served at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and was moderator of the Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women for 20 years, retiring from that position in 2008.

At the MCC, Msgr. Habiger represented the Catholic bishops of Minnesota on social, legal and political issues and lobbied the Legislature on their behalf.

“Msgr. James Habiger was a beloved friend to those on the margins of society,” said Jason Adkins, MCC executive director. “He was and will continue to be an inspiration to many social justice advocates who carry on his legacy. For example, it was Msgr. Habiger’s committee testimony that finally elicited the votes to pass MNCare legislation, providing health insur-

ance for low-income Minnesotans. His work left a lasting impact on the state of Minnesota in many areas. He will be missed.”

Adkins’ thoughts were echoed by Olive Hupf, who has been active in the ACCW since the 1980s and served as president from 2003 to 2005.

“He has served us well,” said Hupf, a member of St. Pius V in Cannon Falls with her husband Vernon. “He was a wonderful man. He helped me so much during the time when I was president of ACCW. He was steadfast.

“He was so full of faith and he was so full of goodness. He just was so good.

He was absolutely wonderful and was a true friend. And, I ask him to guide me now.”

After his ordination, Msgr. Habiger

Lifelong journey Pax Christi in Eden Prairie has long held the value of stewardship as a way of life as one of its leading principles, said Mary Kennedy, director of stewardship for the parish and chair of the Archdiocesan Stewardship Committee.

“Stewardship is much more than opening your wallet and tossing a few bucks in the collection basket,” she said. “Living the life of a steward is making the commitment to use all of your gifts to the best

of your ability, looking at all the ways you live your life and how you form your response to God.” Pax Christi uses the stewardship toolkit to assist in setting annual goals.

“From my perspective, it was helpful to step back and put some of our practices in writing using the toolkit,” Kennedy said. “Our committee had much discussion over best practices and that review helps us move forward and do a better job of communicating.”

In addition, Kennedy said the beauty of the toolkit is that it is easy to mold to the identity of an individual parish.

“All of the documents are downloadable in Microsoft Word and can be specifically tailored to fit the needs of the parish,” she said. “If you like to make personal calls during your Annual Renewal, there’s a script for that. If that doesn’t work for your parish, perhaps you will like the thank you card or pastor and lay witness speaker tips.”

“Stewardship is not a program,” Kennedy continued. “It is a lifelong journey. It is the individual conversion of heart where a person decides that he or she will take the step of living as a steward, accepting the gifts God has given them, building those gifts, sharing those gifts with others, and in the end, returning those gifts to God. Because of this factor, patience is an absolute. One doesn’t just snap your fingers and, ‘voila’ you are a stewardship parish. There has to be lots of communication, formation and plenty of patience.”

The toolkit is available online at

WWW. ARCHSPM . ORG / DEPARTMENTS / DEVELOP MENT-STEWARDSHIP.

toolkit.”

Click on “stewardship

served parishes in Austin, Winona and Rochester and was principal at St. Augustine’s in Austin and Winona Cotter before becoming superintendent of education for the Winona diocese in 1960, a position he held for 16 years. He served as pastor of St. Francis of Assisi in Rochester from 1976 to 1980, when he joined the MCC. At the University of St. Thomas, in honor of his parents, he established the Joseph and Edith Habiger Institute for Catholic Leadership in the Center for Catholic Studies to provide student leadership formation.

The funeral Mass for Msgr. Habiger was celebrated Oct. 15 in the Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas at the University of St. Thomas.

He is buried at Holy Trinity Cemetery near Owatonna.

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“It is the task of the individual Catholic to invite people back to the practice of the faith.”

Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington

Nation/World OCTOBER 25, 2012

Court’s rejection of Defense of Marriage Act called ‘unjust’

News from around the U.S. and the globe

Floods damage grotto in Lourdes

Catholic News Service The chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ subcommittee on marriage described as “unjust and a great disappointment” the decision by a federal appeals court striking down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, which says marriage is a legal union of a man and a woman.

“Redefining marriage never upholds the equal dignity of individuals because it contradicts basic human rights,” said San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, chair of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage.

He issued a statement Oct. 19 about a 2-1 ruling handed down a day earlier by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, which said the federal marriage law was unconstitutional because it failed to give equal protection to New York spouses in same-sex marriages.

Second ruling It was the second appeals court ruling to find a key provision of the 1996 federal law unconstitutional. In May, the Bostonbased 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of same-sex couples in Massachusetts, challenging what they argued was the discriminatory nature of the legislation.

The Defense of Marriage Act, known as DOMA, passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. It defines marriage as “a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife.”

The U.S. Supreme Court is expected this term to take up an appeal to rulings on the Defense of Marriage Act. There also is an appeal pending on California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. In February of this year, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit affirmed a U.S. District Court judge’s ruling that Prop 8 was unconstitutional. The panel and later the full court stayed the ruling pending appeal.

On July 31, it was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In his statement, Archbishop Cordileone reiterated the church’s teaching that marriage “is and can only be the union of one man and one woman,” and said this recognition “is grounded in our nature” and “obliges our consciences and laws.”

“It is a matter of basic rights -- the right of every child to be welcomed and raised, as far as possible, by his or her mother and father together in a stable home,” he said.

“The public good demands that the unique meaning and purpose of marriage be respected in law and society, not rejected as beyond the constitutional pale.”

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

9

Cardinal Wuerl: Challenges don’t lessen obligation to evangelize

By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service

CNS photo/ Caroline Blumberg, Reuters

A worker shovels mud from the grotto at the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in southwestern France Oct. 21. Hundreds of pilgrims were evacuated the day before after heavy rains in the Pyrenees region flooded the shrine and its surrounding town.

Miami archbishop says lawsuit needed to see HHS mandate overturned

By Ana Rodriguez-Soto Catholic News Service

The Obama administration “has not shown any inclination to rescind” its requirement that most religious employers cover contraceptives for their workers, so “we need to get this mandate overturned” by the courts, said Miami Archbishop Thomas G. Wenski.

He made the comments at an afternoon news conference Oct. 19 to announce the Miami Archdiocese has joined the 50 or so other Catholic dioceses, universities and entities throughout the U.S. that have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services contraceptive mandate.

Under the mandate, all employers, including most Catholic and other religious employers, must provide coverage in their health care plans for contraceptives, including some that can cause abortions, and for sterilizations, over any moral objections they have.

“We feel it is a violation” of the First Amendment, the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act and HHS’s rule-making authority, the archbishop said.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the Archdiocese of Miami, Catholic Health Services and Catholic Hospice. It was filed by the archdiocese’s legal representatives, J. Patrick Fitzgerald and Associates, along with the Jones Day law firm, which is providing its services pro bono. Jones Day is representing many other Catholic entities in similar lawsuits.

Archbishop Wenski pointed out that Vice President Joe Biden spoke “untruth-

fully” during the vice presidential debate Oct. 11 when he said there is no problem between the Catholic Church and the Obama administration on the health care issue.

Biden stated that “no religious institution, Catholic or otherwise, ... has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide.”

The mandate, however, has a narrow religious exemption that would protect only those Catholic institutions that seek to inculcate Catholic values and primarily employ and serve Catholics.

“There is a problem. That’s why we’re suing,” Archbishop Wenski said.

The Catholic Church is not opposed to universal health care itself, he said, and in fact proposed a number of options when the Affordable Care Act was being debated in Congress. But the church’s position is that universal health care “should kill no one and it should cover everyone,” he said.

The current law fails on both counts, the archbishop said, because it requires employers to provide drugs and services that result in the killing of unborn children, and it also excludes “millions of immigrants.”

The Catholic Church teaches human life is sacred from the moment of conception to natural death, and it has consistently opposed artificial methods of birth control and sterilization, teaching that they violate the total giving of self and openness to life which are intrinsic to God’s plan for marriage.

The challenges of being human and of living in a world that does not always want to hear about faith do not lessen the obligation to proclaim the Gospel and to call the baptized to live their faith more fully, said Cardinal Donald W. Wuerl of Washington.

“We already know our difficulties, the tensions, our restlessness, our faults and our human weakness,” Cardinal Wuerl told members of the Synod of Bishops on the new evangelization Oct. 17.

Nevertheless, God calls members of the church to proclaim salvation in Christ to the ends of the earth and to re-propose the Gospel “to those who are now distant from the church,” said the cardinal, who was serving as the synod’s relator.

Summarizing — in Latin — the speeches Pope Benedict XVI and synod members gave Oct. 7-17, the Washington cardinal also formulated more than a dozen questions participants might want to discuss in their small groups before drafting propositions to present to the pope.

The “two great pillars of evangelization” must be a commitment to know and proclaim the truth of Christ and to do so with love, he said.

In the more than 230 speeches delivered at the synod, Cardinal Wuerl said, members agreed that the duty to proclaim the Gospel “is not just the responsibility of clergy and religious.” Laypeople share the obligation as well, so the church must prepare them, educate them and support them, he said.

The cardinal asked members to consider in their small groups concrete ways to increase people’s awareness of their responsibility.

“It is the task of the individual Catholic to invite people back to the practice of the faith,” he said.

The family and the parish deserve special recognition and special support because they are the places where most people first encounter the faith and where they most grow in faith, he said.

Cardinal Wuerl asked members to consider ways the church could devise a program of catechesis that is “basic, complete and inspiring in the search for truth, goodness and beauty” and suggested the small groups discuss the idea advanced by several synod members of formally establishing the ministry of catechist in the church.

The cardinal also emphasized the evangelizing power of the church’s social outreach to the sick and the poor, which he said makes the church “the very presence of Christ in the world today.”

“We need to go in their door so that we can invite them out our door.”

St. Ignatius of Loyola

10

This Catholic Life THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Opinion, feedback and points to ponder

OCTOBER 25, 2012

‘Unaffiliated’ numbers point to evangelization needs

A

Pew study on the increase in the number of religiously unaffiliated people and a sharp decline in the number of those who consider themselves Protestant may show no drop in numbers of Catholics, but analysts say it’s still a cautionary tale for the Church.

The “’Nones’ On The Rise” study released Oct. 9 by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life needs to be taken by the Church as guidance to focus more on the basic teachings of Jesus, said several people who work in shaping leaders in Catholic ministry.

The study found that in four years, Patricia Zapor the percentage of Americans describing themselves as unaffiliated with any religion grew from just more than 15 percent to just less than 20 percent. It found that a third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation, compared to 21 percent of the next older age bracket, 30-49, 15 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 9 percent of those over age 65.

Most of those who said they are “nothing in particular” or otherwise unaffiliated with a faith (including atheists and agnostics), apparently previously identified as white Protestants, whose numbers were down to 48 percent nationwide from 53 percent in 2007. Black and “other minority” Protestant churches showed no decline in the same period.

The number of self-identified Catholics has remained relatively constant, changing from 23 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2012.

Mark Gray, director of Catholic polls and a research associate at Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, or CARA, said that while most of Pew’s data fits with what CARA has found, he disagrees with one oft-repeated explanation for the unchanged percentage of Catholics in the country.

Pew senior researcher Greg Smith said the percentage of Catholics is likely unchanged because immigrants are balancing out those who leave the Church. But Gray said the math for that assumption doesn’t add up.

The rate of immigration has leveled off, he said. So as the overall population rises, if the number of Catholics was dependent upon immigration, the percentage of Catholics in the country would be showing more of a decline. Instead, Gray said “reverts,” or Catholics who return to the church after a time away, account for some of the steady numbers. He also thinks that Catholics who don’t practice the faith regularly may be more reluctant than Protestants to identify themselves as unaffiliated.

CARA’s studies show “there are a lot of nonpracticing Catholics who still identify as Catholics,” he said.

Gray said Pew’s numbers for people under 30 who are unaffiliated with any faith is a sign for concern, however.

The study said just 18 percent of Catholics

“The Church has put a lot of effort and money into youth ministry, which I think is very important.

But I wonder about putting the same effort into young adult ministry. Without faithful, young adults we won’t have any youth for youth ministry.

Analysis

”

THOMAS RYAN

than two-thirds of the religiously unaffiliated say faith institutions are too concerned with money and power, focus too much on rules and are too involved with politics. Burkey said that also presents an opportunity.

Pope Benedict has been saying “let’s put forth who Jesus Christ is first,” Burkey said. “That relationship, that love, that importance in our lives makes others want to be a part of it: If you want to be a part of it, the rules help you do that. If one is going to value a relationship with Jesus Christ, then going to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, are what you want to do.” are between the ages of 18 and 29, while 35 percent of the country’s religiously unaffiliated are in that age bracket.

Younger Catholics are living in a society that’s more integrated across faith lines, Gray noted, adding social pressures to a natural tendency of young adults to distance themselves from their parents’ religion.

Two professors who work in the area of Catholic evangelization see in the study clear signs for what the Church needs to do.

“We have to view this as a call and an opportunity,” said Julie Burkey, coordinator of the Center for Workplace Spirituality and adjunct professor of pastoral theology at Seton Hall University and Immaculate Conception School of Theology in South Orange, N.J. She noted that this month, bishops and other leaders from around the world were attending a synod on evangelization, called by Pope Benedict XVI to address this very issue, among others.

“Pope Benedict says we’ve not done a good job” of making the Gospel of Jesus the first thing people hear, she said.

Pew found that more than two-thirds of the unaffiliated say they believe in God and more than half say they think of themselves as spiritual or religious.

“There’s an opportunity here, when you hear that people are not affiliated but they believe in God,” she said. “Deep inside the human person there is recognition of a God, a creator.”

The study noted that more

Reaching young adults Thomas Ryan, professor at Loyola University in New Orleans, and director of its Institute for Ministry, said he thinks the study points to the need for better Catholic ministry to young adults.

“The Church has put a lot of effort and money into youth ministry, which I think is very important,” Ryan said. “But I wonder about putting the same effort into young adult ministry. Without faithful, young adults we won’t have any youth for youth ministry.”

He said young adults need to find more in their parishes to keep them involved.

Like Burkey, Ryan said the Church should try harder to encourage “the faithful to be heralds of good news.”

For instance, preaching should be inviting, engaging people in the “good news” of faith, he said. “What do young adults want? Are there parishes where young adults are online, with a robust social media presence and events that cover young adults’ range of interests? Do events take place at times and places that are convenient for them? Can young adults see themselves in the Church?”

Ryan, a Church historian by training, said Catholicism has always faced ups and downs in people feeling like the Church was relevant to them.

For example, he said, in 13th-century Europe, urban populations were growing fast and the Church’s monastic structure was poorly equipped to deal with that type of growth. But the mendicant orders such as the Dominicans and Franciscans arose, with a focus on preaching to this new urban population, Ryan said.

At the time, he said, “that was a very strange thing to do. But for the people not being ministered to it was what was needed.”

He cited the Jesuits’ founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola, saying “we need to go in their door so that we can invite them out our door.”

“It’s really important to listen to young adults, go in through their door,” he said.

Patricia Zapor writes for Catholic News Service.

This Catholic Life/Opinion-Commentary

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

11

When it comes to nurturing vocations, it’s everyone’s business

“W

Editorial Joe Towalski

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of the invitation

here two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them,” Jesus says in the Gospel of Matthew.

And, he might have added: “Where two or three gather to encourage a religious vocation, there stands a better chance that a young person will give it thoughtful consideration.”

This is the conclusion of a recent study conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, and it confirms something Catholics have known for a long time: A personal invitation to consider priesthood or religious life leads to more vocations.

Ask any priest, sister, deacon or brother to tell you his or her vocation story and it’s the rare exception not to hear that, somewhere along the way, someone invited and encouraged them to consider this life of service to God and the church.

The more, the better In fact, according to the CARA study, the more people — priests, parents, grandparents, religious sisters and brothers, teachers, youth ministers — who encourage a person to

consider a religious vocation, the better.

Among men considering priesthood or religious life, “Respondents who have one person encouraging them are nearly twice as likely to consider a vocation as those who are not encouraged,” the study said. “Each additional person encouraging these respondents increases the likelihood of consideration. The effect is additive. Respondents who had three persons encourage them would be expected to be more than five times more likely to consider a vocation than someone who was not encouraged by anyone.”

The same holds true for women considering religious life: “Similar to male respondents, encouragement is also a positive factor,” the study found. “With nearly the same effect as is demonstrated among men, women are nearly twice as likely to consider a vocation when encouraged by another person to do so.”

It’s important to remember that an invitation doesn’t automatically lead to more people entering seminaries and religious communities. And, there are other factors that influence vocation discernment (Catholic school attendance and parish youth

In a post on the CARA research blog, one of the study’s authors, Mark Gray, noted that the most common answer people gave for not encouraging someone else to consider a vocation was that it’s an individual decision and “none of my business.”

It’s our business

CNS/Gregory A. Shemitz, Long Island Catholic

group involvement also are positive influences). But it’s hard to overestimate the importance of the invitation.

But it is your business. It’s my business. It’s everyone’s business as a member of the church. Everyone who is concerned about the shortage of priests or the decline in the number of religious sisters and its affect on the vitality of the church needs to understand, as Gray says, that “they are part of the process.”

Jesus knew the power of personal invitation — that’s how he called his apostles to follow him. We need to extend a similar invitation to the young men and women in our lives who we think might be well-suited for a religious vocation.

Jesus clearly is still the one who ultimately does the calling, but in today’s world filled with loud and varied voices competing for the attention of young adults, we can invite them to listen a little more closely to whether God is indeed trying to get their attention.

Lessons from a Pakistani teen who is fighting for her life

I

have a new hero. Her name is Malala Yousafzai, and she’s a 14-year-old girl from Pakistan.

When she was 11, the Taliban took power in her valley. They enforced a harsh set of laws on the residents, among them, an edict that girls could no longer attend school. They threatened girls’ teachers and burned down school buildings.

Malala, who dreamed of someday being a lawyer or a politician, wrote a blog for the BBC about her exKaren Osborne periences in trying to get an education under the Taliban.

She would do whatever it took to get to school: wear ordinary clothes, hide her books, change her daily routine. She went to school even when half her class stayed home. Her experiences made her stand up for other girls her age who wanted to go to school, too, even if it meant going against the Taliban.

“If I were caught going to school, they could kidnap me or throw acid on my face or kill me,” she told journalist Rohit Gandhi in a 2011 interview.

On Oct. 9, two men boarded a bus Malala and her classmates were riding and shot her. She is fighting for her life in the United Kingdom after being transported to a hospital there days after being shot in the head and spine.

Opinion

Opening doors Across the world, teens her age are often barred from going to school because of cultural, social, financial or geographic difficulties. While American teens moan and whine about the school year approaching, teens in Sudan, Ethiopia, Pakistan and Bangladesh see a proper education — with the bright future that often goes along with it — as a dream.

In Taliban-controlled Pakistan, Malala and her friends were risking their lives to

CNS photo / Mohsin Raza, Reuters

A portrait of Malala Yousufzai, who was shot Oct. 9 by the Taliban, is displayed during a prayer service at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Lahore, Pakistan, Oct. 14. The 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl, who was reportedly shot for advocating girls' education, has been flown to Britain for specialized medical care.

learn how to read and write. They risked everything to go to math class and to learn about biology, music and religion, to do all of the things that make some American teens roll their eyes.

To teens in our country and nations like it, school can sometimes feel like a neverending, annoying slog. It can be hard to deal with the homework, the difficult teachers and the long school days when you’d rather be hanging out with friends.

But Malala knows something that her peers in other parts of the world sometimes forget: That getting an education means more than just getting a piece of paper signifying that you successfully sat in a classroom for 13 years. Education

opens doors that otherwise remain closed.

Education means the end to ignorance and fear. It fosters the development of a society, an economy and a future.

Faced with our dumbed-down excuse for popular culture, I don’t see American teens remembering that often.

If you are a teen, when was the last time you didn’t take school for granted? When was the last time that a teacher woke you up in class, caught you texting or not paying attention? When was the last time you skipped a class or copied your friend’s homework or didn’t study for a test?

When was the last time you said, “Well, I’ll never need to know that,” or “That subject is dumb”?

What would you do with your life if you were told you could no longer go to school?

I remember the many times I slept in class, crashed on the couch in front of the television instead of studying or put off my homework. Malala would be ashamed of me.

Extremists have vowed to finish the job they started. If Malala survives, they say, they’ll try to kill her again. If Malala survives, she’ll probably want to go back to school. I desperately hope she gets that chance.

Karen Osborne writes a column for youth for Catholic News Service.

12

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

Commentary

/ This Catholic Life

Conscience and the marriage amendment

S

ince the Minnesota marriage amendment was placed on the ballot last year, and even before that, the Catholic Church in Minnesota has been educating Catholics about what marriage is, why it is important and the challenges all of society will likely face if it is redefined.

Faith in the Public Arena Jason Adkins

Only marriage between one man and one woman is consistent with the Gospel and the demands of justice

In doing so, we have tried to help Catholics form their consciences on this matter so that they would pray, reflect and conclude that it was important for them join their bishops in voting “Yes” to pass the marriage amendment.

Getting it right It is certainly important to note that when voting on this and other important matters, people should act in accordance with their conscience.

Indeed, that has always been Church teaching. But in obeying one’s conscience, we must also emphasize that one can still act wrongly, because what is objectively true is not necessarily what one subjectively thinks or feels.

Additionally, conscience is not an infallible guide or a trump card that allows us to do whatever we please.

When we Catholics do not fulfill our duty to form our conscience in accord with the teachings and guidance of the Church, history has shown we are prone to err.

As a result, although some Catholics, even priests, may claim that “conscience” requires them to do one thing or another, it does not mean their actions or strongly held convictions are consistent with either the Catholic faith which they profess or the universal moral law.

For example, if one were to vote against the marriage amendment because he believed that same-sex relationships were truly marriages and that the law should recognize them

“When we Catholics do not fulfill our

duty to form our conscience in accord with the teachings and guidance of the Church, history has shown we are prone to err.

”

JASON ADKINS

as such, or because he believed the sexual love between a man and a woman and homosexual acts were morally and socially equivalent, he would be acting in a manner inconsistent with both the Catholic faith and universal moral norms that can be known by all persons, even nonbelievers.

Only marriage between one man and one woman is consistent with the Gospel and the demands of justice.

Our Lord himself reminds us of the beauty of the gift of marriage in Matthew’s Gospel, chapter 19, when he calls our attention away from the human corruptions of marriage and back to God’s original plan that man and woman would come together in a lifelong, fruitful, one-flesh communion of persons.

The reality of marriage founded on the union of one man and one woman is so important that Jesus Christ, the Word Incarnate, was born into a family with an earthly father and mother — an icon of the family to which Catholics have a special devotion. And, even though his mother was sinless, God saw it fit that he still had an earthly father for his own personal formation as a man. Once

again, the truths of the faith support what we know by reason.

Numerous resources have been developed to explain why marriage is between a man and a woman, and not simply the romantic partnership of consenting adults. For a small collection of these resources, please visit the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s website (MNCC.ORG/ISSUES/MARRIAGE) and seek to become an advocate for the truth of marriage.

Love guided by truth Whatever happens on Nov. 6, our task is still the same. We need to proclaim the beauty of marriage with love, civility and respect.

We also have a responsibility to work for the authentic rights and well-being of all people. Our brothers and sisters who wish to alter the legal definition of marriage do so in many instances out of concern for their family members, neighbors, friends and co-workers who experience same-sex attraction.

They believe — mistakenly, but genuinely — that society assaults the dignity of these persons when it does not acknowledge their relationships as marriages.

Love, however, must be guided by

truth. Just because many who oppose the marriage amendment and seek to redefine marriage do so with good intentions, it does not mean that we must accede to their every demand.

Some demands would perpetrate injustices, as redefining marriage would do, and must be resisted firmly.

Solidarity requires that we act not only with concern for those we love, but also for the rest of society and future generations.

Law should promote the common good, not just serve the interests of a few. People can live as they choose, but no one has the right to redefine marriage for everyone.

There is no doubt that the institution of marriage is facing a crisis and has been weakened in both law and culture.

But marriage needs to be strengthened, not redefined.

We all have a responsibility as stewards to ensure that our laws communicate the beauty of what God has given to us in marriage.

Please join me in voting “Yes” on Nov. 6.

Jason Adkins is executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference.

Pro-life witnesses must ‘walk our talk’ and live with ‘holy boldness’ October is Respect Life Month. The following column is adapted from a talk the author delivered at the annual Champions for Life awards lunch held Oct. 18 at St. Peter in Mendota.

Guest Column Jean Stolpestod

Over the past few years, great advances have been made in building the culture of life

I

t’s been 40 years since Roe v. Wade, and 40 years is a good place from which to reflect — to take a moment and recommit to the respect life movement.

In a recent document, Pope Benedict XVI made the statement that “the world is in need of witnesses more than teachers.” This is a challenge the Holy Father directs to each one of us — to live with the boldness of who we are created to be.

Being Catholic must be lived as more than a social association or a place we happen to worship. Being Catholic is who we are and drives our thoughts, decisions and actions.

When we live what we believe, we frequently open ourselves to ridicule and harsh judgment. But as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta says, “Love anyway.”

Every human being is created in

the image and likeness of God. We have heard it so many times that it is easy to take that statement for granted. Resist that temptation.

Never forget that all human life stands under God’s protection.

When we begin to dissect the reality of the human person and separate the spiritual from the physical, we fall into a grotesque barbarianism; we kidnap the person from God’s protection and trample on his human dignity. We reduce the precious gift of the person to a thing; to the worth of a few dollars or a matter of simple convenience.

In an article published in the Washington Post last spring, Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL ProChoice America, the country’s oldest abortion-rights advocacy group, said her worry about an “intensity gap” on abortion rights was a prominent reason for her forthcoming resignation.

Anti-abortion millennials, the group considered to be the generation of Americans born between 1980 and 1991, see abortion as a crucial

political issue. NARAL’s own internal research did not find similar passion among abortion-rights supporters.

Good news abounds Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Nobel Prize laureate, stated the motivation for his research was found in his desire to offer an ethical, moral alternative to embryonic stem-cell research.

Minnesota Citizens Concerned for Life reports great state level political gains throughout the United States.

Last year, 92 pieces of legislation were passed which advanced the cause of life. Eight states have laws in place to defund Planned Parenthood.

Thirty-one states have laws to protect the definition of marriage.

Gallup polling from May 2012 found that the number of Americans who describe themselves as “prochoice” is at an all-time low. More than 60 percent of Americans describe themselves as pro-life. The number of abortions in Minnesota dropped to its lowest in 36 years as women and teens are choosing life

The promotion of families and the promotion of life are intimately bound together. The family provides a tangible expression to the fulfillment of the promises associated with being pro-life. Families, by their very existence, invite others to have faith and trust in the goodness and right to life. In moments of crisis and difficulty, they are a natural source of strength and support.

Momentum building The Church calls every generation to action, to live what we profess to be true. Each of us is called to publically promote the right to life, to courageously step out and invite others to do the same. Over the past few years, great advances have been made in building the culture of life.

There is a tremendous momentum building. Today, more than ever, the world needs witnesses. It is time for us to walk our talk and live with holy boldness!

Jean Stolpestad is director of the archdiocesan Office of Marriage, Family and Life.

This Catholic Life / Commentary

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

13

Opposing intrinsic evil a Catholic voter’s first priority The following commentary first appeared in The Michigan Catholic, newspaper of the Archdiocese of Detroit. It was written by managing editor Mike Stechschulte and is reprinted with permission.

If there’s a single theme coming from the U.S. bishops in regard to this year’s election, it’s this: Catholicism isn’t political, but politics sure can touch on Catholicism.

One of the greatest perennial challenges for the Church’s shepherds is walking the fine line between political endorsement and a faithful upholding of the Gospel in civic — and political — life. Inevitably, criticism comes from both sides of the congressional aisle when the bishops weigh in on topics addressed in party platforms and candidates’ stump speeches.

The challenge is compounded by the bishops’ steadfast refusal to endorse parties or candidates, a position that often frustrates readers of left, right and center persuasion. Why, they ask, when it seems so obvious that Candidate A opposes Church teaching on a given subject, doesn’t the Church endorse Candidate B, or vice versa?

One reason is simple: Truth doesn’t change, but people’s minds do. The Church endorses positions, not candidates, because candidates are faulty.

Christian principles should be applied regardless of who espouses them, and so for good reason, the Church doesn’t tie itself to the policies of any human being except its founder, Jesus Christ.

But that doesn’t mean voting is arbitrary or detached from Christian

reality, either.

While stopping short of endorsement, the U.S. bishops have made clear that while Catholics aren’t single-issue or partisan voters, living the Gospel faithfully does require taking uncompromising stands against intrinsic evils.

In layman’s terms (that’s the language we speak, anyway), an “intrinsic evil” means something that’s always and in every case wrong. It doesn’t become less wrong in any circumstance, and as such, must always be opposed by Christ and his Church. While Catholics are called upon to make prudential judgments on many issues, “intrinsic evils” are black-and-white.

Abortion issue And sometimes, the bishops point out, that consideration reaches the political realm.

Archbishop Allen Vigneron, in an article in the Detroit Free Press, stated through his communications office that “when Catholics go into the voting booth, they should try to promote the common good — recognizing that some issues are more important than others.”

“At the same time,” the statement said, “we have the clear obligation to oppose intrinsic evils, which can never be justified, such as abortion.

Catholics should not vote for a candidate who supports something intrinsically evil unless there are proportionate reasons to do so. And, in the case of abortion, it is hard to imagine what could be proportionate

to the taking of over a million innocent human lives per year in the United States.”

Baltimore Archbishop William Lori issued a similar statement in August, saying that “a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person (who supports an intrinsic evil).”

While abortion isn’t the only intrinsic evil to speak of, there’s a reason it’s consistently cited as an example.

Abortion is no small problem, nor is it simply one among many. As Archbishop Vigneron said, it’s hard to imagine a worse evil than the deliberate killing of innocent human beings.

For “proportionate reasons” to be met to vote for someone who supports abortion, the other option must not only support a clear evil as well, but support something at least as evil as allowing the plague of millions of deliberate innocent deaths. That’s a tall order.

The bishops don’t continually cite abortion as a front for political favoritism. They cite it because abortion is emphatically, clearly and in every case wrong, and being faithful to the Gospel requires opposing it in all circumstances.

Other issues certainly warrant a Catholic’s consideration, too, and the bishops haven’t been silent on questions regarding the poor, the economy, immigration, education and even environmental issues. When neither candidate (or both in equal degree) support an intrinsic evil, the Catholic voter is called to make judg-

ments regarding which candidate’s policies will better support a just society in many of these areas.

Being Christ-like certainly means caring for the poor and downtrodden and being good stewards of our resources, but it means first and foremost always opposing intrinsic evil.

We simply cannot be like Christ if we don’t. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states in No. 1759, “An evil action cannot be justified by reference to a good intention.”

Cause for concern Archbishop Charles J. Chaput of Philadelphia was even more direct when speaking about his own personal views to the National Catholic Reporter. While stressing that the Church shouldn’t identify with any one political party (“I’m registered as an independent,” he said), Archbishop Chaput said that “as an individual and voter I have deep personal concerns about any party that supports changing the definition of marriage, supports abortion in all circumstances, wants to restrict the traditional understanding of religious freedom. Those kinds of issues cause me a great deal of uneasiness.”

Inevitably, there will be some who hear the bishops’ opposition to such wrongs and conclude politics is at play. But the Church has always opposed these evils — long before political lines were drawn — and the strength of its opposition hasn’t changed.

Government exists to serve a just society, but intrinsic evils can never be a means — or even collateral — toward that end.

Read the document online To read the U.S. bishops’ document on political responsibility, “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” visit WWW. USCCB.ORG/ ISSUES-ANDACTION/ FAITHFULCITIZENSHIP.

Keeping love in the debate: Truth isn’t license to be rude The following is the final article in the series “Catholics Care-Catholics Vote,” which unpacks and explores the themes addressed by the U.S. bishops in “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” their document on political responsibility.

For past articles in the series, visit THECATHOLICSPIRIT.COM.

By Don Clemmer “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship,” the bishops’ call to political responsibility, is a high-profile document. One reason is that it deals with issues that have major ramifications for the lives and well-being of people everywhere. Another is that it provides a guide for the intersection of the values of faith and the world of politics, certainly a tall and delicate order.

But another reason it draws so much attention is probably the fact that it covers an area — politics — that everyone likes to fight about.

And therein lies a problem. Catholics have a duty to be advocates for issues affecting the common good, both at the ballot box and year round. But they also have a duty to carry out this advocacy in a way that’s worthy of their faith. This means not giving in to the cultural mentality that it’s OK to engage in the scorchedearth, zero-sum game that American politics has become. In Catholic teaching, ends do not justify means.

In all things, charity In a video on civility in public discourse (part of a series of videos promoting “Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship” at WWW.USCCB.ORG/ISSUES-ANDACTION/FAITHFUL-CITIZENSHIP), Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington lists “falsehoods, lies, distortions, halftruths” among the sort of things Catholics should not be saying or spreading. He instead challenges Catholics to “speak the truth with love.”

In the worlds of cable news, the blogosphere and comment boxes, both parts of this can be a challenge. Even when one manages to find the truth, there’s the added challenge of not using it as a license to be a jerk.

Pope John XXIII famously reiterated a guiding principle that has been attributed to St. Augustine and others: “In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.” While the first two items fuel endless debate as to what’s essential and what’s doubtful, “in all things, charity” trumps the rest.

The Christian can never stop loving, even when engaging in intense debate over life-and-death issues. The person who does so risks becoming, in the words of St. Paul, a banging gong or clashing cymbal, some-

thing that gets attention by being loud and obnoxious, but ultimately lacks meaning or the ability to connect to people.

When Pope John Paul II canonized Edith Stein in 1998, he recalled that she went so far as to insist, “Do not accept anything as truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth.”

Catholics care As Catholics engage the world of politics, they should view the truths of the Church from the perspective of love: Catholics care about immigration reform because they love immigrants. Catholics care about threats to human life because they love the unborn, the sick and the elderly.

Catholics care about marriage because they love the family. Catholics care about religious freedom and domestic poverty because they love the poor and vulnerable and want to serve them freely. Finally, Catholics care about world peace because they love every person on the planet as part of one big, interconnected family.

The sheer importance of the Church’s belief in the dignity of each person is what compels Catholics to take their faith into the public square. It follows then that this belief, essentially “Love thy neighbor,” should also be translated into how Catholics treat the people they encounter in the public square, even fellow Catholics, no matter how heated the discussion or sharp the disagreement.

It’s a challenge to live up to the standard first mentioned in the Gospels: that the rest of the world would recognize the followers of Jesus by their love.

Don Clemmer is assistant director of media relations for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

“Sickness shows us what we are.”

Latin proverb

14

Hospice & Funeral Planning THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

A Catholic Spirit special section

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Palliative care fits Catholic health mission, but too few people are aware of it

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien Catholic News Service

The National Palliative Care Research Center estimates that 90 million Americans are living with serious or life-threatening illnesses and the number is expected to double over the next 25 years.

People nearing the end of life and their families often are confused about the options available to them in terms of pain control and about whether they have an obligation to use all of the life-prolonging technology available to them.

These discussions are particularly lively among Catholics and in the West Coast states where physician-assisted suicide is a legal option.

By Dianne Towalski The Catholic Spirit

program, and the team also offers family counseling and grief and bereavement services when needed.

These kinds of programs are duplicated throughout the country, but too few people know about them when the time comes for them to use them.

“Most palliative care patients come in

Catholic Senior Services, a consortium of all Catholic senior care providers who serve the elderly in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, has information about hospice and palliative care resources in the archdiocese.

Hospice provides comfort care and pain or symptom management as the primary focus when curative treatment is no longer the patient’s choice or option, said Deacon Dan Gannon, president of Catholic Senior Services.

Palliative care — focused on relieving the pain, symptoms and stress of illness — is appropriate for anyone living with a serious condition, regardless of the prognosis, in order to provide an extra layer of support, he said.

Franciscan Health Community, a CSS affiliate based in St. Paul, is the only Catholic licensed provider of hospice services in the archdiocese, Deacon Gannon said.

PLEASE TURN TO PALLIATIVE ON PAGE 17

PLEASE TURN TO LOCAL ON PAGE 15

Comfort care In Washington, the latest state to legalize assisted suicide, Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane offers an alternative way of dying. It provides “comfort care suites” that allow family members to stay with their dying relative in a homelike environment.

Music thanatologists specially trained to soothe the seriously ill with their voices or the playing of harps are on staff. Health care professionals participate in education programs on palliative medicine and the ethical, moral and legal issues involved in end-of-life care. A meditation garden outside the hospital is open 24 hours a day and gives family members and patients who are well enough an opportunity to experience a peaceful area of waterfalls, streams and walking paths.

Hospice services in archdiocese offer comfort, respect dignity

CNS photo / Gregory A. Shemitz

Patient Jack Trelor chats with Dominican Sister Catherine Marie at Rosary Hill Home, a Dominican-run facility in Hawthorne, N.Y., that provides palliative care to people with incurable cancer and are in financial need.

At TrinityKids Care, a pediatric hospice program in Torrance, Calif., teams made up of a pediatrician, a registered nurse, a clinical social worker, a chaplain, a home health aide and specially trained volunteers help dying children and their families make the most of their last days, whether at home or in a hospital or nursing home setting.

Anything from household chores to looking after siblings can be part of the hospice

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Hospice & Funeral Planning

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

15

Local facilities provide Catholic hospice care services CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

a chaplain, a social worker and a nurse — is there to attend to a patient during their final days, weeks or months,” said John LeBlanc, director of development, marketing and communications of St. Therese, a Catholic senior care and housing organization with locations in New Hope, Brooklyn Park and Shoreview.

“Catholic hospices carefully adhere to the moral teaching of the Church regarding end of life, and profoundly respect the dignity of the human person and the redemptive power of suffering and reconciliation,” he added.

Offering extra support

The team provides extra support to ensure patients are receiving medications, pastoral care and other services they need, he said.

Other CSS affiliates bring hospice teams from providers such Franciscan Health Community in St. Paul and Allina into their facilities, and they ensure those services are provided according to Catholic teaching, Deacon Gannon said.

“A hospice team — usually including

Franciscan Health Community runs Our Lady of Peace Hospice, which provides Medicare-certified home hospice services as well as services that

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supplement those provided by the nursing home staff at Our Lady of Peace Home, a skilled nursing care facility for patients with cancer.

Through the St. Paul-based organization, hospice services are provided to residents of St. Therese at St. Odilia — an eight-bedroom residential home located on the campus of St. Odilia parish in Shoreview — and residents of other care facilities who desire hospice care, said Joe Stanislav, president and CEO of Franciscan Health Community.

Clearing up misconceptions “The general public is gradually recognizing the benefits of hospice care, especially its emphasis on quality of life and pain management at end of life,” Stanislav said.

But there are still some misconceptions about palliative and hospice care.

“One misconception is that accepting hospice will result in greater levels of pain experienced or that death will come sooner, when in fact the opposite is true,” Stanislav said.

“As Catholic health care providers, we are called to continue Christ’s ministry to those suffering from illness,” Stanislav said.

“Hospice and palliative care are an extension of his mission by caring for the minds, bodies and souls of our patients.”

Need more information?

CATHOLIC SENIOR SERVICES WWW.CATHOLICSENIORSERVICES.ORG ■ Lists all Catholic senior care providers in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, their services and links to their websites.

■ Provides links to the Minnesota Catholic Conference’s health care directive; the National Catholic Bioethics Center; the text of the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” as well as statements and documents from the Holy See. ■ Offers senior-related news and articles.

■ Lists parish programming and education resources.

FRANCISCAN HEALTH COMMUNITY WWW.FRANCISCANCARE.ORG ■ Hospice and home care information.

CATHOLIC MEDICAL ASSOCIATION WWW.CATHMED.ORG ■ Statements and papers on end-of-life and palliative care.

MINNESOTA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE WWW.MNCC.ORG ■ Public policy initiatives and statements from the bishops of Minnesota, Catholic health care directive.

THE CATHOLIC CEMETERIES WWW.CATHOLIC-CEMETERIES.ORG ■ Burial and bereavement resources.

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Hospice & Funeral Planning

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

Different paths bring doctors, patients to palliative care, hospice

By Nancy Frazier O’Brien Catholic News Service

Dr. Scott Miller remembers when he first decided to specialize in palliative care and hospice more than 20 years ago.

He was an intern and saw the disdain with which some attending physicians treated patients who could no longer benefit from the sophisticated medical technology that hospitals could offer. “‘That’s an intern case,’ they’d say. But we interns knew nothing,� Miller said. “The patients deserved better. It was an emphasis on technology over compassion, and it cemented in my mind that we were doing this backward.�

More than medical care For Dr. Myles Zuckerman, an interest in palliative care and hospice arose from watching his patients age and develop chronic or life-threatening diseases during his 27 years of private practice as a family physician. “I saw that they needed extra support, and I started working part time� as a hospice physician, he said. Six years ago he gave up his private practice, and “I haven’t looked back for a moment. I love that I am a part of this.�

Miller and Zuckerman both work now for Family Hospice and Palliative Care in Pittsburgh.

Miller is team physician for the 12-bed inpatient Center for Compassionate Care in the Pittsburgh suburb of Mount Lebanon, while also providing medical care on an interim basis at a new 14-bed PLEASE TURN TO HOSPICE ON PAGE 18

CNS photo / Nancy Phelan Wiechec

Ivan takes a break at the nurses station in the Center for Compassionate Care in the Mount Lebanon area of Pittsburgh. The full-time service dog sees to both patients and staff in the palliative care unit.

“The patients deserved better. It was an

emphasis on technology over compassion, and it cemented in my mind that we were doing this backward.

�

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Palliative care is return to ‘our roots’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

late,” said Dr. Scott Miller, team physician at the Center for Compassionate Care in Pittsburgh. On average, his patients come in three weeks before their deaths, when they could have been receiving pain management, symptom control and comfort care for many months.

Tina Picchi, executive director of the Supportive Care Coalition in Hillsboro, Ore., believes that a big part of the problem comes from the misperception that “palliative care equals hospice and is only for the end stages of life.”

Palliative care “is appropriate for anyone living with a serious illness, regardless of the prognosis,” she said. “It does not require people to limit their treatment options or to give up.”

Catholic ministry The Supportive Care Coalition is made up of 22 Catholic health care member organizations, with more than 450 hospitals, nearly 300 long-term care facilities and numerous clinics, home health care services and hospices providing palliative care in 43 states.

“Our goal is to ensure that every Catholic health ministry has palliative care as a part of its core services — so that we are known as much for palliative care as for our concern for the poor and vulnerable,” it says on the organization’s website.

The coalition was founded by three Catholic health systems in 1994 because, Picchi says, palliative care is an extension of the work of Catholic health care.

“At our very roots we have a very strong belief that life is sacred, every person is truly a treasure,” she said. “From the very beginning of Catholic health

care, this is the kind of health care that the religious sponsors modeled.

“The first thing that they did was to go out to the homes of people who were dying and provide very whole-person care — physical, spiritual and emotional,” Picchi said. “Palliative care is not just focused on the whole person, but the whole in terms of they and their loved ones together as a family unit. It really ought to be something that Catholic health care is taking a lead in.”

Ron Hamel, senior director of ethics at the Catholic Health Association in St. Louis, says palliative care might provide a welcome relief to a health care approach that has become too focused on what technology can do than on what a patient needs.

He places some blame on the way physicians are educated, but also believes that many patients have “an inability to deal with their own finitude” and would benefit from a “more positive statement about dying within a Christian context” from church leaders, followed by a parish-based educational effort.

In contrast to the position that a patient must be kept alive “at all costs,” he said, “at the heart of the Catholic approach is to neither hasten death nor prolong life endlessly.” Patients and their loved ones must weigh the benefits and burdens of a particular treatment and are not morally required to continue treatment that is “excessively burdensome or without benefit,” he added.

In some ways, Hamel said, palliative care is “nothing new.”

“It’s a return to our roots in the life and teaching of Jesus and in the early Christian community, which was marked by its care for the sick,” he said.

in all copies of this issue.

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Hospice & Funeral Planning

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

Hospice care eased family’s fears while providing vital support CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

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facility on the city’s East Side.

Zuckerman is chief medical officer, overseeing both inpatient and outpatient medical care. More than 80 percent of the 440 patients served last year received care only in their own homes, while 18.6 percent were admitted to the center at some point during the year.

But Family Hospice and Palliative Care — founded in 1980 by St. Clair Hospital, South Hills Interfaith Ministries, Mercy Hospital and South Hills Health System — offers much more than medical care.

The physicians are assisted by a multidisciplinary team that includes nurses, home health aides, social workers, spiritual care counselors, physical therapists, volunteers and even a 5-year-old golden retriever named Ivan.

A trained service animal, Ivan walks the halls of the Center for Compassionate Care looking for someone who might need a nuzzle or a quick game of tug-ofwar with one of his many toys. He’s at the facility most days but goes home on the evenings and weekends with Rafael Sciullo, president and CEO of Family Hospice and Palliative Care.

Sally Bothe says her husband, Bill, 80, was a “big dog lover” who was getting “a lot of pleasure” from visits by Ivan to his room. During a late August visit to the center, Bill Bothe was in the final stages of pulmonary fibrosis, a respiratory disease.

Although he had been diagnosed with the disease a year earlier, his decline came very rapidly, according to his wife of nearly 61 years. Bill danced at his grandson’s wedding in May, but when he tried to play golf after his return home, he found himself too weak to play more than a couple of holes.

With their children living in Connecticut and Indiana, the Bothes had no local family members to call on for assistance.

After two hospitalizations in June and July, they turned to Family Hospice and Palliative Care for some help at home.

“We were hoping to get some help and guidance and reassurance,” Sally Bothe said. “We got all that and much more” before Bill died Aug. 24.

‘Not in this alone’

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In addition to the presence of Ivan and the option for patients to receive visits from their own pets, the center offers a variety of what they call “complementary therapies,” including music and art therapy, massage and aromatherapy.

As patients anticipate the end of their lives, they get help in putting together a personal reflection, which can take the form of an audio, video or photo journal or a piece of art.

When Bill Bothe was released from the hospital but his oxygen levels needed continuous monitoring, he came to the Center for Compassionate Care. “I felt like a load had been lifted off my shoulders,” said Sally Bothe. “I was not in this alone.”

Britt Bothe, their son who lives in Connecticut, said coming to the facility also eased his father’s fears of becoming a burden to his wife. “It made it easier for Mom, and that made it easier for Dad,” he said.

He said his mother said it best when she said, “It’s not the death; it’s the dying that’s tough.”

“This is new territory for everyone,” Britt Bothe said. “But at least we’ve got this part covered.”

TheCatholicSpirit.com

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THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

Vatican II’s call for renewal didn’t break with tradition, pope says

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

The Second Vatican Council’s call for “renewal” did not mark a break with tradition or a watering down of the faith, but reflected Christianity’s lasting vitality and God’s eternal presence, Pope Benedict XVI said.

Christianity is always young and in “perpetual bloom,” he said during an audience Oct. 12 with 15 bishops who participated in Vatican II between 1962-65.

Pope Benedict fondly recalled the council, saying it was a time that was “so vivacious, rich and fruitful.”

He praised Blessed John XXIII’s usage of the term “aggiornamento” or “renewal” for the church, even though, he said, it’s still a topic of heated and endless debate.

“But I am convinced that the insight Blessed John XXIII epitomized with this word was and still is accurate,” he said.

“Christianity must never be seen as something from the past, nor lived with one’s gaze always looking back, because Jesus is yesterday, today and for all eternity,” Pope Benedict said.

“This ‘renewal’ does not mean a break with tradition, rather it expresses a lasting vitality,” he said.

Renewal doesn’t mean watering down the faith, lowering it to fit modern fads or trends, or fashioning it to fit public opinion or one’s own desires, “rather it’s the contrary,” he said.

“Exactly as the council fathers did, we have to make the times in which we live fit the Christian event; we have to bring the ‘today’ of our time into the ‘today’ of God,” which is eternal, he said.

During an evening candlelight vigil Oct. 11, reminiscent of one held exactly 50 years earlier, Pope Benedict warned of sin and imperfection within the church.

Recalling an event marking the opening of the Second Vatican Council, Catholic Action of Italy and the Diocese of Rome led a prayerful candlelight procession along the wide boulevard of Via della Conciliazione to St. Peter’s Square,

where people holding large candles assembled to form the shape of a large cross lighting up the darkness.

The event reenacted a similar gathering of faithful Oct. 11, 1962, after which Blessed John XXIII came to his studio window and gave his impromptu “Moonlight Speech” in which he reassured the world that “the pope is with us, especially in times of sadness and bitterness.”

From his apartment window, Pope Benedict spoke off-the-cuff to the nearly 10,000 people gathered in the square and recalled how he had been at that candlelight procession 50 years earlier, looking up at the same window from where he now stood.

It was a time of great joy and enthusiasm, he said, because “we were sure that a new springtime of the church, a new Pentecost” would come with a new emphasis on the liberating grace of the Gospel.

“Even today we are happy,” but it’s a joy that’s more “restrained” and “humble,” he said.

The past 50 years have shown that despite the joy and optimism for the future, “there are always weeds, too, in the field of the Lord. We have seen that you can find bad fish in Peter’s net,” he said.

Original sin can be manifested everywhere, even in the very structures of the church, he said. “We have seen that human fragility is also present in the church,” the pope said.

However, that is only part of what the church has experienced the past half-century, he said, underlining that there have been “new experiences of the Lord’s presence, of his goodness and strength.”

“Even today, in his humble way, the Lord is present and warms our hearts, shows life, creates charisms of goodness and charity that light up the world and are, for us, a guarantee of God’s goodness,” Pope Benedict said.

Pope Benedict repeated a phrase from Pope John’s “unforgettable” speech that night, saying, to applause and cheers, “Go home and give your children a kiss and say it’s from the pope.”

Personal invitation called key to effective evangelization CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5 kids and other activities. The experience has highlighted the importance of the church going out to where the people are and not just expecting them to come to the church, Father Finnegan said.

■ At St. Stephen in Minneapolis, doorto-door evangelization with bilingual teams has been instrumental in helping the parish rebuild itself after a difficult transition four years ago when most of the English-speaking members left.

“Evangelization is not always fruitful door to door,” said the pastor, Father Joseph Williams. “But what it does is that it changes the missionary. What you find is that you start having a group of missionaries in the heart of your church.

We’re trying to form, in a sense, a kind of ‘order of missionaries’ — brothers and sisters who have some sort of missionary formation.”

At the last Easter Triduum, the parish had the ‘order of missionaries’ sit across from the ‘order of catechumens’ — 27 were baptized at the Easter Vigil, Father Williams said. “I told the people we have these brothers and sisters here, the ‘order of catechumens,’ because we have the ‘order of missionaries’ here.”

The parish, which had 175 people four years ago, had 914 people worshiping together on a recent Sunday, he said.

Molly Schorr, director of parish life at St. Vincent de Paul in Brooklyn Park, said she has already broached the idea of a door-to-door ministry with her parish’s staff. She said one of the keys to effective evangelization is offering people a personal invitation.

“The Catholic Church is one of the best kept secrets, and our parishes need to do a better job of connecting with and engaging those that come to Mass regularly and those that don’t,” she said. “Jesus didn’t sit in a church all day waiting for people to come to him; he went out to where the people were and invited them to eat and share with him.”

The Fall Formation Day was planned and sponsored by the Office of Parish Services, as an outcome of the archdiocesan Strategic Plan, said Mark Dittman, the archdiocese’s director of parish ser-

Three essential elements of evangelization Brian Pizzalato, a staff member of the archdiocesan Office of Parish Services who focuses on liturgy and faith formation, presented a primer on the church and evangelization to Faith Formation Day attendees.

As part of his presentation, he highlighted the “three essential elements” to effective evangelization.

They are: ■ Wordless witness In his apostolic exhortation “Evangelii Nuntiandi” (On Evangelization in the Modern World), Pope Paul VI noted that “modern man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, and if he does listen to teachers, it is because they are witnesses.”

■ Word-filled witness “Nevertheless,” Pope Paul said in “Evangelii Nuntiandi,” wordless witness “always remains insufficient, because even the finest witness will prove ineffective in the long run if it is not explained, justified — what Peter called always having ‘your answer ready for people who ask you the reason for the hope that you all have’ — and made explicit by a clear and unequivocal proclamation of the Lord Jesus.”

■ Person-to-person witness “Besides public and collective proclamation of the Gospel, personto-person contact, after the example of Jesus and the Apostles, remains indispensable,” according to the General Directory of Catechesis. We must seek out people we know and show them the love of Christ that is deep in our hearts and what he has to offer, Pizzalato said.

— The Catholic Spirit

vices. The plan announced in 2010 calls for lay pastoral leaders to participate in ongoing formation and for the Office of Parish Services to organize at least two annual educational opportunities.

If our faith is real, it will bear fruit in our public decisions, behaviors CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2 real meaning.

We don’t control or invent that meaning as individuals.

We inherit it from the Gospel and the experience of the Church over the centuries. If we choose to call ourselves Catholic, then that word has consequences for what we believe and how we act. We can’t truthfully call ourselves “Catholic” and then behave as if we’re not.

2. Being a Catholic is a bit like being married.

We have a relationship with the Church and with Jesus Christ that’s similar to being a spouse. If a man says he loves his wife, his wife will want to see the evidence in his fidelity. The same applies to our relationship with God. If we say we’re Catholic, we need to show that by our love for the Church and our fidelity to what she teaches and believes. Otherwise, we’re just fooling ourselves. God certainly won’t be fooled.

3. The Church is not a political organism.

She has no interest in partisanship because getting power or running governments is not what she’s about, and the more closely she identifies herself with any single party, the fewer people she can effectively reach.

“The more authentically

Catholic we are in our lives, choices, actions and convictions, the more truly we will contribute to the moral and political life of our nation.

”

ARCHBISHOP CHARLES CHAPUT

4. Scripture and Catholic teaching, however, do have public consequences because they guide us in how we should act in relation to one another.

Again, Catholic social action, including political action, is a natural byproduct of the Church’s moral message.

We can’t call ourselves Catholic, and then simply stand

by while immigrants get mistreated, or the poor get robbed, or — even more fundamentally — unborn children get killed. If our faith is real, then it will bear fruit in our public decisions and behaviors, including our political choices.

5. Each of us needs to follow his or her own conscience.

But conscience doesn’t emerge miraculously from a vacuum. The way we get a healthy conscience is by submitting it to God’s will; and the way we find God’s will is by listening to the counsel of the Church and trying honestly to live in accord with her guidance. If we find ourselves frequently disagreeing, as Catholics, with the teaching of our own Church on serious matters, then it’s probably not the Church that’s wrong. The problem is much more likely with us.

In the end, the heart of truly faithful citizenship is this: We’re better citizens when we’re more faithful Catholics. The more authentically Catholic we are in our lives, choices, actions and convictions, the more truly we will contribute to the moral and political life of our nation.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.”

C. S. Lewis

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The Lesson Plan THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Reflections on faith and spirituality

Blind beggar gains more than sight

H

ave you heard some Gospel passages so many times that you are tempted to wonder if there is anything that can bring them to life again?

Perhaps our boredom with Scripture comes from only understanding its literal meaning? The literal sense of any piece of Scripture is simply what the author intended to be understood as he wrote the words, but there are other ways of reading Sacred Scripture, such as reading it in the spiritual sense.

According to the Pontifical Biblical Commission, the spiritual sense of Scripture is “the meaning expressed Deacon Adam by the biblical texts Hamness when read under the influence of the Holy Spirit, in the context of the paschal mystery of Christ and of the new life which flows from it.”

The Gospel passage for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time is the story of Bartimaeus. It is the story of a blind beggar who was sitting along the steep road from Jericho up to the Holy City, Jerusalem.

If we understand the literal sense of this passage, we will see it is the story of a blind man who hears that Our Lord is nearby. Remembering what he heard about all the miraculous healings wrought by the Lord, Bartimaeus calls out

Sunday Scriptures

Readings Sunday, Oct. 28 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 31:7-9 Hebrews 5:1-6 Mark 10: 46-52

Reflection Reflect on a time when your eyes were “opened” by a Gospel passage. What did it help you see? to him, using the messianic title, “Son of David.”

When Our Lord hears the words “Son of David,” he realizes this man believes him to be the Messiah, and he calls Bartimaeus forward. After a brief exchange between the two, in which Bartimaeus asks for his sight, Our Lord restores his sight, saying it is the man’s faith that made him well.

Looking into the soul The beautiful “facts” of this passage speak for themselves and reveal a God who heals those with simple faith in him.

This, in itself, should be a great nourishment for the soul, but if we search for the spiritual sense of this passage, perhaps we will recover the Gospel’s freshness.

In most of Sacred Scripture, physical deformity and sickness are used to reveal a soul burdened by a sinful life. Perhaps this is true of Bartimaeus. A blind man

with a sin-sick soul sits by the road and hears the man passing by who can forgive him his sins, and so he cries out, “Son of David, have pity on me.”

He begs for pity because he desires forgiveness of his sins. If he only wanted his sight restored, wouldn’t he have just requested that? Instead, he wants the Lord’s pity, or mercy. He wants more than his sight; he wants more than a scrap of bread or a little gold coin. Bartimaeus, wants to know the mercy and love of Jesus.

Bartimaeus likely believes in this inner connection between his sin and his blindness, and when the Lord asks what he might do for him, he replies, “Master, I want to see.”

This was not, however, merely the request that earthly light would pour into his eyes, rather it was the request that Christ, the Light of the World, in front of whom he now stood, would flood into his soul, in which Bartimaeus would see the depths of his sin and receive pardon and peace. In seeing his sin forgiven, his eyes were made whole.

Hopefully, our look into the soul of this blind beggar can open our eyes to the perennial freshness of Scripture.

Deacon Adam Hamness is in formation for the priesthood at the St. Paul Seminary for the Diocese of Crookston.

His home parish is Blessed Sacrament in Greenbush, Minn., and his teaching parish is St. John the Baptist in Jordan.

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Daily Scriptures Sunday, Oct. 28 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time Jeremiah 31:7-9 Hebrews 5:1-6 Mark 10: 46-52 Monday, Oct. 29 Ephesians 4:32—5:8 Luke 13:10-17 Tuesday, Oct. 30 Ephesians 5:21-33 Luke 13:18-21 Wednesday, Oct. 31 Ephesians 6:1-9 Luke 13:22-30 Thursday, Nov. 1 All Saints (Holy day of obligation) Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14 1 John 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12a Friday, Nov. 2 Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls) Wisdom 3:1-9 Romans 5:5-11 John 11:17-27 Saturday, Nov. 3 St. Martin de Porres, religious Philippians 1:18b-26 Luke 14:1, 7-11 Sunday, Nov. 4 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Deuteronomy 6:2-6 PLEASE TURN TO DAILY ON PAGE 21

Ignorance of faith risks creating cafeteria Catholics, pope says Catholic News Service Ignorance of the faith puts Christians at risk of following a “do-it-yourself” religion, Pope Benedict XVI said.

People need to become more familiar with the creed because it is there that the “Christian moral life is planted and . . . one finds its foundation and justification,” the pope said Oct. 17 at his weekly general audience.

Before an estimated 20,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope pope began a new series of audience Benedict XVI talks to accompany the Year of Faith, which marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

From the Vatican

Centered in the creed Pope Benedict said the widespread and dominant nature of today’s secularism, individualism and relativism means that even Christians are not completely “immune from these dangers.”

Some of the negative effects include faith being lived “passively or in private, a refusal to learn about the faith, and the rift between faith and life,” he said.

“Often Christians don’t even know the central core of their own Catholic faith — the creed — thereby leaving room for a certain syncretism and religious relativism,” he said. Without a clear idea of the faith’s fundamental truths and the uniquely salvific nature of Christianity, “the risk of constructing a so-called ‘do-it-yourself’ reli-

gion is not remote today.”

“Where do we find the essential formula of the faith?

Where do we find the truths that have been faithfully handed down and make up the light of our daily life,” he asked. He said the answer is the creed, or profession of faith, which needs to be better understood, reflected upon and integrated into one’s life.

Christians need to “discover the profound link between the truths we profess in the creed and our daily life” so that these truths are allowed to transform the “deserts of modern-day life.”

The Christian faith is not a belief in an idea or just an outlook on life, he said, but a relationship with the living person of Christ who transforms lives.

That is why having faith in God isn’t merely an intellectual activity, but something that “truly changes everything in us and for us; it clearly reveals our future destiny, the truth of our vocation within history, the meaning of life and the pleasure of being pilgrims heading toward the heavenly home.”

Pope Benedict said faith doesn’t take anything away from one’s life, rather it is what renders life more just and humane.

Current cultural changes “often show many forms of barbarity, which hide under the guise of victories won by civilization,” he said. However, “wherever there is domination, possessiveness, exploitation, treating others as a commodity,” and arrogance, humankind is “impoverished, degraded and disfigured.”

The Lesson Plan

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

21

Twelve Apostles: Sinners called by Jesus to serve We, like the apostles, are asked to be evangelizers, as unworthy as we may be

By Father Michael Van Sloun For The Catholic Spirit

The Twelve Apostles were the first main group of evangelizers. It was their privilege and mission to tell the story of Jesus; to proclaim, share and spread the Gospel; and to bring others to belief and help them deepen their faith.

Their initial training as evangelizers came at the feet of the Master, Jesus himself. After he called the apostles by name, they were his constant companions and watched him in action as a preacher, teacher, healer, miracle worker, Scripture interpreter, recruiter, group leader, traveler and man of prayer.

After an initial period of observation, Jesus provided an opportunity for on-the-job training. He sent them out two-by-two (Mark 6:7), and they preached repentance, drove out demons and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them (see Mark 6:12,13). Their first attempts as evangelizers proved quite successful.

Calling the unworthy Despite their strong start, however, the apostles were ill-prepared to venture off on their own. They were unable to heal a boy with a demon, presumably because their prayer was weak (Mark 9:28-29). The apostles displayed lack of comprehension (Mark 4:13), little faith (4:40), hard hearts (6:52), competitiveness (9:34), possessiveness (9:38), selfish ambition (10:37) and jealousy (10:41).

Worst of all, when Jesus was arrested, they all left him and fled (Mark 14:50). And, disappointingly, they were nowhere to be found during his trial, torture, crucifixion and burial. The apostles were in no way ready or worthy to be evangelizers.

Amazingly Jesus asks sinners to serve him. After the resurrection, Jesus appeared to the 11 and commissioned them to be his evangelizers: “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every living creature” (Mark 16:15). Jesus calls the unworthy

Daily Scriptures CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 Hebrews 7:23-28 Mark 12:28b-34 Monday, Nov. 5 Philippians 2:1-4 Luke 14:12-14 Tuesday, Nov. 6 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 14:15-24 Wednesday, Nov. 7 Philippians 2:12-18 Luke 14:25-33 Thursday, Nov. 8 Philippians 3:3-8a Luke 15:1-10 Friday, Nov. 9 Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12 1 Corinthians 3:9c-11, 16-17 John 2:13-22 Saturday, Nov. 10 St. Leo the Great, pope and doctor of the Church Philippians 4:10-19 Luke 16:9-15 Sunday, Nov. 11 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 1 Kings 17:10-16 Hebrews 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44

CNS photo / Crosiers

An artist’s depiction of a scene from the Pentecost appears in the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis.

and makes them worthy, he sends forth the weak and makes them strong. And the apostles obeyed: “They went forth and preached everywhere” (16:20).

Pentecost was decisive. The descent of the Holy Spirit and the infusion of divine grace transformed the apostles from fearful to courageous, timid to assertive, hesitant to confident and reserved to bold. After Peter was filled with the Holy Spirit, the one who had cowered behind locked doors stood before the crowds bravely and loudly proclaimed Jesus (Acts 2:14-40).

The apostles underwent intensive preparation before they went their separate ways. Personal readiness is indispensable because “you cannot give to others what you do not have yourself.”

The apostles built strong bonds of friendship with

each other, prayed together both in the Temple and in their homes, broke open the word and broke bread (see Acts 2:42,46). Solid personal faith is the foundation of every evangelizer.

The apostles were commissioned by Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit and strengthened by word and sacrament, which led them to another degree of transformation. Those who relished common time were willing to disperse for the sake of the Gospel, those who stayed close to home were ready to travel great distances, and those who dreaded the thought of torture and execution were prepared to suffer and die.

The 11 traveled far and wide to spread the Gospel: ■ Peter throughout Israel and to Antioch, Corinth, and Rome; ■ Andrew to Asia Minor and Greece; ■ James the Greater to Spain and back to Jerusalem; ■ John to Ephesus, Patmos and possibly Rome; ■ Philip to Phrygia and Hierapolis in Asia Minor; ■ Thomas to Syria, Persia, and India; ■ Bartholomew or Nathanael to India, Lycaonia, Mesopotamia, Persia and Armenia; ■ Matthew or Levi to Judea, Ethiopia and possibly Persia, Syria and Macedonia; ■ James the Lesser or James the son of Alphaeus in and around Jerusalem; ■ Simon the Zealot, Cananaean or the Less to Egypt and Persia; and ■ Jude or Thaddeus to Mesopotamia and Persia.

All except John suffered a martyr’s death.

Staying close to Christ We, like the apostles, are called to be evangelizers, unworthy that we may be. Jesus asks mere sinners to do great things in his name.

We cannot give to others what we do not have ourselves. Therefore, it is imperative that we stay close to Jesus in word and sacrament because the more we know his word, the better we can share it; and the more that Jesus takes over our being (see Galatians 2:20), the more we will be able to radiate his presence.

Father Van Sloun is pastor of St. Stephen in Anoka.

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The Lesson Plan

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT • OCTOBER 25, 2012

Archbishop calls Catholics to shine ‘light of faith’

By Dave Hrbacek The Catholic Spirit

Patrick and Mary Tschumper stood in the late afternoon glow at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Oct. 14 hoping to fan into flame their faith.

Positioned in a pew near the front, they lit candles and listened to Archbishop John Nienstedt kick off the Year of Faith proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI with a vespers (evening prayer) service.

The Year of Faith began Oct. 11 and will conclude on Nov. 24, 2013, the feast of Christ the King.

“Given the current climate that we’re in politically and morally, it is extremely important that we express and share our faith and support our archbishop and the Holy Father through our visible presence, which is why we came today,” Patrick Tschumper said.

The two, who belong to St. Augustine in South St. Paul, are trying to instill that faith in their 10 children, in part by praying the rosary daily.

They also are offering up novenas for the upcoming elections.

It is this type of action that Archbishop Nienstedt is encouraging for the Year of Faith.

“Into the darkness about us, the light of faith, renewed and rediscovered, must shine, providing the hope for a more secure and stable future,” the archbishop said.

“And, it is we, the faith-filled disciples of new evangelization, who must bear witness to this light in ever more effective and convincing ways. And so, you and I gather here to pray. For, as Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta assures us, the fruit of prayer is faith. If we pray, she says, then we will believe. And if we believe, then we will love because the fruit of faith is

Dave Hrbacek / The Catholic Spirit

From right, Patrick and Mary Tschumper of St. Augustine in South St. Paul pray with lit candles during a vespers service at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis Oct. 14 to kick off the Year of Faith. Archbishop John Nienstedt led the prayers and also delivered some brief remarks.

love. And, the fruit of love is service.”

The archbishop also spoke about the cornerstone of salvation — faith in Christ.

“How we are being saved is really the primary purpose of St. Paul’s letter to the Romans,” Archbishop Nienstedt said. “The community of believers to whom he was writing was a mixture of Jewish Christians and Gentile converts. . . . In the end, St. Paul asserts that God will judge both Jew

and Gentile alike by the same standard, and the key to God’s acceptance and the salvation of both groups is the awesome gift of faith.”

Along with this message of faith, the archbishop also wanted to drive home the importance of sharing that faith with others.

That is a key element of his recent pastoral letter, and it will be a message

he continues to deliver to Catholics in the archdiocese throughout this Year of Faith.

“What the world is in particular need of today is the credible witness of people enlightened in mind and heart by the word of the Lord,” he said, “and capable of opening the hearts and minds of many to the desire for God and for true life, life without end.”

Pope authorizes granting of indulgences for Year of Faith events Archbishop Nienstedt issues complementary local decree

By Francis X. Rocca Catholic News Service

Catholics who participate in events connected with the 2012-2013 Year of Faith can receive a special indulgence, the Vatican said.

Pope Benedict XVI authorized the granting of a plenary, or full, indulgence in order to highlight the Year of Faith and encourage the “reading, or rather, the pious meditation on” the documents of the Second Vatican Council and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a Vatican decree said.

The decree was signed by Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, head of the Vatican tribunal that deals with indulgences and with matters related to the sacrament of penance.

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven.

Pope Benedict established the Year of Faith, “dedicated to the profession of the true faith and its correct interpretation,” to run from Oct. 11, 2012 to Nov. 24, 2013.

It began on the 50th anniversary of the opening of Vatican II, which is also the 20th anniversary of the publication of the catechism.

The plenary indulgence is being offered to pilgrims who visit sacred shrines, to Catholics who participate in

local events connected to the Year of Faith, and to those who may be too ill or otherwise prevented from physical participation.

It can be granted on behalf of the individual petitioner or on behalf of departed souls.

The decree said conditions for the special Year of Faith indulgence include the normal requirements set by the church for all plenary indulgences: that the person be free from attachment to sin, goes to confession, receives the Eucharist and prays for the intentions of the pope.

Archbishop John Nienstedt issued a local decree which complements the papal decree.

The specific requirements for the plenary indulgence are: ■ Those visiting basilicas, cathedrals, catacombs or a holy site designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith (see local list, below) must participate in a liturgy, “or at least pause for an appropriate time in prayer and with pious meditations, concluding with the recitation of the Our Father, the profession of faith in any legitimate form, invocations of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, where appropriate, of the Holy Apostles or patron saints.”

Local sites: • Cathedral of St. Paul.

• Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis.

• St. Michael, Stillwater.

• St. Mark, St. Paul.

• Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul.

• St. Joseph, Miesville.

• Divine Mercy, Faribault.

• Holy Family, St. Louis Park.

• St. Mary, Waverly.

• St. Charles Borromeo, Minneapolis.

■ The Catholic faithful in any local church can obtain the indulgence by attending three sermons at parish missions or three lectures on Vatican II or the catechism; or visiting the place where they were baptized to renew their baptismal vows.

■ Attending Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours, adding thereto the Profession of Faith in any legitimate form, on days designated by the local ordinary for the Year of Faith in any sacred place.

Designated local dates: • Dec. 12 (Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe).

• Dec. 25 (Christmas).

• Jan. 1(Mary, Mother of God).

• March 31(Easter Sunday).

• May 19 (Pentecost).

• June 29 (Solemnity of Sts. Peter and Paul).

■ Catholics who attend Mass celebrated by a bishop on the Year of Faith’s last day, the feast of Christ the King, will also receive the indulgence, as will those impeded by sickness or other serious cause from attending the Mass, as long as they are truly repentant and pray while listening to the bishop bestow the indulgence via television or radio.

The Catholic Spirit contributed to this story.

The Lesson Plan

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

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In their words: Criminal justice system participants tell their stories The Criminal Justice Working Group of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet works for reform of the current criminal justice system by advocating for policies that focus on rehabilition instead of retribution. October is Criminal Justice Month in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minnneapolis and the group has observed it with talks and prayer.

Criminal Justice Month was established as Criminal Justice Week in 2002 in response to the statement by the U. S. Catholic Bishops, “Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice.” It was expanded to a month-long event in 2006.

The theme for this year’s observance is “Seeing Change Through Redemption: Recognizing people who have been harmed, those who have harmed and those who are advocates and supporters.”

Three people with experiences in the criminal justice system share their stories of redemption in these reflections provided by the sisters’ Criminal Justice Working Group: Former offender: When I was a little girl about 5 years old, I was running in one of the fields. I heard my name being called gently and playfully, “Ronnie.” I knew that it was someone really special and not any family members who called my name.

Over the years I did not think about this event until after I experienced God’s love.

It was then I knew that God was the voice that called my name.

Meanwhile, around 1992, I began using drugs and alcohol as a way to medicate myself. I was given prescriptions and didn’t realize I was abusing them. By 1994, I was ready to go to treatment and I did. Following that, I was sober for about six months when I was in a car accident and was unable to return to work. That’s when the drug use accelerated and my marriage fell apart. I had lost weight, hadn’t been able to sleep for months and was unable to get out of bed. I cried out to God and said to God, “Just take me or let me sleep.” God picked me up off the bed, wrapped me up, and then laid me back down. That’s when I knew God’s love. I was redeemed.

I began to change my life. It was not immediate, but it was a process.

I think prison was necessary for me so everything else could go away — my house, my marriage, my finances, my career – all those distractions. I became free to depend totally on God and grew closer to God each day. Today, I have a strong relationship with the God who called my name when I was 5.

Community member: Kevin Stefonek I remember the question I had of my life at the time I saw the church bulletin asking for volunteers for the Amicus One-to-One program: what can I do to be useful? It took me 5 months to call Amicus, and every day I had some type of reminder to make the call.

My biggest fear came in the questions of: what do I have to offer a person I never cared to know existed before, a prisoner? How do I carry on conversations with someone I have nothing in common with? What I’ve found is that I can’t talk to my friend enough. The hour ends so quickly. Barry teaches me about trust, compassion, unwavering faith in God, and letting go of the small stuff so there’s room to enjoy the good stuff. Yes, he teaches me.

What I get out of this One-To-One relationship with Barry is exactly that, a personal relationship. When you see the person they are and not the person they used to be, and when you don’t define them by their place in society, you see life, love, laughter, and friendship. You’ll know a person who has faith, hope, goals, and desires for a happy future. Someone who is challenged every day to overcome in an environment where being powerless is the norm. You will find so many aspects of your lives in common you’ll wonder why you never made this friendship before.

The most important gift you can give is to show up, be there. It’s what we all want in life. To know someone is there for us, to know we matter, that we’re remembered, to know we’re loved.

Corrections official: John R. King Shortly after I was promoted to warden at the Stillwater Prison, my wife gave me a bible verse from Isaiah 61:1-2: “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.”

I was at a point in my life when it was important to witness to those in prison about the salvation found in Christ Jesus. It became clear to me that I had a responsibility to be a father figure to many who never had a positive male rolemodel. I was also blessed to be warden at the Lino Lakes Prison, home to the InnerChange Freedom Initiative (IFI). Up to 200 men at any time are involved in

this faith-based reentry program. Those who complete IFI have a reduced risk of returning to prison for a new crime by 40 percent.

There have been many opportunities for me to witness to the men confined to prison in Minnesota. Most are open to the words of the Bible that I offer to them.

Several would recite their favorite verses to me. Some would send me a letter with their own favorite passages and why it is important for them. The men knew that my favorite Bible verse is Luke 9:62, “He who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for service in the Kingdom of God.” I follow up that verse with a message of redemption — that Christ is present at each of our horizons; all we need to do is focus on him as we plow ahead each day.

King is assistant commissioner in the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

“Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.”

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Arts & Culture Exploring our church and our world

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

OCTOBER 25, 2012

Little Falls native wins Nobel Prize in chemistry

By Nikki Rajala For The Catholic Spirit

Who could have predicted that a student from St. Mary’s Grade School in Little Falls would one day win the Nobel Prize?

But that’s what Brian Kobilka accomplished — one of two scientists awarded a Nobel Prize in chemistry Oct. 10 for their work on cell receptors.

“It’s a great honor for me,” Kobilka said in a telephone interview from his lab in the department of molecular and cellular physiology and medicine at Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

Kobilka, 57, physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, shares the prize with his onetime mentor Robert Lefkowitz, professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Since 1984, the pair has worked to identify and isolate a particular family of cell receptors, called G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs, which carry signals from outside stimuli to cells of the human body.

Persistence pays off The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences website includes an essay on the winners’ work, “Cells and sensibility,” as general background about the science.

The introduction states: “In our eyes, noses and mouths, we have sensors for light, odours and flavours. Within the body, cells have similar sensors for hormones and signalling substances, such as

adrenalin, serotonin, histamine and dopamine. As life evolved, cells have repeatedly used the same basic mechanism for reading their environment: G-proteincoupled receptors. But they remained hidden from researchers for a long time.”

Their essay further described the two scientists’ persistence in trying to capture an image of the receptor, a goal believed unattainable by most of the scientific community, and their groundbreaking discoveries in mapping how the GPCR family of receptors works.

Though often Nobel Prizes are given for work done much earlier, Kobilka said in his case the work that had the greatest impact was published only last year in Nature, an international journal for science and medicine.

In 2011, Kobilka’s lab captured through X-ray crystallography the first image of a living G-protein receptor on a cell membrane precisely when it transferred the signal from the hormone adrenalin on the outside of the cell to its interior. The image revealed new details about the GPCRs. Because of the insights of Lefkowitz and Kobilka, pharmaceutical companies are able to develop more effective and safer medicines for a wide range of diseases.

“About half the drugs a physician would administer,” Kobilka said, “particularly to patients in an intensive care setting, work on cell receptors.”

Those drugs include beta blockers for heart disease, antihistamines for inflam-

applicable for more effective drugs.”

Growing up in Little Falls

CNS photo / Norbert von der Groeben, Reuters

Brian Kobilka, physician and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, attended St. Mary’s Grade School in Little Falls.

matory disease, various psychiatric medications, drugs for ulcers and those which help the immune system combat cancers.

“We’re still doing similar research,” he said, “focusing on trying to develop methods of making what we’ve learned more

“The entire time I lived in Little Falls,” Kobilka recalled, “I attended Mass at St. Mary’s. Msgr. [T. Leo] Keaveny was our priest.”

Currently, Kobilka and his wife Tong Sun Kobilka attend the Catholic Community at Stanford, Calif.

“My introduction to science came through a friend several years older who was interested in all things science you can do at a young age. He did experiments in electronics and had a chemistry set, which he shared with me. I caught my interest from him,” he said.

Kobilka further credits excellent math and science teachers at Little Falls High School, where he graduated in 1973, and at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, who helped him pursue his passion.

He likewise encouraged young scientists, possible future Nobelists, to follow their passions.

“Work on what you’re interested in,” he said, “on what you want to understand, like some aspect of how life works. It could be humans or how the universe was created, physics, planetary science, light, the complex relationships between matter and space, medicine, chemistry. If you try to do something because someone wants you to, you’re less likely to succeed. What drives people to succeed is doing something that follows their natural instincts and curiosity.”

Holy Hour on Election Eve November 5, 2012 — 7-8 p.m. sponsored by

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Daily 54-Day Rosary Novena continues through November 6th

Calendar Dining out Fish fry at Knights of Columbus Hall, Bloomington — Every Friday: 5 to 9 p.m. at 1114 American Blvd. Cost is $10.95. Call (952) 888-1492 for reservations.

Chicken and rib dinner at Knights of Columbus Hall, Bloomington — Every Wednesday: 5 to 9 p.m. at 1114 American Blvd. Cost is $10.95. Call (952) 888-1492 for reservations.

KC Dad’s Belgian waffle breakfast at St. John the Baptist, New Brighton — October 28: 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 835 Second Ave. N.W. Cost is $7 per person, children under 5 eat free.

KC pancake breakfast at St. Patrick, St. Paul — October 28: 9 a.m. to noon at 1095 DeSoto St. Cost is $6 for adults and $4 for children 6 to 12. Family option is $20. Take-out available.

KC French toast breakfast at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — October 28: 8:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at 9050 93rd Ave. N. Proceeds go to WomenSource in Osseo.

KC pancake breakfast at St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Paul — October 28: 8 a.m. to noon at 2119 Stillwater Ave. Cost is $7 for adults and $5 for children 6 to 12. Take-out available.

Annual sausage supper at St. John the Baptist, Vermillion — October 28: Mass at 9:30 a.m. followed by dinner served from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 106 W. Main St.

Parish events Marriage amendment program at Our Lady of Grace, Edina — October 25: 7 to 8:30 p.m. at 5071 Eden Ave. Richard Aleman, outreach coordinator for the Minnesota Catholic Conference, will speak.

Rummage sale at Holy Childhood, St. Paul — October 25 to 27: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday (bag day) at 1435 Midway Parkway.

Fall festival at Holy Trinity, South St. Paul — October 26 to 28: Friday night bingo at 5:30 p.m. and Saturday Italian dinner and auction starting at 6 p.m. Continues Sunday with a turkey dinner, games, silent auction and more starting at 11 a.m. at 749 Sixth Ave. S. Craft and bake sale at Ascension, Norwood/Young America — October 27: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 323 N. Reform St. Lunch will be served.

Flea market close-out sale at All Saints, Minneapolis — October 27: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at 435 Fourth St. N.E. Everything is half price.

Men’s breakfast at St. Helena, Minneapolis — October 27: Mass at 8 a.m. followed by breakfast at 3204 E. 43rd St. Jason Adkins, executive director of the Minnesota Catholic Conference will speak on “Why You Can't Afford to Sit on the Sidelines of the Marriage Debate.” Cost is $5. Register

by Noon Oct. 26, by calling (612) 7297321 or email jOHNSONDAG@SAINT HELENA.US. Retreat for men and women at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — October 27: 9 a.m. to noon at 9100 93rd

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT All night vigil with the Blessed Sacrament at Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Paul — November 2 and 3: 7 p.m. Friday to 8 a.m. Saturday at 401 Concord St.

Don’t Miss Holy Hour for the New Evangelization Father Peter Laird will lead a Holy Hour for the New Evangelization in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis from 7 to 8 p.m., Monday, Oct. 29 at St. John the Baptist in New Brighton A brief social time will follow.

This evening of prayer will help prepare our local Church for the Year of Faith declared by our Holy Father.

St. John the Baptist is located at 835 2nd Avenue Northwest in New Brighton.

Ave. N. Father John Paul Erickson will speak. Cost is $15. For information, email CHARLESPRATT@SAINTVDP.ORG.

mation, email

ORG.

CHARLESPRATT@SAINTVDP.

‘Monster Mash: Fun for the Whole Family’ at St. Timothy, Blaine — October 27: 6 to 10 p.m. at 707 89th Ave. N. Features food for purchase, costume and dance contests. Cost is $6 per person, under 3 are free.

‘Prepare the Way’ Bazaar at Epiphany, Coon Rapids — November 3 and 4: 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at 11001 Hanson Blvd. Features craftsale, bake sale, St. Nicholas, Kids’ Corner and more.

Boutique and bake sale at St. Paul, Ham Lake — October 27 and 28: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and after Masses until 12:30 p.m. at 1740 Bunker Lake Blvd. N.E.

Turkey bingo at St. Rose of Lima, Roseville — November 4: 3 to 5 p.m. (doors open at 2:30 p.m.) at 2072 Hamline Ave. N. Win turkeys cash and other prizes.

Christmas fair at St. Timothy, Blaine — November 3: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 707 89th Ave. N.E. Features a bake shoppe, luncheon and more.

50th ordination anniversary celebration for Father Roger Pierre at St. Mary of the Lake, White Bear Lake — November 4: 11 a.m. Mass followed by a reception and lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at 4741 Bald Eagle Ave. Please RSVP to (651) 429-7771.

125th Anniversary Dinner at St. Lawrence-Newman, Minneapolis – November 3: Mass with Bishop Lee Piché at 5 p.m. followed by dinner in the Social Hall at 1203 5th St. S.E., Dinner tickets are $20 through October 21, $25 after October 21 (students $7.50 through October 21 and $10 after October 21). Call (612) 331-7941 pr visit WWW.UMNCATHOLIC.ORG. Holiday bazaar at Assumption, Richfield — November 3: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 305 E. 77th St. Features a craft booth, vintage jewelry, bake sale and more. Food will be served, including wild rice soup.

Year of Faith Women’s Retreat at Immaculate Conception, Lonsdale — November 3: “The Year of Faith: To the Source of Revelation,” 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at 116 Alabama St. S.E. Sponsored by the IC-CCW. Presenter is Father Thomas McCabe. Includes eucharistic adoration and confession, presentations and reflection. Lunch will be served. Free will offering. Call (744-2829) or email ICPARISH@MEANS. NET to register by Oct. 30.

Christmas Tea luncheon and fashion show at Holy Cross, Minneapolis — November 3: 11:15 a.m. at 1630 Fourth St. N.E. Features Dress Barn fashions. Cost is $20. Call (763) 5721713.

43rd annual craft fair at St. Rita, Cottage Grove — November 3: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 8694 80th St. S. Features crafts, handmade items, a bake sale and a luncheon. Admission is 50 cents.

‘Crafts and Other Cool Stuff’ at Immaculate Conception, Columbia Heights — November 3: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 4030 Jackson St. N.E. Features handmade crafts, vendors and a bake sale.

Spirituality breakfast at St. Vincent de Paul, Brooklyn Park — November 3: 9 to 10:30 a.m. at 9100 93rd Ave. N. Jeff Cavins will speak. Cost is $10. For infor-

Turkey bingo at St. Catherine, Spring Lake Township — November 4: 2 p.m. at 4500 220th St. E., Prior Lake. Cost is $5 per card. Turkey certificates will be given as prizes. Free lunch after bingo.

Luke Live! comes to St. LawrenceNewman — November 5 to 7: 7 to 8:30 p.m. each evening at 1203 5th St. S.E. Professional actor, now priest, returns to his roots in solo story of Luke, gospel writer. Paulist Fr. James DiLuzio brings to life Luke’s gospel, 2 chapters each evening, through stories, hymns, songs and preaching. Free will offering. Visit WWW.UMNCATHOLIC.ORG/PARISH MISSION-LUKELIVE.HTML. ‘All in God’s Plan’ program at Holy Family, St. Louis Park — November 9: Program for boys ages 12 to 13 and their fathers from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at 5900 W. Lake St. ‘All in God’s Plan’ program at Holy Family, St. Louis Park — November 11: Program for girls ages 10 to 13 and their mothers at 2 p.m. at 5900 W. Lake St.

Prayer/ liturgies Sant’Egidio Community Evening Prayer at St. Richard, Richfield — every Thursday: 7 p.m. at 7540 Penn Ave. S. Legion of Mary prayers in front of Planned Parenthood, St. Paul — Every Friday: 3 p.m. at the corner of Vandalia and Charles. For information, call (651) 439-9098.

World Apostolate of Fatima Vigil of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary at St. Mary, St. Paul — November 2 and 3: 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at 261 E. Eighth St. For information, call (651) 295-3004 or WWW.FATIMAONLINE.ORG.

Singles Sunday Spirits walking group for 50plus Catholic singles — ongoing Sundays: For Catholic singles to meet and make friends. The group usually meets in St. Paul on Sunday afternoons. For information, call Judy at (763) 221-3040 or Al at (651) 482-0406.

School events Handmade market at St. Wenceslaus School, New Prague — October 27: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Features more than 40 vendors, specialty coffee and fall festive snacks.

Holiday bingo at St. John the Evangelist School, Little Canada — October 28: 3 p.m. at 2621 McMenemy Road.

Hot dogs, Culvers custard and other refreshments available. Cost is $2 for 12 games and popcorn.

Upper school open house at Convent of the Visitation School, Mendota Heights — October 30: 7 p.m. at 2455 Visitation Drive. For students entering grades 9 to 12. For information, visit WWW.VISITATION.NET. Lower school open house at Convent of the Visitation School, Mendota Heights — November 3: 10 a.m. at 2455 Visitation Drive. For students entering Montessori preschool to grade 5. For information, visit WWW.VISITATION. NET. Middle school open house at Convent of the Visitation School, Mendota Heights — November 3: 2 p.m. at 2455 Visitation Drive. For students entering grades 6 to 8. For information, visit WWW.VISITATION.NET. Kindergarten cookie night at Holy Name of Jesus School, Wayzata — November 8: 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 155 County Road 24. For information, visit WWW.HNOJ.ORG/SCHOOL.

Other events KC craft show and bake sale at Knights Events Center, Shakopee — October 28: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 1760 Fourth Ave. E. Empowering Seniors Information Series at Cerenity Senior Care-Marian of Saint Paul — October 29: 1 to 2 p.m. at 200 Earl St. Topic is “Senior Blues: Grief and Depression.” Sarah Anderson, program director for Psych Recovery Senior Services will speak.

WWW.CERENITYSENIORCARE.ORG. Christmas boutique at St. Therese, New Hope — November 2 and 3: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.to 2 p.m. Saturday at 8008 Bass Lake Road. Hosted by the St. Therese Auxiliary.

Lay (Third Order) Carmelite information Sunday at Nativity of Our Lord, St. Paul — November 4: 1:30 p.m. at 324 S. Prior Ave. For information, call (651) 454-6123.

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Calendar Submissions DEADLINE: Noon Thursday, seven days before the anticipated Thursday date of publication.

Recurring or ongoing events must be submitted each time they occur.

LISTINGS: Accepted are brief notices of upcoming events hosted

by Catholic parishes and institutions. If the Catholic connection is not clear, please emphasize it in your press release.

ITEMS MUST INCLUDE the following to be considered for publication in the calendar: • Time and date of event.

• Full street address of event.

• Description of event.

• Contact information in case of questions.

E-MAIL:

SPIRITCALENDAR@ ARCHSPM.ORG.

(No attachments, please.)

FAX: (651) 291-4460.

MAIL: “Calendar,” The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.

26

OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

Father Pierre celebrates 50 years of priesthood Father Roger Pierre will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in honor of his 50th anniversary of ordination to the priesthood at 11 a.m. on Nov. 4 at St. Mary of the Lake in White Bear Lake. A reception and lunch from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. follows at the Parish Life Center.

The Father Pierre currently is dealing Catholic Spirit with advanced cancer. Those wishing for updates can go to his CaringBridge site: WWW.CARINGBRIDGE.ORG/VISIT/ FRROGERPIERRE. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to the parish by calling 651-4297771 or emailing CONTACTUS@ STMARYS-WBL.ORG.

News Notes

Casey honored with youth ministry award The National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry has awarded Bill Casey of the Office of Parish Services for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, the National Youth Ministry Award in the regional category.

The biannual award is given to an adult who serves as a model to others involved in ministry with CASEY

young people.

Casey, who had been involved in youth ministry for nearly four decades, represented Region 8, which includes Minnesota, on the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry board of directors from 1999 to 2003.

Casey’s ministry is currently focused on parish visits and other services for parishes for the archdiocese.

He will accept the award Dec. 1 at the National Conference on Catholic Youth Ministry in Orlando, Fla.

Father Erik Lundgren completes TC Marathon Father Erik Lundgren of Divine Mercy in Faribault was successful in his attempt to complete the Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon Oct. 7. His time was 4 hours, 41 minutes and he raised a total of $50,000-plus for Divine Mercy School where he serves as assistant principal.

Father Lundgren ran the marathon in conjunction with the school’s participation in the annual Marathon for Nonpublic Education, which it called, “Walking by Faith.” The school raised $28,000, which puts the total to almost $80,000.

“The whole thing was fantastic,” he said. “It was a gift from God – best birthday of my life. That day was my 30th birthday. Being able to get that much support for the kids at our school definitely would be the best birthday gift I’ve ever received.”

Those wishing to donate can visit and click on “GIVEMN.ORG” on the right side of the home page.

WWW.DMCS.CC

Schools get creative in doing annual marathon Several Catholic elementary schools found creative ways to participate in the 38th annual Marathon for Nonpublic Education: St. John the Baptist School in Savage kicked off its marathon with a pep rally on Oct. 5. University of Minnesota mascot Goldy Gopher made an appearance, and marathon participants were led by members of the Savage Fire Department.

The school reached its goal of $80,000.

St. Michael Catholic School in St. Michael kicked off its marathon Oct. 6 with a balloon rosary release. This year, the school turned the event into a 5K Family Fun Run, with more than 700 people participating. The school reached its goal of $80,000.

Nativity of Mary School in Bloomington had its students do service projects for the marathon.

Students completed 18 projects over the weekend, raking almost 50 yards.

Proceeds from the marathon will go to local charities, including St. Joseph’s Home for Children in Minneapolis, the Ronald McDonald House and Meals on Wheels.

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Love must guide amendment discussion CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 Stommes said she is sure it will be talked about at her Halloween block party, and definitely after the election.

“I’m sure no matter what the outcome there will be challenges to it either way,” she said. “I don’t think it’s going to be voted on and done. I am just not a big fan of yard signs so I’m kind of looking forward to them being gone.”

Zimmerman said he hopes “things will thaw a little bit” in his neighborhood. “My wife had a clear sense when she went to talk to the neighbor that this won’t be the only conversation,” he said. “She didn’t have to convince her on every point but this kind of opens it up for more conversation.”

It’s not clear whether relationships will be affected by the election, Steinhauer said.

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“All feel invested in it. I think relationships in the neighborhood are stronger than the ability of political skirmishes to harm them.”

When Kraemer has another chance to talk about the amendment, he said he wants to bring love, not hate.

“It’s hard for me to see people being lambasted and pushing for the wrong things and saying the wrong things on TV commercials, and not be upset with them but turn around and bless them and love and send a prayer in their direction,” he said.

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“Kateri truly did intercede and if it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”

Twelve-year-old Jake Finkbonner, whose cure from a flesh-eating bacteria almost seven years ago was deemed the miracle needed for the canonization Oct. 21 of Kateri Tekakwitha

Overheard OCTOBER 25, 2012

Quotes from this week’s newsmakers

Kateri, six others proclaimed saints Catholic News Service Proclaiming seven new saints — including St. Kateri Tekakwitha and St. Marianne Cope from North America — Pope Benedict XVI said they are examples to the world of total dedication to Christ and tireless service to others.

In a revised canonization rite Oct. 21, the pope prayed for guidance that the church would not “err in a matter of such importance” as he used his authority to state that the seven are with God in heaven and can intercede for people on earth.

An estimated 80,000 pilgrims from the United States, Canada, the Philippines, Italy, Spain, Germany and Madagascar filled St. Peter’s Square for the canonization of the holy women and men who ministered among their people.

The pilgrims applauded the proclamation of the new saints, who included: Kateri, an American Indian who was born in the United States and died in Canada in 1680; Mother Marianne, a Sister of St. Francis who traveled from Syracuse, N.Y., to Hawaii to care for people with Hansen’s disease and died in Molokai in 1918; and Pedro Calungsod, a teenaged Philippine catechist who was martyred in Guam in 1672.

The other new saints are: French Jesuit Father Jacques Berthieu, martyred in Madagascar in 1896; Italian Father Giovanni Battista Piamarta, founder of religious orders, who died in 1913; Sister Carmen Salles Barangueras, founder of a Spanish religious order, who died in 1911; and Anna Schaffer, a lay German woman, who died in 1925.

Saints speak to whole church In his homily at Mass following the canonization, Pope Benedict prayed that the example of the new saints would “speak today to the whole church” and that their intercession would strengthen the church in its mission to proclaim the Gospel to the world.

The pope also spoke about each new saint individually, giving a short biographical outline and highlighting a special characteristic of each for Catholics today.

Pope Benedict called St. Kateri the “protectress of Canada and the first Native American saint,” and he entrusted to her “the renewal of the faith in the First Nations and in all of North America.”

The daughter of a Mohawk father and Algonquin Christian mother, St. Kateri was “faithful to the traditions of her people,” but also faithful to the Christianity she embraced at age 20. “May her example help us to live where we are, loving Jesus without denying who we are,” the pope said.

Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia, who is of American Indian descent, told Catholic News Service, “I think many young people today are embarrassed about embracing the Catholic faith be-

THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

27

“If Marylanders do not repeal the same-sex marriage law by voting against Question 6, what happened to Dr. Angela McCaskill is just a taste of what will happen to religious institutions, ministries, businesses and other individuals.”

— Mary Ellen Russell, executive director of the Maryland Catholic Conference, responding to Gallaudet University’s decision to place Angela McCaskill, its chief diversity officer, on paid administrative leave for signing a petition to bring Maryland’s samesex marriage law to a public referendum

“We can easily remember a time in our lives when Facebook and YouTube didn’t exist — kids don’t remember that. We wanted to do something where we could help our kids become better catechized, but we knew we had to do it in a different, new kind of format.”

— Bob Perron, executive director of the Department of Youth Ministry in the Diocese of WheelingCharleston, W.Va., which recently launched “Video Catechism for Teens” — a free online resource for youth and young adults at WWW.VCAT.ORG

CNS photo / Paul Haring

Bishop Peter Christensen of Superior, Wis., is pictured with Carol Benderkraft, left, and Jackie Crowe Fraedrich, both of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Tribe in northwest Wisconsin, following the canonization Mass for seven new saints in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican Oct. 21. Among those canonized were two North Americans — St. Kateri Tekakwitha, an American Indian born in upstate New York, and St. Marianne Cope, who worked with leprosy patients on the Hawaiian island of Molokai.

cause they live in a secular culture that’s hostile toward religious experience.”

St. Kateri also “grew up in a place where there was great hostility toward Christianity,” Archbishop Chaput said, but she resisted all efforts to turn her away from her faith, “so in some ways she would be a model of fidelity in the face of persecution on religious freedom grounds.”

Jake Finkbonner, the 12-year-old boy from Washington state whose healing was accepted as the miracle needed for St. Kateri’s canonization, received Communion from the pope during the Mass. Jake’s parents and two younger sisters did as well.

Speaking about St. Marianne of Molokai in his homily, Pope Benedict said that at a time when very little could be done to treat people with Hansen’s disease, commonly called leprosy, “Marianne Cope showed the highest love, courage and enthusiasm.”

“She is a shining example of the tradition of Catholic nursing sisters and of the spirit of her beloved St. Francis,”

the pope said.

Leading a group of Hawaiian pilgrims, including nine patient-residents from Kalaupapa, where St. Marianne ministered, Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva said St. Marianne is “an inspiration for those who care for those most in need, which is what all Christians are called to do.

Now, with universal veneration, she can inspire people around the world.”

With thousands of Philippine pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict praised St. Pedro, a catechist who accompanied Jesuit priests to the Mariana Islands in 1668. Despite hostility from some of the natives, he “displayed deep faith and charity and continued to catechize his many converts, giving witness to Christ by a life of purity and dedication to the Gospel.”

The pope prayed that “the example and courageous witness” of St. Pedro would “inspire the dear people of the Philippines to announce the kingdom bravely and to win souls for God.”

“Christianity must never be seen as something from the past, nor lived with one’s gaze always looking back, because Jesus is yesterday, today and for all eternity.”

— Pope Benedict XVI, speaking during an audience Oct. 12 with 15 bishops who participated in the Second Vatican Council between 1962-65

“Our emphasis isn’t just on reorganizing the church, but on reinvigorating the missionary impulses of the entire Christian community.”

— Michael Pruller, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna, Austria, which is planning a major reorganization that will see its 660 parishes merged over the next decade into around 150 larger parishes, each served by three to five priests and offering regular Masses

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OCTOBER 25, 2012 • THE CATHOLIC SPIRIT

THE UNIVERSITY OF ST. THOMAS SAYS

“THANK YOU”

to more than 43,000 donors who have helped open the doors of opportunity for our students.

The Opening Doors capital campaign successfully raised more than $500 million for a variety of academic, building and financial-aid priorities. These include scholarships and endowed professorships, a new student center and athletic facilities, a renovated chapel, several centers and institutes, and many other important needs. These improvements will better meet the needs of St. Thomas students and the many communities that the university serves.

Thank you to all who participated in the Opening Doors campaign!

www.stthomas.edu/openingdoors